Like many other communities in the US, the places that NuCurrent calls home – like Chicago and Southern California – are hurting right now. The protest events that started this weekend continue to unfold, stemming from deep frustration and anger with the continued prejudice and inequality directed at Black Americans in our communities.

These painful fractures in our society are the result of ignorant beliefs that some people are innately “lesser than” other people.

We cannot disagree with this belief system strongly enough. It contradicts everything that we stand for — and everything that we’ve accomplished — as members of a team with broad cultural diversity.

NuCurrent simply wouldn’t exist without our diversity. It is what makes us… US.

So how can we bring change to our communities and the world at large? How can we demonstrate what we know to be the intrinsic value of diversity?

This requires action.

So, as with the start of any meaningful course of action, it’s important first to reflect inward —  to make sure that what we say about who we are is aligned with what we really believe.

And we found something that we’d missed.

One of our five core values emphasizes “People” and has been explained with the following statement:

“Our people make us extraordinary. We are a fun, talented, diverse, and resilient team that relies upon individual accountability for delivering extraordinary team results. We are open to giving and receiving criticism to better ourselves, our team and our customers.”

This is all true, but it’s more than that.

“Our people make us extraordinary. Our differences strengthen the collective. We are a fun, talented, diverse and resilient team that relies upon individual accountability for delivering extraordinary team results. We are open to giving and receiving criticism to better ourselves, our team and our customers.”

If you had asked anyone familiar with us, they would probably say this new addition was an implicit part of this value, already.  But it needs to be explicit – now more than ever.

Our differences strengthen the collective. 

They’re only five words, but they carry a tremendous amount of weight with regard to our values and beliefs.

We understand that small actions like this are only a first step, but they can lead to bigger actions. And these continuous, bigger actions lead to meaningful progress, which is what we’re aiming to accomplish.

As we continue to reflect on our values and refine our approaches, we will share our thoughts and progress on this massively important issue.

We hope that you will too.