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Last week at our annual Stakeholders event, we had some absolutely terrific speakers and different courses that honored Dr. King, his legacy, and the mission of i.c.stars. One course was on global citizenship. In that course, Marcus Cobb CEO of RRIPL software played a Sesame Street video that showed Cookie Monster and Kermit the Frog hanging out. Kermit had a mystery box, and he wanted Cookie Monster to guess what was inside of it. Although Kermit was giving him hints, Cookie Monster’s impatience didn’t allow him to make smart guesses. He just wanted it to be about cookies. He even tried to bargain for cookies. Eventually Kermit revealed the there was an orange in the box. Of course, Cookie Monster was disappointed. It reminded me of the single mindedness we sometimes get when we are focused solely on what we want something to be.

Later on in the day we had a course on diversity where Tyronne Stoudemire, the CDO (Chief Diversity Officer) of Aon- Hewitt, gave a brilliant demonstration of corporate diversity with a glass of chocolate milk. He started with a regular glass of white milk. After pouring chocolate syrup into the milk, it all just sank to the bottom. He illustrated his point beautifully saying, “Diversity is not something that you just drop in - it must be stirred or agitated.” He proceeded to stir the milk, and it became chocolate. In his closing remarks, he also stated that the chocolate will sink to the bottom again if we do not continually stir the pot. We have to be mindful about creating opportunities for diversity and not just tolerance.

What I find very interesting here is where global leadership (cookies) meet our milk. The world is getting smaller, and diversity is not just nice to have anymore. It is essential for businesses and global competitiveness. The more individuals that we have in our organizations, teams, and schools, the more diverse perspectives we have. We are better equipped to walk between worlds and connect between businesses. I believe that we can have our cookie and eat it too. It requires that we not only open up opportunities to people who think differently than we do, but that we also have to accept the possibilities that there might be oranges and different types of cookies. We have to be constantly agitating the mix to have an outcome that is more than what we are instead of less.

In technology, cookies are a term that describes what is left behind when we visit a website. It is essentially the trail that we leave. Cookie Monster is sloppy, messy, and notorious for leaving a crumb trail. I think there is a lesson in that. The legacy that we leave behind, the cookie crumbs, tells the next generation not only what is possible, but what is expected of them. If we can’t see people in the corporate suite, in our schools, and on our teams who think, look, and act differently than we do, then we lose hope in the future and the opportunity to build a global economy, a global workforce, and a global think-force.

So have your cookies and milk, and let’s stir it up! Thanks to all of our speakers who gave us wonderful food for thought and honored the legacy of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement.