Hi, The issue I have with the Talent criteria is that I find that often people with one perspective, don't quite recognize the talent of another perspective until they have worked together for a while. So the comparison can be difficult. So i guess i beleive in tokens and in giving the tokens to the most qualified from various perspectives. And I sometime beleive it is best to leave a spot open until someone both qualified for the token and talented is found. I don't know if we are saying the same, or similar thing. avri On 31 Jan 2013, at 16:04, Andrew A. Adams wrote: > When creating a small sized group with governance authority (direct or as in > the case of many ICANN bodies indirectly through recommendations to the > Board, most of which are accepted) it is important to remember that the goal > should be to create the best group for the purpose, not simply to gather a > set of the best individuals. In particular due to various institutional > settings which produce a surfeit of straight white males from developed > countries with the knowledge, skills and political connections if one simply > choose the top n individuals on personal merit from a filtered pool of > available candidates, then the likely outcome is non-representative > (dominated by or even entirely made up of SWMs from developed countries). > Such a group does not have the breadth of experience which would make a good > governance body. Hence ICANN and many other groups have mechanisms to provide > for diversity in the selection of members of governing groups which provide > the group as a whole with a better range of experiences on which to draw, > improving the quality of the work of that group as well as its apparent > legitimacy to those affected by its activity. This is not about tokenism or > discrimination against a majority, but is all about favouring a global > maximum of group talent instead of a combination of local maxima of > individual talent. > > (For the record, I'm a straight, white male citizen of one developed country > and resident of another.) > > > > -- > Professor Andrew A Adams [log in to unmask] > Professor at Graduate School of Business Administration, and > Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Information Ethics > Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan http://www.a-cubed.info/ >