Mullen discussed with DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti his views on leadership, accountability and the need to improve diversity in the military so all people have the opportunity to excel. His passionate testimonies for civil rights and inclusion for gay and lesbian service members helped persuade Obama to lift the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

“Diversity has wonderful characteristics across a large number of fields, areas, people, whatever the case might be. I didn’t want there to be any confusion about what I was going to focus on as the Chief Naval Officer,” Mullen told Visconti. “From a leadership standpoint, I thought where the Navy needed to go—and I was intending to take them there—was to focus heavily on African-Americans and women. I wanted to send a very clear signal about what we were going to focus on.”

Visconti himself is a veteran—he served as a Naval aviator and commissioned officer with the U.S. Navy from 1982 to 1990. Visconti now sits on the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Committee and has co-chaired three subcommittees regarding diversity and women’s issues.

Additionally, Captain Kenneth Barrett, General Motors’ Chief Diversity Officer, is also a retiree of the Navy. Barrett previously served as the U.S. Navy’s Diversity Director and presented at DiversityInc’s event on how to drive diversity and hold leaders accountable for results.

“We’re fortunate to have Admiral Mullen join General Motors’ board of directors. He brings proven leadership and deep experience in change management, strategic planning, technical innovation and risk management gained over the course of his 43 years serving our country,” says Dan Akerson, General Motors Chairman and CEO.

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Why doesn’t DiversityInc extend an invitation to the federal government agencies to participate in the DiversityInc Top 50 Survey as corporate America does in sharing best practices for diversity management? It is much needed and I am sure that if they did, it might ring the alarm and move some mountains.

Answer:

We used to have a DiversityInc Top Federal Agency competition, but there is a consortium of Equal Employment Opportunity officers who decided to not participate, so after a few years of struggling along to get participation, I dropped the effort.

Of the dozen or so agencies that did participate (yours was not among them), results were not on par with the corporate sector. In my opinion, other than in the U.S. Navy (and currently, the U.S. Marine Corps), there is little leadership involvement. Read Retired Admiral Mike Mullen: Trust, Candor & Reliability for more on diversity in the military.

I don’t know how many times I spoke at federal agencies where some under-assistant-deputy-secretary-something-or-other introduced me and then ducked out so he didn’t have to hear my talk (and it was almost always a “he” and I could feel their disdain for the dog-and-pony-show diversity events that stood in for actually doing something).

I’ve observed that diversity management for federal agencies is much about face and little to do with actual work, accomplishments or accountability. Management is squirreled away in the EEO offices, where the leaders of EEO have very little interaction with people who actually run things and there is nothing more than compliance work going on. There is no “CEO commitment” among the majority of agency heads.

Old-School & Overwhelmed?

In my observation, President Obama’s executive order “Establishing a Coordinated Government-wide Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce” has resulted in no substantial change in behavior. I get the impression that most of the old-school federal executives are waiting to see what the presidential election will bring.

I must have had hundreds of visits to dozens of agencies over the years; I’ve been struck by the awkward and stilted manner that people interact with senior management. There’s a lot of pointy hierarchy and obsessive, starchy regimentation. I’ve never seen those attributes connected to productivity—and, indeed, I have the impression that if half of the federal workforce quit tomorrow, most Americans wouldn’t know the difference.

I had to laugh out loud when I read in The New York Times about the investigation into Google causing “one of the biggest violations of data protection laws that we had ever seen.” Michael Copps, who last year ended a 10-year term as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, said regulators were overwhelmed. “The industry has gotten more powerful, the technology has gotten more pervasive and it’s getting to the point where we can’t do too much about it,” he said.

Here’s the best part: Aside from admitting that his agency couldn’t keep up, the fine for the “biggest violations of data protection” was (hold on to your hats) $25,000. With that stunning level of organizational accomplishment, do you think someone’s going to care about diversity?

Innovation From Diversity Management

In a meeting in Washington, I heard the best explanation for why things are the way they are: A very wise man posited that you can’t help but avoid hiring 2 percent incompetent people every year. But if you don’t fire anyone, 2 percent becomes 4 percent, which becomes 6 percent—and soon, the incompetents are running the roost and figuring out how to squeeze out the competent people.

I won’t out you or the agency you work for, but it’s been in the news quite a bit lately; it has fallen behind the times and is now a drag on the budget. This is a management issue, and diversity management falls into that category.

Your “alarm bell” idea isn’t going to “move any mountains” until the first “mountain” gets scooped into bags marked “fertilizer” and trucked away by someone in authority. There is no perceived reason for change, so no change is happening.

There is no such thing as a trickle-up diversity effort. Your wistful desire for change at your agency is not matched by a perceived business reason or accountability to improve effectiveness via diversity management, which would have all sorts of benefits.

These include organizational effectiveness, higher-quality recruiting, improved productivity, meritocratic promotions, improved supply chain, multi-culturally competent interaction with citizens (marketing and sales of your agency’s services), nuanced understanding of problems and opportunities, etc.

Watch the video below to learn how cultural competency through diversity management helped Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, No. 13 in The 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity, save millions in marketing costs. The company, along with nine others, presented innovations at our Innovation Fest! diversity event.

All those things that corporations know are a competitive edge lead to innovation, a subject which around which your agency has consistently lagged.

Good luck to you.

Luke Visconti’s Ask the White Guy column is a top draw on DiversityInc.com. Visconti, the founder and CEO of DiversityInc, is a nationally recognized leader in diversity management. In his popular column, readers who ask Visconti tough questions about race/culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age can expect smart, direct and disarmingly frank answers.

The post Ask the White Guy: What Is Wrong With the Federal Government? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Question:
Why do you think there was a change of heart on Obama’s part [regarding the Defense of Marriage Act]?

Answer:
This week we were treated to the president deciding not to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) because he feels it’s unconstitutional. If it’s true that this decision reflects a change of President Obama’s heart regarding LGBT people, then I would give credit to Admiral Mullen as the person who likely influenced him.

At the beginning of the Civil War, President Lincoln wanted to repatriate freed enslaved people. I think Frederick Douglass changed his heart. I don’t think President Lyndon Johnson had a particular affinity toward Black people when he became president; in fact, his record in the Senate would indicate the opposite. But in the end, he had a burning passion for civil and human rights. I think the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a lot to do with that.

I’ve never heard a more clear and passionate understanding of what civil and human rights for LGBT people mean to our country than Admiral Mullen’s testimonies to Congress. I think his initial statement in February 2010 shaped the discussion—and his final testimony in December 2010 was a beautiful expression of the ideals expressed in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Admiral Mullen is a great leader and a great American, in my opinion. He is a keeper of the flame of our Revolution.

I think his words speak most eloquently:

February 2, 2010:

Mr. Chairman, speaking for myself and myself only, it is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do. No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.

For me, personally, it comes down to integrity—theirs as individuals and ours as an institution.

December 2, 2010:

My personal views on this issue remain unchanged. I am convinced that repeal of the law governing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is the right thing to do. Back in February, when I testified to this sentiment, I also said that I believed the men and women of the Armed Forces could accommodate such a change. But I did not know it for a fact. Now, I do.

And so what was my personal opinion is now my professional opinion. Repeal of the law will not prove an unacceptable risk to military readiness. Unit cohesion will not suffer if our units are well-led. And families will not encourage their loved ones to leave the service in droves.

I do not discount for a moment the findings in the Johnson-Hamm survey which indicate resistance to repeal by those in the combat arms and irregular warfare communities. I do not find these concerns trivial or inconsequential. Nor do I believe we can afford to ignore them. Given that this reluctance arises from the ranks of the very troops upon which much of the burden of these wars has fallen, we would do well to pay heed and to move forward in a deliberate and measured manner.

Whatever risk there may be to repeal of this law, it is greatly mitigated by the thorough implementation plan included in the study, the time to carry out that plan, and effective, inspirational leadership.

These are the things I know for a fact. These are the things the study tells us. Now let me tell you what I believe.

I believe our troops and their families are ready for this. Most of them already believe they serve or have served alongside gays and lesbians. And knowing matters a lot. Those who said they knew they were serving with a gay or lesbian were consistently more positive in their assessment of the impact of repeal across all dimensions —cohesion, effectiveness, retention, even privacy concerns.

Our families feel the same. Most of our spouses know at least one gay or lesbian and very few of them believe repeal of the law would have any effect on family readiness.

This tracks with my personal experience. I’ve been serving with gays and lesbians my whole career. I went to war with them aboard a destroyer off the coast of Vietnam. I knew they were there. They knew I knew it. And what’s more, nearly everyone in the crew knew it. We never missed a mission, never failed to deliver ordnance on target. Readiness was not impaired. What mattered most, what made us a crew, was teamwork and focus on our combat mission.

Back then, of course, it was a different time. Society on the whole wasn’t as accepting or as tolerant as it is now. So, we didn’t speak of such things or of how little it really mattered that the Sailor next to you was gay. But America has moved on. And, if you look closely at this study, I think you’ll find that America’s military is, by and large, ready to move on as well.

Should repeal occur, some soldiers and Marines may want separate shower facilities. Some may ask for different berthing. Some may even quit the service. We’ll deal with that. But I believe and history tells us that most of them will put aside personal proclivities for something larger than themselves and for each other.

There is a special warrior bond in combat, a bond formed not by common values, as some have claimed, but rather by the common threat of the enemy, hardship and peril.

“Numberless soldiers have died, more or less willingly,” writes J. Glenn Gray in his book, Reflections on Men in Battle, “not for country or honor or religious faith or for any other abstract good, but because they realized that by fleeing their posts and rescuing themselves, they would expose their companions to greater danger.”

It is those greater dangers that still motivate the heroism and comradeship our troops exemplify today.

That’s why I believe the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will pass with less turbulence—even in the combat arms world—than some predict. In fact, it may be the combat arms community that proves the most effective at managing this change, disciplined as they are. It’s not only because our young ones are more tolerant; it’s because they’ve got far more important things to worry about.

The experiences of other militaries would seem to bear that out. Our study looked at 35 other militaries that chose to permit open service, including those of our staunchest allies. In no instance, was there widespread panic or mass resignations or wholesale disregard for discipline and restraint.

Some will argue we are different, of course. None of these foreign armies face the unique global demands we do. And none are charged with the leadership roles we bear. True enough. But many of them fight alongside us in Afghanistan today, and they fought with us in Iraq. Gay or straight, their troops patrolled with ours and bled with ours. They have certainly shared with ours the fear and the loneliness and the horror of combat.

I don’t recall a single instance where the fact that one of them might be openly gay ever led to poor performance on the field. My sense is that good order and discipline, far from being cast to the winds when one of these governments changed the policy, was actually reinforced and re-emphasized.

It’s clear to me that our troops expect the same. They expect that whatever change we make to the current policy will be accompanied by rigorous training and high standards of conduct. In fact, the report indicates that one of the factors distressing to those who oppose repeal are fears that new policies will not be implemented fairly, evenly and dispassionately.

Let me be clear: nothing will change about our standards of conduct. Nothing will change about the dignity and the fairness and the equality with which we treat our people. And nothing will change about the manner in which we deal with those who cannot abide by these standards. The military is a meritocracy, where success is based on what you do, not who you are. There are no special classes, no favored groups. We may wear different uniforms, but we are one.

There are some for whom this debate is all about gray areas. There is no gray area here. We treat each other with respect, or we find another place to work. Period. That’s why I also believe leadership will prove vital.

In fact, leadership matters most. The large majority of troops who believe they have served in a unit with gays and lesbians rate that unit’s performance high across virtually all dimensions, but highest in those units that are well-led. Indeed, the practical differences between units in which there were troops believed to be gay or lesbian and those in which no one was believed to be so, completely disappeared in effectively-led commands.

My belief is, if and when the law changes, our people will lead that change in a manner consistent with the oath they took. As one Marine officer put it, “If that’s what the president orders, I can tell you by God we’re going to excel above and beyond the other services to make it happen.”

And frankly, that’s why I believe that in the long run, repeal of this law makes us a stronger military and improves readiness. It will make us more representative of the country we serve. It will restore to the institution the energy it must now expend in pursuing those who violate the policy. And it will better align those organizational values we claim with those we practice.

As I said back in February, this is about integrity. Our people sacrifice a lot for their country, including their lives. None of them should have to sacrifice their integrity as well.

It is true there is no Constitutional right to serve in the armed forces. But the military serves all the people of this country, no matter who they are or what they believe. And every one of those people, should they be fit and able, ought to be given the opportunity to defend it.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, I believe now is the time to act. I worry that unpredictable actions in the court could strike down the law at any time, precluding the orderly implementation plan we believe is necessary to mitigate risk. I also have no expectation that challenges to our national security are going to diminish in the near future, such that a more convenient time will appear.

And I find the argument that war is not the time to change to be antithetical with our own experience since 2001.

War does not stifle change; it demands it. It does not make change harder; it facilitates it.

There is, to be sure, greater uncertainty today and our forces are indeed under stress. And I know the Chiefs are concerned about this. So am I. But I do not believe the stressors currently manifesting themselves in the lives of our troops and their families—lengthy deployments, suicides and healthcare—are rendered insurmountable or any graver by this single policy change. Nor do I believe that simply acknowledging what most of our troops already know to be true about some of their colleagues threatens our ability to fight and win this nation’s wars.

Quite the contrary. Today’s young leaders are more attuned to combat effectiveness than in any of the last three decades. Tempered by war, bonded through hardship, the men and women of the United States Armed Forces are the finest and most capable they have ever been. If there is a better opportunity or a better generation to effect this sort of change, I don’t know of it.

One final word. And with all due respect, Mr. Chairman and Senator McCain, it is true that, as Chairman, I am not in charge of troops. But I have commanded three ships, a carrier battle group and two fleets. And I was most recently a Service Chief myself. For more than 40 years I have made decisions that affected and even risked the lives of young men and women.

You do not have to agree with me on this issue. But don’t think for one moment that I haven’t carefully considered the impact of the advice I give on those who will have to live with the decisions that that advice informs. I would not recommend repeal of this law if I did not believe in my soul that it was the right thing to do for our military, for our nation and for our collective honor. Thank you.

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