Diversity Role-Playing: Hey, We’re All Clones! Reebok International, the athletic footwear and apparel company, swelled from a $12-million-a-year company to a $3 billion footwear powerhouse in less than a decade. “When we were growing very, very fast, all we did was bring another friend into work the next day,” recalled Sharon Cohen, Reebok vice president. “Everybody hired nine of their friends. Well, it happened that nine white people hired nine of their friends, so guess what? They were white, all about the same age. And then we looked up and said, ‘Wait a minute. We don’t like the way it looks here.’”80 Assume you are a manager for a successful, fast-growing company like Reebok. One day you look around and notice that everyone looks alike.

Your Task.
Pair off with a classmate to role-play a discussion in which you strive to convince another manager that your organization would be better if it were more diverse. The other manager (your classmate), however, is satisfied with the status quo. Suggest advantages for diversifying the staff. The opposing manager argues for homogeneity.