Opposites Attract

I read the article "Opposites Attract" and the beginning of "Creative Priority", which both talk about Jerry Hirshberg, the founder of Nissan Design International. He discusses his experience in using "Creative Abrasion" and "Hiring in Divergent Pairs" and how it's contributed to his success. This led me to consider how this approach could be applied to the company I work for.

I'm currently working with a non-profit organization that promotes the Portuguese Language and Heritage in Rhode Island. There is very little diversity in the organization from every angle. When we look nationality, there is almost zero diversity. All of management is from Portuguese decent. Some were born in the USA, Portugal, Mozambique, Angola, Acores, Madeira and Cape Verde, but in the end everyone's family was originally from Portugal. Now from an age standpoint almost all are over the age of 50. There are very few that are younger. Another issue is that there are very few women involved in management. There was once a woman president of the club and last year I was the VP but other than that leadership is primarily male.

Hirshberg encouraged hiring be done in pairs. So one position would be filled by two people, specifically two people that are very different. It's almost like a corporate buddy system. Last year we actually had this but it wasn't done intentionally or for Hirshberg's reasons. My father, was elected President of the club and he so happened to name me his VP. This decision was made because It would be easy for me to support him because I was always around. But it actually ended up working out much better than we could have anticipated. There were many benefits to this. We came from two different "solar systems" as Hirshberg calls it. My father, a 61 year old, organized, retired man from Portugal with decades of manufacturing management experience. Myself, a 27 year old, financial analyst born in the USA. The biggest difference was that I was young and that I am a woman. Just these two differences created the biggest benefits.

It was clear that our thoughts would be very different. He pushed to keep the older male members happy while I strived to bring in younger blood and to provide activities for women in the club. With this relationship we were able to create the very first website for the club along with a first time ever social media presence. We were able to do this before most of our competition and brought more life to this 90 year old organization. We also created a zumba fitness class that is now offered four times a week to the women members of the community with over 60 women participating in each class.