Comfort Zone
October 2, 2007 — Speech given by Ralph Shrader (Booz Allen Chairman & CEO) at the 2007 Booz Allen Diversity Awards.
I’d like to start by saying congratulations – and thank you. You’re being recognized with one of Booz Allen’s most prestigious and important honors, the firm’s Diversity Award. You’ve truly made a difference in our firm – and on behalf of all of us – I want to thank you.
It’s both a privilege and a challenge to address the recipients of the Diversity Awards. Those of you here tonight are deeply committed to making Booz Allen a better place for all. You are living our core value of diversity, and we’re here to acknowledge that.
It is indeed a privilege for me to be able to present these awards. At the same time, it’s a challenge to deliver remarks at the Diversity Awards dinner, because this audience doesn’t need a call to action. It’s those who aren’t in this room who need to heed the message.
There’s no question that the stage belongs to you tonight. So, I will keep my remarks brief – and focus on a message about inclusion that I hope will take root well beyond this ballroom at the Ritz Carlton in McLean.
When I served as Chairman of AFCEA – the Armed Forces Communications Electronics Association, I had the opportunity to travel to Korea with the association’s president, Retired General John Wickham. We visited the Demilitarized Zone, where in Panmunjon a line on concrete divided North and South Korea. It was the most foreboding and frightening place I’ve ever been. Those of you who are veterans and have experienced combat, have certainly seen worse – but for me, it was a terrible and unwelcome place – where human relationships had deteriorated to the lowest point.
And yet, just a few meters away, there was a very different feeling – a very good feeling – in the dining hall where the soldiers were having a spaghetti dinner. Although he was now retired, they knew Gen. Wickham was one of the most senior officers in the Army, someone with four stars on his shoulders. And, yet there was a deep personal connection. He made those young enlisted men feel like they were the most important people on the planet – that they were the very people he had come halfway around the world to meet.
That trip to Korea took place more than 20 years ago, but I think about it often, and reflect about how – in the space of a few hours – we had traveled from the depths, to the heights, of human relationships – from the conflict zone to the welcome zone.
Zones play a central role in human history and human relationships. All animals are territorial, and as the highest life form, we clearly excel among all creatures when it comes to defining and defending our territory. We protect our friends and family… guard our property… mark our social order… and defend our turf at work.
We play games in which the shape of the ball and field may change, but the basic premise doesn’t. Even at play, we defend our own territory and try to score points in the opponents’ territory.
With this much social and psychological history, it’s futile to declare the concept of territory a bad thing. Quite frankly, it’s our thing.
So in this context, I’d like to propose a simple idea that I believe can have profound impact – that we expand the boundaries of our comfort zone.
It’s been said that a mind once expanded to consider new ideas, never contracts to its original size. Expanding our comfort zone – and welcoming others into it – is one of the greatest gifts we can give, and get.
When we expand our comfort zone, whether by travel to different places, connection with different people, or understanding different experiences and points of view, we become more interesting and enjoyable people. We move from narrow-mindedness and fear of the unknown and become broad-minded people who are at ease in different places and situations. It pays us enormous dividends.
And, even more compelling than what expanding our comfort zone does for us, is what it does for others. The most generous thing we can do for another person is to make him or her feel welcome.
Whether it’s to a new place, a group of people, a tradition, or base of knowledge – welcoming someone into our territory, making him or her comfortable – is what diversity is about.
At an institutional level, we want Booz Allen to be a welcome place. In essence, that is the goal of our diversity programs – to create a comfort zone at our firm where people of all ages, races, genders and gender identity, nationalities, and religions feel truly welcome.
We have a diverse client base, and we want our clients to feel comfortable with us – to feel we understand and value them – and that we deliver value to them.
So, the point I’d like to leave us with is this: As individuals and as an institution, we can’t change our territorial nature. Finding and defining our zone is hard-wired into our DNA.
But we can move the boundaries – and we can welcome others in.
At Booz Allen, you have created a welcome place in your teams, offices, and forums that has made our firm a better place. We honor you for that tonight.
And, we welcome you to this very special group – the recipients of the 2007 Booz Allen Diversity Awards.
