We spend, I would say squander, far too much time trying to be like everyone else, if that was even technically feasible, which it intrinsically is not. We think that fitting in to some abstract mold or standard adds value to the vibrancy of our being together.
We learn from thriving ecosystems that fitness is complementary diversity. When diversity collapses, so does the system.
In my work helping groups learn how to be amazingly productive together, we value, promote and celebrate differences because harmony is always a different note. We engage people as they are, not as they think or as we think they should be otherwise. We don't send people to training so they can show up as someone else and then lecture them on the apparent virtues of authenticity.
Working from the science telling us that growth happens most in the areas of our strengths and that there is no evidence that focus on weaknesses makes anything better, we treat people as gifts to be engaged rather than problems to be fixed.
The most skillful and sustainable process is the one that engages people as they are, that leverages diversity as essential to the transformation.