Hello again, and welcome to another Martin Luther King Day. Today we honor one of America’s most impressive orators, a man who helped usher in the most sweeping social change in the United States since the Civil War. The civil rights’ movement of the 1960s would probably not have accomplished as many things or commanded the same amount of attention without his contribution. So I thought I’d offer a few thoughts on diversity, since diversity is the watchword of the day.
In general, diversity is considered to be vital for the success of any institution. The human body could not function without the intricate interworkings of its many diverse parts; a football team could not succeed without the masterful interplay between players at different positions with different skills and objectives. In many cases, diversity is the key ingredient to give you any hope for success.
Which is why I’d like you to spend a lot of time thinking about farming. See, farmers plant one type of crop on a given patch, but they can only do that for so long because that giant monocrop will eventually suck all the life out of the earth. Then, at the end of the year, they harvest everything, and you’re left with a giant pile of dead stalks and leaves, a wasteland of emptiness where nothing will grow again for several months.
In a word – awesome.
So there you go, folks. Strive to make everyone in your business operate identically to everyone else, and soon you too can stand proudly at your office window and gaze out upon the brown, barren, lifeless vista you’ve helped create. Have them do the same thing over and over and over again until you suck the life out of them the way that monoculture sucks the life out of the ground. You can do it. I know you can.
(I grew up around a lot of corn. In case you’re wondering.)
