As I write, I am sitting in my home office in San Diego, California gazing at a dog-eared paperback edition of a volume
titled, The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty. The book, as is obvious from the title, tells the story of the ill-fated voyage of a ship named the HMS Bounty.
The author – Caroline Alexander – may not have realized it, but The Bounty tells another story as well. That is, the story of how a shared goal can bring diverse people together to achieve an important task. To explain where that shared goal came in, I need to start at the beginning of the mutiny.
That mutiny began at about 5:15 a.m. on the morning of April 28th,1789 when members of the crew – led reluctantly by one Fletcher Christian – took over the ship and jettisoned, not only their captain (the soon to become infamous Captain William Bligh), but also 18 other crew members into the ship’s tiny launch.
That launch – a mere 23-feet long, six-feet nine-inches wide, and two-feet nine-inches deep – was clearly insufficient to transport the men safely to their destination – Timor, a Dutch port, 4,000 miles across the South Pacific.
To avoid keeping you in suspense, I’ll reveal that Bligh succeeded at completing that journey. All but one of the 19 on board survived to reach the port 28 days later. So, the question becomes, how did Bligh do it?
Yes, Bligh had remarkable navigation skills, but that would not be enough under those arduous conditions. They succeeded in part because of the reality that the men so casually tossed into that tiny vessel were nothing if not diverse.
That tiny vessel held a random mix of scientists, officers, seamen, gunners, carpenters, and – luckily – a surgeon’s assistant. These men were characterized by diverse levels of sophistication, diverse personalities, and very diverse skills. Yet, despite or maybe because of that diversity, they worked together to achieve the impossible.
In a culture (His Majesties Navy) that valued – I’d go so far as to say “treasured” — hierarchy — there must have been massive biases within this group. Those prejudices – those differences –, however, could not survive the force of what they shared: A common goal – reach Timor alive.
Our workplaces, of course, don’t experience the drama of a 4,000-mile journey in a tiny skiff across an open ocean, but we do have our challenges. It is those challenges that have the power to bring team members – all of the team – together to focus on a common goal. That goal becomes the means of overcoming division and creating a truly inclusive (and successful) workplace.
The material in this post reflects the ideas expressed in Dr. Thiederman’s book 3 Keys to Defeating Unconscious Bias and in the training videos Defeating Unconscious Bias: 5 Strategies and Gateways to Inclusion: Turning Tense Moments into Productive Conversations.
Sondra Thiederman can be contacted for virtual facilitation, and panel participation by clicking here or calling 619-992-3766. For additional information, go to this link to learn more about what Dr. Thiederman has to offer.
© copyright 2026 Sondra Thiederman, Ph.D.
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