The Elephant in the Giraffe House
I listen to podcasts on my commute, and the a16z podcast never disappoints. On the episode “On Mentors and Mentees”, the guest Ken Coleman narrated an interesting fable that got me thinking. To paraphrase:
It was raining heavily but the Giraffe’s in the Giraffe House were snug and dry. Outside, the Elephant was caught in the driving rain. The Giraffes felt sorry for the Elephant and invited her into their house. The Elephant was grateful and was soon warm and dry.
After some time, the Elephant said — “I want to look outside, but the windows are too high”.
“Well, you just need to grow your neck” replied the Giraffes. “I heard there are stretches you could do for that”.
Then the Elephant complained — “It is such a tight squeeze in here, can’t we expand the building?”
“You really should lose some weight — have you thought about dieting?”
The fable (borrowed from “Building a House for Diversity”) is about Diversity and Inclusion. When we pay lip service to diversity, we invite the others in, but we continue doing things the old way instead of accommodating the needs of the others.
My first was reaction was to scoff at the Giraffes. But, was the Elephant fair in asking for accommodations? Was the response of the Giraffes appropriate? Do I feel like an Elephant in a Giraffe’s house sometimes? Do you do things at work that alien to your nature just to fit in? Do you ask for a better environment at your workplace? Let me know in the comments.