It’s not who you dance with it’s what dance you do
Step, shuffle, step. Heel, toe, turn. Count to eight and start again. A steady beat you can rely on. Predictable. Reassuring. Rows in sync, moving as one. No surprises. No missteps. Just keep time. Just follow.
On a recent holiday with my wife and grandson we went to a Wild West evening. Amongst many of the skills on display was line dancing, of which we were encouraged to join in. Ten gallon hat and cowboy boots optional—just form up in lines and copy the person in front. Seeing people in rows, one behind the other, everyone doing the same moves at the same time, got me thinking about how some more traditional organisations assimilate their employees.
There is something impressive about line dancing. It is neat, coordinated, efficient. Everyone knows their place. Everyone knows the steps. It looks good—provided no one breaks step. But it doesn’t take long to realise that the whole point is not to stand out. It’s to blend in. To keep time. To do it the way it has always been done.
Contrast that with the jive.
Grab a partner and off you go. Fast, energetic, slightly chaotic. Spins, kicks, flicks. You make it up as you go along—within reason and the laws of gravity. No two couples look quite the same. Some are flamboyant, some understated, some barely in control. But all of them are alive to the music, responding in the moment, feeding off each other’s energy.
If line dancing is about conformity, the jive is about individuality.
Which brings us to diversity at work.
Imagine a senior management team made up of three men and three women. A mix of backgrounds, identities and experiences—but all graduates of the same business school in the last ten years. How diverse do you think their thinking will be? Different faces, perhaps. But similar steps.
Organisations don’t pursue diversity to look good. They do it because thinking differently solves problems faster. It helps them respond to change. It gives them an edge.
But diversity of thought doesn’t magically appear just because people look different. It comes from something else—the experiences people bring, the risks they’ve taken, the problems they’ve solved, the things they care about outside work.
And that’s where many organisations trip up. They recruit for difference, then manage for sameness. They line everyone up and teach them the steps.
As a mentor, I’ve spent years helping people update their CVs. I’m always struck by what gets left out. Skills and experiences dismissed because they are “nothing to do with work.”
Someone hesitates to apply for a management role because they lack budget experience—until they mention, almost as an aside, that they are the treasurer of a local amateur dramatic society. Others reveal they speak another language, or spend weekends rock climbing, or have taken on ambitious DIY projects that required learning entirely new skills.
These are not irrelevant details. This is where people learn new steps.
This is where different ways of thinking come from.
Progressive organisations understand this. They don’t just want people who can follow the steps. They want people who can hear the music—and respond.
So what should managers do? Ask different questions in interviews. Value experience beyond the job description. And stop ironing out individuality in the name of consistency.
So here’s the question.
Are you running a line dance or a jive?
Because it’s not who you dance with that makes the difference.
It’s what dance you let them do—and whether you’re brave enough to change the music.
blairmcpherson.co.uk
