About the Book
Dramatically changing demographics are upending politics, marketplaces, and workplaces. In this Second Edition of The Inclusion Paradox: The Obama Era and the Transformation of Global Diversity, Andres T. Tapia, President of Diversity Best Practices and former Chief Diversity Officer for a global firm, examines how today's hyper-diverse world of the Obama Era is transforming policy agendas, marketplace penetration, and workforce management -- and what those changes mean for our future. With its more than fifty new pages of updated facts, figures, and current event references, in this Second Edition, Tapia explores not the political implications, but rather the cultural implications of what it takes to move into the next generation of diversity work to grow business and attract and retain the best talent. He makes the case that the work of diversity and inclusion has never been more urgent, particularly as everything has globalized at a massive scale. But nations and companies are woefully and dangerously unprepared for this diversity. Because it's one thing to acknowledge the diversity already here, quite another to make the most out of it. "Diversity is the mix. Inclusion is making the mix work" is what Author Andres T. Tapia says about this reality. Which means that inclusion is hard. Very hard. Harder than diversity itself. Inclusion defines the challenge all leaders face as they address the dramatic shifts of diversity --racial, ethnic, generational, gender, sexual orientation, faith, personality, nationality, and on -- in our workplaces and communities. As author Tapia writes in one of his pivotal chapters, not being able to manage these differences well is leading us all to ask about others, "Are You Evil, a Moron, or Just Plain Incompetent?" The key, therefore, to facing these diversity and inclusion challenges is developing the skills and abilities to, while still nurturing our commonalities, to constructively know how to surface our differences so we can treat others not as we would like to be treated, but as they would like to be treated."
About the Author :
Andres T. Tapia is President of Diversity Best Practices, the preeminent diversity and inclusion thinktank and consultancy. Previously he served as the Chief Diversity Officer for a global firm. Andres is a published writer and prominent speaker. As a journalist, he covered social trends in the U.S. and Latin America via articles appearing in publications such as the Baltimore Sun, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, VOCE (Brazil), Benefits Quarterly, and Hemispheres magazine. He has been interviewed by major media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, BusinessWeek, CNN en Espanol, and FORTUNE magazine in the United States, La Nacion and El Clarin in Argentina, El Mercurio in Chile, VOCE, Valor, and Revista Amanha in Brazil, and HR industry publications such as HR Magazine, Benefit News, and Benefits Canada Magazine. His experiences in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Spain, India, Kenya, and throughout Latin America and his native Peru have equipped him with a true global perspective. By working with dozens of Diversity Best Practices Consulting's FORTUNE 500 multinational clients, as well as with public schools, arts organizations, and law enforcement agencies, Andres is grounded in the cross-industry implications of achieving a diverse, high-performing workforce. Andres' innovative approach to foster an inclusive work environment includes shifting paradigms such as: from tolerance and sensitivity to cross-cultural competence, and from programmatic to sustainable diversity. He was the catalyst for a groundbreaking study on retirement savings that found that race/ethnicity is a greater determinant of differences in savings behaviors than income. Andres has received the following recognitions: He is a 2008 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement Exito Award (2008), Chicago United's Business Leader of Color Award (2007), CDO Exemplary List published by Diversity Best Practices in FORTUNE magazine (2006), the Corporate Diversity Program and Diversity Ad Campaign of the Year granted by the Minorities in Advertising Foundation (2006), and the Hewitt Exemplary Leader Award (2005). He is also on the Board of Luna Negra Dance Theatre. Andres holds a B.A. in History with an emphasis in journalism and political science from Northwestern University. He is married to Lori, a musician, and they have an adult daughter, Marisela, who is a flamenco dancer."
