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The Power of Diversity

Diverse teams are more productive, innovative, and creative. When a team is too homogeneous, it is easy for members to agree without exploring other possibilities. To increase diversity, a company should consider factors like ethnic/cultural background, work experience, seniority, and personality types. Interdepartmental collaboration can also boost diversity by including employees from different departments in projects and meetings. Bringing in outsiders with unique expertise provides a fresh perspective.

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51 views3 pages

The Power of Diversity

Diverse teams are more productive, innovative, and creative. When a team is too homogeneous, it is easy for members to agree without exploring other possibilities. To increase diversity, a company should consider factors like ethnic/cultural background, work experience, seniority, and personality types. Interdepartmental collaboration can also boost diversity by including employees from different departments in projects and meetings. Bringing in outsiders with unique expertise provides a fresh perspective.

Uploaded by

raji
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Power of Diversity

One of the biggest challenges to creativity and innovation is lack of diverse thinking. When
hiring, many leaders want to find replications of themselves, thinking this is what will make the
organization thrive. However, the reality is that what allows companies to be innovative is
diversity. Think about it: how can diverse ideas by exchanged when everyone thinks the same?
Homogeneous working environments may make team bonding easier; however they leave little
room for ideas to flourish. There is a term for this, called the Medici Effect, which states that a
diverse team has a better chance of generating groundbreaking ideas. This is because people of
different backgrounds, experiences, and knowledge each bring a different approach to solving a
problem, which can lead to ground breaking new ways of doing things. When everyone on a
team thinks from a similar perspective, it is too easy to agree on what first seems obvious and
overlook other possibilities, often because they’re never even brought to the table. In fact, studies
by Henley Management College, Forbes, and Ford Germany have shown that diverse teams are
more productive, innovative, creative, and have a higher level thought processes. This is why the
majority of companies making over 10 billion dollars a year actively create diversity.
Important areas of diversity:

 Ethnic and Cultural Background: People with a diverse ethnic and cultural background
may naturally have different life experiences that will influences the way that they see a
problem and the ideas to solve them. In what ways can you increase the ethnic or cultural
diversity within your creative team?

 Work Function and Experience: The level of experience people have with a specific
job function will affect how creative they are and what they believe to be possible.
Bringing in people with different areas of expertise, educational background and work
experience will greatly diversify ideas of possible solutions. What departments or
individuals can you include in this process that will bring different perspectives and areas
of understanding?
 Seniority: Sometimes the longer someone is with an organization the more likely they
are to be set in their ways. They’re also more likely to have a strong bias toward what
they believe is not possible. On the other hand, the new employee may have a very
different way of looking at a situation because they may not yet have a concrete set of
beliefs and expectations regarding how things should or can be done. At the same time,
longevity in a position or a company allows for insights that a newer employee may not
have. Therefore, placing seasoned employees with newer employees will increase
creativity and bring out the best in both employees. What specific employees can you
invite to participate in the creative team that will create this variety?

 Personality Type: Hiring and creating groups of different personality’s types is also a
great way to increase diversity and creativity. While one person may naturally see the
shortest, fastest way to accomplish a desired result, another may be great at seeing the big
picture and the long-term impact of changes. Both perspectives are valuable and,
combined, lead to team to a more well-rounded decision. In what ways can you ensure
you have a variety of personalities participating in your creative team?

Interdepartmental Collaboration:
Creating a diverse team does not necessarily mean that you have to hire new staff. It can be as
simple as expanding who attends your meetings and who works on what projects. In other words,
you can bring in people from different departments or send your team to other departments. Each
department then has the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the activities and
perspectives of different segments of the company. This exchange between different department
increases knowledge, insights, and creativity on all sides. There are many ways to facilitate
interdepartmental collaboration:
 You could have someone from accounting, human resources, and customer support all
participate in brainstorming and idea generation related to any number of topics, such as
annual budget or staffing needs. Seeing how decisions affect each department, as well as
how each business function impacts the others, can lead to insights that can transform an
organization. In what ways can you pull in employees from other departments to
participate in meetings or projects?

 Outside of formal teams, meetings, or projects, you can simply create opportunities for
different departments to interact and spend time together in informal settings on a regular
basis. This allows time for information and ideas to be shared. In what ways can you
increase the contact that employees have with other employees outside of their normal
circle or department?

 You can even do short-term job swaps to help employees get a new perspective to each
other’s roles. If you were to implement an activity like this, what sorts of insights would
you be hoping each participant received and how would a program like this look in your
company?/

Bringing in an Outsider:

Another option is to bring in an outsider who has a unique expertise or skillset. This person will
see a company’s operations from a fresh perspective and can share insights that an insider would
never be able to see clearly. Sometimes having an outside perspective is exactly what is needed
to help push an environment that is stagnant or stuck in the direction of new ways of approaching
the situations they face. With the project you’re working on, are there any needs for diversity that
are not met internally? If so, who and how would you bring in an expert or other person with a
divergent perspective?

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