Leadership of a Diverse Workforce

In commemoration of President Barack Obama’s Proclamation of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I am honored to reproduce, with permission, a moving speech on diversity by a proud Filipino American, physician, and officer. Colonel Rodrigo Mariano, M.D., is Board Certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine Physicians and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

As of late, the term diversity has been bandied about as if it were a new idea, based on future census demographics. However, the idea of diversity is long steeped in the history of the American identity, as people left their homelands in search of freedom: religious freedom, economic freedom, political freedom. This country has been the beneficiary of many migrations of people from different lands at different times, from the pilgrims seeking religious freedom, to the mass immigrations from Europe at the turn of the 20th century, refugees from war-torn countries from around the world, and those coming to seek a better life for their families. This country builds its strength on its most valuable asset: the diversity of its people, their ideas, their innovations, their energy, and their common vision as Americans. As the world becomes more competitive, smaller, and fast paced in the 21st century, it is that same diversity of ideas, innovation, and consensus built upon diverse ideas that will prove to be an advantage for American leadership in the 21st century.

Since the Census of 2000, the demographics of the United States shifted from the uniformity of the Great American Melting Pot to the real complexities of a nation whose population is reflective of the world at large. As a country, we consist of people of more races, ethnicities, and mixed heritages. We are older, and have different physical and mental abilities. More women are in the workforce. We have different orientations, personality traits, and temperaments. We approach life in different ways. For leadership, diversity can be seen as a hindrance and problematic, or as a strength, and part of the solution.

Many archaic organizations follow pyramid-shaped organizational patterns wherein information is concentrated in the upper echelons and dictated downward to individual contributors. No multiflow of information exists. Decisions are based on limited information by people who think alike. People at the bottom of the organization often feel unempowered to make a difference. During times of instability, organizations such as these which do not value the diversity of people and their ideas do not survive in the complex, information driven world in which we live.

The new realities of leadership within a diverse workforce are based on the fact that leadership must be built on communication, understanding, and the realization that like a web, all components of an organization from leaders to individual contributors are interconnected, informed, able to respond, and adaptive. An organization is an organic, living unit made up of diverse interconnected parts.

Challenges for leadership of a diverse workforce lie in creating a common vision amongst diversity of ideas, against the backdrop of dealing with the real time constraints of a fast-paced world. It takes wisdom to know which battles to fight, which battles not to fight, and which battles to leave for another day. Mostly, it takes the vision to create consensus, not collusion, between different ways of thinking and approaching problems. As members of project teams and workgroups, we all have been a part of typical work processes of completing projects. We take the information at hand and use the momentum in the room to complete tasks on time and within budget. If ideas are outside of constraints or are in opposition to momentum, they are often disregarded no matter what the merit. Real consensus building from a diverse workforce takes time, preparation, information from different areas of expertise, possible increased initial upfront cost, understanding, communication, and most importantly, conscience. However, the long term benefits, profitability, and goodwill and loyalty developed are worth the extra effort. One only needs to look at the troubles of companies like Toyota and Enron to see the true cost of archaic leadership and organizations that do not value diverse ideas.

As aforementioned, many dimensions of diversity exist from differences—physically, mentally, and spiritually. Our strengths as individuals stem from our uniqueness, which we contribute to our country, which becomes its strength, which in turn makes our nation great. As a physician, I am acutely aware on a daily basis how each part of the body has a different and important function. No matter how small a part, it can have a great impact on the overall well being of the whole body.

Understanding diversity is based on understanding who we are as individuals and how we are connected to others. My role in the military is to be a physician, to uphold the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, to improve others’ health, and to save others’ lives. As an officer in the United States Army, I promise to defend my country. As a Roman Catholic, I hold certain religious beliefs. These areas of diversity—physician, army officer, Catholic—all hold long histories and traditions of which I am a beneficiary and have an obligation to pass on as knowledge to the future. In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I would like to share with you my family history as a Filipino American. It is a history that shares in common the immigrant American dream of a better life while holding true to the legacy of the tropical Philippine archipelago and its warm, hospitable, hard-working, devout people.

The current generation owes a great deal to the selfless “Greatest Generation” of World War II. The Filipino American community is no different. Filipino American armed services personnel are well-versed in the history of the War in the Pacific, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War because their parents and grandparents either fought in these wars or survived them.

During the 1942-1944 campaign in the Pacific, Filipino guerillas worked side by side with Americans to keep control of rural jungles. They worked with trust and loyalty to one another for a common objective of peace and freedom, not only for their own respective countries but for the greater world. A dark chapter in the war included the infamous Bataan Death March involving the forcible transfer of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners. Falling down or an inability to move was tantamount to a death sentence, as was any degree of protest. High fatalities were inflicted upon the prisoners en route.

During the 1950’s, many Filipinos enlisted in the United States military. It was this generation that lived through the inhumanity of World War II as teenagers and fought in Korea, and then Vietnam. It was considered an honor and accomplishment to be accepted in the United States military. This Greatest Generation served as a selfless bridge in building two countries. As young unmarried GIs, they sent their earnings home to the Philippines to rebuild their parents’ houses and villages, which had been ravaged by war. As these soldiers had families of their own, they became contributing members of their American communities. They emphasized education and saved their money to send their children to universities: not just to secure a better future, but to give back to a country which had given them so much.

Recently, my father-in-law passed away. He spent twenty-three years of his life in the US Army. He went wherever the Army needed his service: Korea, Germany, Iceland, Greenland, Panama, Alaska, Japan, three tours of duty in Vietnam, a bronze star recipient. He was an honorable soldier who lived a life of dedication and devotion to his family and country. During his burial, I noticed on gravestones the names of many Filipino Americans who share a similar story.

As you look around military communities, you will notice that there are many Asian American and Pacific Islander personnel, some of them are recent immigrants, and some of them are family members of US military retirees who are following in their family footsteps. In my family, there are many who serve from enlisted ranks to professionals with leadership positions. My cousin is representative of the new generation of women in the service. A mother of two young children, she went to war in Afghanistan while her husband stayed at home to take care of the children.

I was born and raised in a very poor section of Manila, Philippines. I finished medical school in the Philippines and enlisted in the US army as an E-1 and moved up the ranks to E-5. Later, I completed medical residency programs in the civilian sector and rejoined as an officer in the US Army Medical Corps. I have served in the enlisted ranks and I have served in the officer ranks; I have served in peacetime and I have served during war, just as my fellow Filipino American service personnel  before me and the generations that will come after me.

Like all Americans, the Asian American and Pacific Islander experience is based on an immigrant history as well as the native history of our nation’s indigenous people, with past generations sacrificing for the next, for a better future. As time passes, the nation as a whole benefits from the contributions of these diverse communities and becomes reflective itself of these influences.

In closing, I would like to reiterate through the Emma Lazarus poem, “The New Colossus,” how the United States has always been the leader in the world regarding diversity as a national asset and vision for the future:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”