What Color is Your Rolodex?

New Perspectives
But you can’t really know what you’re missing until you’ve had the opportunity to branch out from your usual circle. Marcie Molek, assistant vice president for human resources at Allstate and mother of a teenage son, recalls being asked to take an assignment outside of the HR department. “I was on a team with people who had deep technical expertise, but I was the only one from HR,” says Molek, who is white. At first she felt she should only ask technical questions of these teammates from diverse backgrounds. “But when I began to rely on them for insights on human resources issues, they brought a different perspective from my HR counterparts. They viewed HR work through the lens of a user, not just as a theoretical exercise. I got good, practical advice from them.”

Molek has since made a point of building relationships with people from different areas of expertise and ethnicities. “Until you explore problems with all kinds of people, you don’t know what you’re not seeing,” she says. “You’re more likely to overlook a unique or subtle nuance that could be important to groups other than your own. So reaching out [to people of color] can improve the probability that your work and ideas will be successful.” These days, when Molek meets people whose perspectives she believes might expand her own, “I ask if they would mind if I occasionally run ideas by them,” she says. “I’ve never been turned down. Most people seem pleased to be asked.”

Sometimes you’ll want to introduce yourself to people who are different from you because you’ll benefit from seeing an issue from their cultural perspective. But another reason is that if you let ethnic differences become barriers, you’ll forfeit opportunities to connect with people whose business skills, knowledge or experiences can help you, Molek and others say.

We consulted experts to help us come up with key questions we need to ask ourselves if we’re going to broaden our network of colleagues—and our perspective.

What color is your Roledex?
While you say “Good morning” and “How was your weekend?” to coworkers who are Hispanic, African American, Asian American, Native American or white, you might not go beyond those niceties to add these people to your Rolodex—that is, to make them part of the network of people you rely on at work for advice, recruiting referrals, input on important projects and even office gossip.