Written by Deborah Levine, Managing Editor of the American Diversity Report

In his keynote address to the 2008 Global Leadership Class, Pete Cooper, CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga talked about why change is inevitable. In his address, Cooper illustrated how change and diversity are two elements of the same trend. Cooper’s listed nine reasons for inevitable change and linked those reasons to specific diversity issues. His argument was received enthusiastically and he was asked to reprise his presentation to East Ridge,a local municipality conducting strategic planning.

Beginning his presentation with an assessment of national demographic trends, Cooper’s first reason for change is our shifting population. Every county within 400 miles of our Southern border will become majority nonwhite in the near future. The same can be said for many of our major cities. The ethnic make-up of our population is changing dramatically and will continue to change the face of America.

Cooper’s second reason for change is age. The United States has a relatively mature population and we will soon experience a large turnover in housing and jobs. Baby Boomers are a bulge in the White population and they’re retiring. In Human Resource departments, 80% of people currently looking for a job are white. In 10 years, that 80% will probably be non-white. The non-white population will be a larger proportion of the population as time goes on; in some Hispanic groups 50-70% of their population is currently under 16 years of age. If two out of three houses now occupied by seniors go to young couples, we can have a great future. If only one is bought and the other two are rental properties, our communities will suffer in the future.

The issue of age brings us to the third reason for change: children. In order for the population to be stable and replace those who die, there needs to be 2.1 children per couple. Before World War I, the country was an agrarian society with large spaces requiring many hands to survive and prosper. We had 8.0 children at that time. As a country becomes more affluent and less agrarian, couples have fewer children. Children then become less of an economic benefit and more of an expense to feed, clothe and educate. Currently, the white population has 1.8 children. The black population has 1.9 children. The Latino population has 3.0 children and the Muslim population in this country has 8.0 children.

The shifts in population impact a fourth reason for change: leadership. We currently have a generation in our elected offices, nonprofit leadership, and school principals that will retire in the next 5 to 10 years. Leadership will change hands in huge way over the next decade. These leaders will come from groups not necessarily occupying positions of leadership today. How will we prepare and train them to lead and consider new paradigms of leadership.

The fifth reason for change is an economy that is changing and will change even more rapidly in the future. We are now competing on the Internet with anyone in the world from your own home. The internet is a great leveler, creating a global playing field. We will need to develop the finest Internet connections in the world at the local level and push for high earnings-high skill jobs. At the same time, we will need to address labor shortages in service industries. Nationally, we have a deficit of 800,000 nurses. Locally, US Express needs to 5,400 truck drivers next year. The situation is complicated by the global geo-political situation with oil and an increasing need to live within close driving distance of employment. Transportation issue will impact our economy and change is inevitable.

Six, funding: funding from state and Federal sources will decrease in the future. Traditional sources of funding for nonprofits such as wealthy, older donors are dying and moving away. The decrease in funding comes as nonprofits are called on to do more with less money and are asked to be more transparent. Complicating the change is the age demographic. The head of almost every nonprofit in our town will retire in 10 years.

The seventh issue Cooper highlighted was education. Education is key to the future. A high school diploma is no longer enough to ensure professional success. In Tennessee the immigrant population from India has a bachelor’s degree or more. Foreign-born Tennessee inns are more likely than native-born to have a high school diploma.

Given the magnitude of the issues facing our country today, the eighth issue prompting change is politics. The politics of change is all around us and will require reaching across the political aisle. We can expect to see a more populist agenda as citizens confront the challenges of a global environment and economy.

Last but not least in Cooper’s list of change elements is religion. The United States a more diverse country that it has ever been in its history. Different religions are going to change the way the country looks and acts. Leadership is all of the citizens, employees, officials, doing their part. Diversity used to be a moral and legal issue. It is now in that an issue of market practicality. Our employees, clients, and customers will be increasingly diverse. We will need to be on the front wave of change is in order to be successful. We will need new ways to communicate and new forums in which to do that communication. We need to go beyond tolerance to appreciate our growing diversity.