D&I problem solving- desktop

Why Diversity and Inclusion Are Important for Problem-Solving

Simone Bradley 22 March 2022

Change Management Activate Behavior Change

What happens when we bring in new perspectives? This article explores this and how to activate inclusive problem-solving.

Diversity in our backgrounds equips us with varying mental toolkits. When people with diverse perspectives work inclusively to solve problems, the results are powerful. Take the example of the million-dollar Netflix algorithm challenge : 

In 2006, Netflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, announced an open competition to create an algorithm that would predict customers' movie ratings. The algorithm had to be 10% more efficient than Netflix's algorithm, Cinematch. This task was so difficult that Netflix offered a million dollars to anyone who could achieve this. Of course, this competition attracted thousands of participants from various backgrounds – from math majors at an Ivy League university in the US to Austrian computer programmers and even a British psychologist and his daughter!   Dry erase markers scribbled across whiteboards, notebooks piled up, and brains were tested. It became clear to contestants that this was not going to be solved by one brilliant individual who had all the answers. Early on, teams realized that the most significant improvements came when individuals combined their results. The secret sauce for the eventual winners (a blended team called BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos) was, in the end, the collaboration between people with diverse perspectives. Finally, in 2009, the top two teams combined forces, combined their algorithms, and surpassed the 10% threshold. What happened in this competition is what Scott E. Page refers to as the " diversity bonus ." Diversity improves problem-solving and increases innovation which leads to better performance  and results for your organization. Our objective in this article is to explore the power of diversity in problem-solving and to provide three ways to improve problem-solving in your organization by activating diversity-embracing behaviors in your employees.

The Power of Activating Diversity of Thought

People tend to solve problems by first looking at their own experiences, habits, culture, and understanding. The brain does this to determine whether we have faced a similar situation before and if we know how to solve it. Psychologists refer to this as a " mental set. "

Mental sets save us time and energy in the decision-making process but can hamper our problem-solving abilities. Different perspectives lead to different kinds of solutions. For example, an obvious solution to one person may seem abstract or irrelevant to someone else. The more perspectives you have when analyzing a problem, the more likely you will consider a broader range of solutions. How can you show your employees how to embrace different perspectives in your organization?  To activate diversity , you need to create an environment that embraces the different ways individuals think, feel, and act. This is achieved by taking small actions over time to make inclusive behaviors a habit. Below we'll discuss three ways to help your team encourage diversity and inclusion when problem-solving. 

1. Make All Voices Count 

True diversity and inclusion mean that everyone in your team gets the opportunity to be heard. Sometimes though, we aren't conscious of who doesn't have a voice in a meeting or event. So, in many situations, the opinions of the most assertive people often carry the most weight. On the opposite side, women of color and other marginalized groups often don’t feel empowered to speak up. In your organization, do you currently have a balance between who gets to talk in meetings and who doesn't? 

In your next conference call or in-person meeting, take a back seat and mostly observe while still making sure that you participate when called upon. 

After your call, reflect on what stood out for you. Also, consider what strategies you can create to ensure that the only time people on your team aren't heard is because they are on mute! 

2. Welcome All Ideas

Organizations that embrace diversity solve problems by fostering an environment where all ideas are welcome. Embracing everyone's thoughts gives your team members the freedom to get creative without worrying about someone else's opinion. Don't miss out on your next great idea because someone was too embarrassed to share it. The next time you have a brainstorming session, encourage your team to share their thoughts, no matter how out of the box they are.  Afterward, reflect on what happened in the session: 

  • What stood out for you when you encouraged all ideas?
  • What can you leverage from what you have learned to enable your teams to share their ideas regularly?

3. Normalize Disagreements 

A team can only be truly inclusive and allow a wide diversity of thoughts and ideas if it’s possible for members to disagree with each other in an empathetic and considerate way.

Diverse perspectives continue to flow when we normalize disagreements. If your team doesn't have a good strategy for dealing with conflict, only the most forceful personalities will be the ones who get their way. 

Prepare yourself and your team for conflict with the following steps: 

  • Don't make it personal
  • Avoid putting down the other person's ideas and beliefs
  • Instead of saying "you", use "I" statements to communicate how you feel, what you think, and what you want or need
  • Listen to the other point of view without interrupting
  • Avoid absolute statements

Final Thoughts 

The Netflix algorithm challenge is a perfect illustration of the importance of diversity in problem-solving. The contestants understood that combining different ideas and perspectives was the only way to progress forward. Likewise, organizations need to take this approach too. In this article, we explored how to activate behavior change in your employees by giving them small actions that they can use to be more inclusive when problem-solving. There are many other steps that organizations can take to embrace diversity.

If you are interested in other ways to activate inclusivity, sign up for a free trial  of our Diversity , Inclusion , and Belonging Quest . Or book a consultation to discuss creating a custom D&I program.

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How diversity makes us smarter, being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, diligent, and hard-working..

The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult.

In the U.S., where the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced, even the mention of the word “diversity” can lead to anxiety and conflict. Supreme Court justices disagree on the virtues of diversity and the means for achieving it. Corporations spend billions of dollars to attract and manage diversity both internally and externally, yet they still face discrimination lawsuits, and the leadership ranks of the business world remain predominantly white and male.

It is reasonable to ask what good diversity does us. Diversity of  expertise confers benefits that are obvious—you would not think of building a new car without engineers, designers, and quality-control experts—but what about social diversity? What good comes from diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation? Research has shown that social diversity in a group can cause discomfort, rougher interactions, a lack of trust, greater perceived interpersonal conflict, lower communication, less cohesion, more concern about disrespect, and other problems. So, what is the upside?

1 how does diversity encourage innovation and problem solving

The fact is that if you want to build teams or organizations capable of innovating, you need diversity. Diversity enhances creativity. It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving. Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations. Even simply being exposed to diversity can change the way you think.

This is not just wishful thinking: It is the conclusion I draw from decades of research from organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists, and demographers.

Informational diversity fuels innovation

The key to understanding the positive influence of diversity is the concept of informational diversity. When people are brought together to solve problems in groups, they bring different information, opinions, and perspectives.

This makes obvious sense when we talk about diversity of disciplinary backgrounds—think again of the interdisciplinary team building a car. The same logic applies to social diversity. People who are different from one another in race, gender, and other dimensions bring unique information and experiences to bear on the task at hand. A male and a female engineer might have perspectives as different from one another as an engineer and a physicist—and that is a good thing.

“We need diversity if we are to change, grow, and innovate”

Research on large, innovative organizations has shown repeatedly that this is the case.

For example, business professors Cristian Deszö of the University of Maryland and David Ross of Columbia University studied the effect of gender diversity on the top firms in Standard & Poor’s Composite 1500 list, a group designed to reflect the overall U.S. equity market. First, they examined the size and gender composition of firms’ top management teams from 1992 through 2006. Then they looked at the financial performance of the firms. In their words, they found that, on average, “female representation in top management leads to an increase of $42 million in firm value.” They also measured the firms’ “innovation intensity” through the ratio of research and development expenses to assets. They found that companies that prioritized innovation saw greater financial gains when women were part of the top leadership ranks.

Racial diversity can deliver the same kinds of benefits. In a study conducted in 2003, Orlando Richard, a professor of management at the University of Texas at Dallas, and his colleagues surveyed executives at 177 national banks in the U.S., then put together a database comparing financial performance, racial diversity, and the emphasis the bank presidents put on innovation. For innovation-focused banks, increases in racial diversity were clearly related to enhanced financial performance.

Of course, not all studies get the same results. Even those that haven’t found benefits for racially diverse firms suggest that there is certainly no negative financial impact—and there are benefits that may go beyond the short-term bottom line. For example, in a paper published in June of this year , researchers examined the financial performance of firms listed in  DiversityInc ’s list of Top 50 Companies for Diversity. They found the companies on the list did outperform the S&P 500 index—but the positive impact disappeared when researchers accounted for the size of the firms. That doesn’t mean diversity isn’t worth pursuing, conclude the authors:

In an age of increasing globalization, a diverse workforce may provide both tangible and intangible benefits to firms over the long run, including increased adaptability in a changing market. Also, as the United States moves towards the point in which no ethnic majority exists, around 2050, companies’ upper management and lower-level workforce should naturally be expected to reflect more diversity. Consequently, diversity initiatives would likely generate positive reputation effects for firms.

Evidence for the benefits of diversity can be found well beyond the U.S. In August 2012, a team of researchers at the Credit Suisse Research Institute issued a report in which they examined 2,360 companies globally from 2005 to 2011, looking for a relationship between gender diversity on corporate management boards and financial performance. Sure enough, the researchers found that companies with one or more women on the board delivered higher average returns on equity, lower gearing (that is, net debt to equity), and better average growth.

How diversity provokes new thinking

More on diversity.

Read about the meaning and benefits of diversity .

Discover how students benefit from school diversity .

Learn about the neuroscience of prejudice .

Explore the top ten strategies for reducing prejudice .

Large data-set studies have an obvious limitation: They only show that diversity is correlated with better performance, not that it causes better performance. Research on racial diversity in small groups, however, makes it possible to draw some causal conclusions. Again, the findings are clear: For groups that value innovation and new ideas, diversity helps.

In 2006, I set out with Margaret Neale of Stanford University and Gregory Northcraft of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to examine the impact of racial diversity on small decision-making groups in an experiment where sharing information was a requirement for success.

Our subjects were undergraduate students taking business courses at the University of Illinois. We put together three-person groups—some consisting of all white members, others with two whites and one nonwhite member—and had them perform a murder mystery exercise. We made sure that all group members shared a common set of information, but we also gave each member important clues that only they knew. To find out who committed the murder, the group members would have to share all the information they collectively possessed during discussion. The groups with racial diversity significantly outperformed the groups with no racial diversity. Being with similar others leads us to think we all hold the same information and share the same perspective. This perspective, which stopped the all-white groups from effectively processing the information, is what hinders creativity and innovation.

Other researchers have found similar results. In 2004, Anthony Lising Antonio, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, collaborated with five colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles, and other institutions to examine the influence of racial and opinion composition in small group discussions. More than 350 students from three universities participated in the study. Group members were asked to discuss a prevailing social issue (either child labor practices or the death penalty) for 15 minutes. The researchers wrote dissenting opinions and had both black and white members deliver them to their groups. When a black person presented a dissenting perspective to a group of whites, the perspective was perceived as more novel and led to broader thinking and consideration of alternatives than when a white person introduced  that same dissenting perspective .

The lesson: When we hear dissent from someone who is different from us, it provokes more thought than when it comes from someone who looks like us. It’s a result echoed by a longitudinal study published last year, which tracked the moral development of students on 17 campuses who took a class on diversity in their freshman year. The analysis led the researchers to a robust conclusion: Students who were trained to negotiate diversity from the beginning showed much more sophisticated moral reasoning by the time they graduated. This was especially true for students who entered with lower academic ability.

Active Listening

Active Listening

Connect with a partner through empathy and understanding.

This effect is not limited to race and gender. For example, last year professors of management Denise Lewin Loyd of the University of Illinois, Cynthia Wang of Oklahoma State University, Robert B. Lount, Jr., of Ohio State University, and I asked 186 people whether they identified as a Democrat or a Republican, then had them read a murder mystery and decide who they thought committed the crime. Next, we asked the subjects to prepare for a meeting with another group member by writing an essay communicating their perspective. More important, in all cases, we told the participants that their partner disagreed with their opinion but that they would need to come to an agreement with the other person. Everyone was told to prepare to convince their meeting partner to come around to their side; half of the subjects, however, were told to prepare to make their case to a member of the opposing political party, and half were told to make their case to a member of their own party.

The result: Democrats who were told that a fellow Democrat disagreed with them prepared less well for the discussion than Democrats who were told that a Republican disagreed with them. Republicans showed the same pattern. When disagreement comes from a socially different person, we are prompted to work harder. Diversity jolts us into cognitive action in ways that homogeneity simply does not.

For this reason, diversity appears to lead to higher-quality scientific research.

In 2014, two Harvard University researchers examined the ethnic identity of the authors of 1.5 million scientific papers written between 1985 and 2008 using Thomson Reuters’s Web of Science, a comprehensive database of published research. They found that papers written by diverse groups receive more citations and have higher impact factors than papers written by people from the same ethnic group. Moreover, they found that stronger papers were associated with a greater number of author addresses; geographical diversity, and a larger number of references, is a reflection of more intellectual diversity.

What we believe makes a difference

Diversity is not only about bringing different perspectives to the table. Simply adding social diversity to a group makes people  believe  that differences of perspective might exist among them and that belief makes people change their behavior.

Members of a homogeneous group rest somewhat assured that they will agree with one another; that they will understand one another’s perspectives and beliefs; that they will be able to easily come to a consensus.

But when members of a group notice that they are socially different from one another, they change their expectations. They anticipate differences of opinion and perspective. They assume they will need to work harder to come to a consensus. This logic helps to explain both the upside and the downside of social diversity: People work harder in diverse environments both cognitively and socially. They might not like it, but the hard work can lead to better outcomes.

In a 2006 study of jury decision making, social psychologist Samuel Sommers of Tufts University found that racially diverse groups exchanged a wider range of information during deliberation about a sexual assault case than all-white groups did. In collaboration with judges and jury administrators in a Michigan courtroom, Sommers conducted mock jury trials with a group of real selected jurors. Although the participants knew the mock jury was a court-sponsored experiment, they did not know that the true purpose of the research was to study the impact of racial diversity on jury decision making.

Sommers composed the six-person juries with either all white jurors or four white and two black jurors. As you might expect, the diverse juries were better at considering case facts, made fewer errors recalling relevant information, and displayed a greater openness to discussing the role of race in the case.

These improvements did not necessarily happen because the black jurors brought new information to the group—they happened because white jurors changed their behavior in the presence of the black jurors. In the presence of diversity, they were more diligent and open-minded.

Consider the following scenario: You are a scientist writing up a section of a paper for presentation at an upcoming conference. You are anticipating some disagreement and potential difficulty communicating because your collaborator is American and you are Chinese. Because of one social distinction, you may focus on other differences between yourself and that person, such as their culture, upbringing and experiences—differences that you would not expect from another Chinese collaborator. How do you prepare for the meeting? In all likelihood, you will work harder on explaining your rationale and anticipating alternatives than you would have otherwise—and you might work harder to reconcile those differences.

This is how diversity works : by promoting hard work and creativity; by encouraging the consideration of alternatives even before any interpersonal interaction takes place. The pain associated with diversity can be thought of as the pain of exercise. You have to push yourself to grow your muscles. The pain, as the old saw goes, produces the gain. In just the same way, we need diversity—in teams, organizations, and society as a whole—if we are to change, grow, and innovate.

This essay was originally published in 2014 by Scientific American. It has been revised and updated to include new research.

About the Author

Katherine w. phillips.

Katherine W. Phillips, Ph.D. , is the Paul Calello Professor of Leadership and Ethics Management at Columbia Business School.

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How Does Diversity and Inclusion Impact Innovation?

Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace

By: Rob Hoehn

Nearly all executives believe the long-term success of their business depends on the flow, testing, and development of new ideas. One of the problems is the old belief in the “creative genius” – that creativity and innovation belongs to a talented few and not to everyone.

Because of this bias, sometimes leaders will source one or two essential individuals that they believe are innovative, offer them a leadership role and start looking exclusively to them for strategic ideas and direction. However, that doesn’t create innovation.

There is a growing body of research that demonstrates that innovation requires the participation and deliberation of a group of voices.  And, in fact, organizations with higher levels of diversity are far more likely to demonstrate innovation. For example, companies that report high levels of diversity are 45% more likely to report that their firm’s market share grew over the previous year and 70% more likely to report that the firm captured a new market. Additionally, firms with more ethnic and racial diversity report 2x the innovation revenue.

There are several reasons that this is true.  For one, having diversity in the workplace discourages the formation of groupthink. Groupthink is when everyone in a group gravitates towards a particular idea, because they are influenced by everyone else’s opinion and agreement. It’s difficult to present divergent opinions… particularly when everyone is coming from a similar point of view. When your workforce is diverse, however, it’s more likely that someone in that group will have a differing opinion or invite more dialogue.

Another reason that this is true is likely because of the nature of ideas. They are simply  more powerful when they collide and build on other people’s ideas. Steven Johnson’s “Where Great Ideas Come From” addresses this subject, calling for ideas to connect with unlikely companion ideas, which is when they become more powerful and more disruptive.

But we all know that working for equity and nurturing diversity means a lot more than adopting the value set and putting it on your website. This is because those programs often fail to leverage the hidden power of diversity, equity, and inclusion to enhance innovative thinking. There are a few things that organizations must get right in order to introduce true diversity to their innovative thinking, including:

  • Teach others on the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
  • Select problems that empower people to participate and spot the greatest opportunities to create positive change.
  • Make diversity and inclusion (as well as innovation) a part of every leaders’ job
  • Create a place where those ideas can thrive on equal footing instead of always listening to the highest paid person’s opinion, ideas from the usual suspects, or those who are confident enough to speak up.

If you’re looking to support diversity and innovation, there is an upcoming webinar on the subject on November 19th! Registrants will receive a video recording of the presentation and attendees can participate in a live Q&A. Register today .

About the author.

1 how does diversity encourage innovation and problem solving

Featured image via Unsplash .

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October 1, 2014

How Diversity Makes Us Smarter

Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working

By Katherine W. Phillips

Web of faces interconnected.

Edel Rodriguez

The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. In the U.S., where the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced, even the mention of the word “diversity” can lead to anxiety and conflict. Supreme Court justices disagree on the virtues of diversity and the means for achieving it. Corporations spend billions of dollars to attract and manage diversity both internally and externally, yet they still face discrimination lawsuits, and the leadership ranks of the business world remain predominantly white and male.

It is reasonable to ask what good diversity does us. Diversity of expertise confers benefits that are obvious—you would not think of building a new car without engineers, designers and quality-control experts—but what about social diversity? What good comes from diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation? Research has shown that social diversity in a group can cause discomfort, rougher interactions, a lack of trust, greater perceived interpersonal conflict, lower communication, less cohesion, more concern about disrespect, and other problems. So what is the upside?

The fact is that if you want to build teams or organizations capable of innovating, you need diversity. Diversity enhances creativity. It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision-making and problem-solving. Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations. Even simply being exposed to diversity can change the way you think. This is not just wishful thinking: it is the conclusion I draw from decades of research from organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and demographers.

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

Information and Innovation

The key to understanding the positive influence of diversity is the concept of informational diversity. When people are brought together to solve problems in groups, they bring different information, opinions and perspectives. This makes obvious sense when we talk about diversity of disciplinary backgrounds—think again of the interdisciplinary team building a car. The same logic applies to social diversity. People who are different from one another in race, gender and other dimensions bring unique information and experiences to bear on the task at hand. A male and a female engineer might have perspectives as different from each other as an engineer and a physicist—and that is a good thing.

Research on large, innovative organizations has shown repeatedly that this is the case. For example, business professors Cristian Dezsö of the University of Maryland and David Gaddis Ross of the University of Florida studied the effect of gender diversity on the top firms in Standard & Poor’s Composite 1500 list, a group designed to reflect the overall U.S. equity market. First, they examined the size and gender composition of firms’ top management teams from 1992 through 2006. Then they looked at the financial performance of the firms. In their words, they found that, on average, “female representation in top management leads to an increase of $42 million in firm value.” They also measured the firms’ “innovation intensity” through the ratio of research and development expenses to assets. They found that companies that prioritized innovation saw greater financial gains when women were part of the top leadership ranks.

Racial diversity can deliver the same kinds of benefits. In a study conducted in 2003, Orlando Richard, now at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his colleagues surveyed executives at 177 national banks in the U.S., then put together a database comparing financial performance, racial diversity and the emphasis the bank presidents put on innovation. For innovation-focused banks, increases in racial diversity were clearly related to enhanced financial performance.

Evidence for the benefits of diversity can be found well beyond the U.S. In August 2012 a team of researchers at the Credit Suisse Research Institute issued a report in which they examined 2,360 companies globally from 2005 to 2011, looking for a relation between gender diversity on corporate management boards and financial performance. Sure enough, the researchers found that companies with one or more women on the board delivered higher average returns on equity, lower gearing (that is, net debt to equity) and better average growth.

How Diversity Provokes Thought

Large data-set studies have an obvious limitation: they can show only that diversity is correlated with better performance, not that it causes better performance. Research on racial diversity in small groups, however, makes it possible to draw some causal conclusions. Again, the findings are clear: for groups that value innovation and new ideas, diversity helps.

In 2006 Margaret Neale of Stanford University, Gregory Northcraft of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and I set out to examine the impact of racial diversity on small decision-making groups in an experiment where sharing information was a requirement for success. Our subjects were undergraduate students taking business courses at the University of Illinois. We put together three-person groups—some consisting of all white members, others with two white members and one nonwhite member—and had them perform a murder mystery exercise. We made sure that all group members shared a common set of information, but we also gave each member important clues that only he or she knew. To find out who committed the murder, the group members would have to share all the information they collectively possessed during discussion. The groups with racial diversity significantly outperformed the groups with no racial diversity. Being with similar others leads us to think we all hold the same information and share the same perspective. This perspective, which stopped the all-white groups from effectively processing the information, is what hinders creativity and innovation.

Illustration showing a blend of several faces.

Other researchers have found similar results. In 2004 Anthony Lising Antonio, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, collaborated with five colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, and other institutions to examine the influence of racial and opinion composition in small group discussions. More than 350 students from three universities participated in the study. Group members were asked to discuss a prevailing social issue (either child labor practices or the death penalty) for 15 minutes. The researchers wrote dissenting opinions and had both Black and white members deliver them to their groups. When a Black person presented a dissenting perspective to a group of white people, the perspective was perceived as more novel and led to broader thinking and consideration of alternatives than when a white person introduced that same dissenting perspective . The lesson: when we hear dissent from someone who is different from us, it provokes more thought than when it comes from someone who looks like us.

This effect is not limited to race. For example, in 2013 professors of management Denise Lewin Loyd of the University of Illinois, Cynthia Wang of Northwestern University, Robert B. Lount, Jr., of the Ohio State University and I asked 186 people whether they identified as a Democrat or a Republican, then had them read a murder mystery and decide who they thought committed the crime. Next, we asked the subjects to prepare for a meeting with another group member by writing an essay communicating their perspective. More important, in all cases, we told the participants that their partner disagreed with their opinion but that they would need to come to an agreement with the other person. Everyone was told to prepare to convince their meeting partner to come around to their side; half of the subjects, however, were told to prepare to make their case to a member of the opposing political party, and half were told to make their case to a member of their own party.

The result: Democrats who were told that a fellow Democrat disagreed with them prepared less well for the discussion than Democrats who were told that a Republican disagreed with them. Republicans showed the same pattern. When disagreement comes from a socially different person, we are prompted to work harder. Diversity jolts us into cognitive action in ways that homogeneity simply does not.

For this reason, diversity appears to lead to higher-quality scientific research. In 2014 Richard Freeman, an economics professor at Harvard University and director of the Science and Engineering Workforce Project at the National Bureau of Economic Research, along with Wei Huang, then a Harvard economics Ph.D. candidate, examined the ethnic identity of the authors of 1.5 million scientific papers written between 1985 and 2008 using Thomson Reuters’s Web of Science, a comprehensive database of published research. They found that papers written by diverse groups receive more citations and have higher impact factors than papers written by people from the same ethnic group. Moreover, they found that stronger papers are associated with greater numbers of not only references but also author addresses—geographical diversity is a reflection of more intellectual diversity.

The Power of Anticipation

Diversity is not only about bringing different perspectives to the table. Simply adding social diversity to a group makes people believe that differences of perspective might exist among them, and that belief makes people change their behavior.

Members of a homogeneous group rest somewhat assured that they will agree with one another, understand one another’s perspectives and beliefs, and be able to easily come to a consensus. But when members of a group notice that they are socially different from one another, they change their expectations. They anticipate differences of opinion and perspective. They assume they will need to work harder to come to a consensus. This logic helps to explain both the upside and the downside of social diversity: people work harder in diverse environments both cognitively and socially. They might not like it, but the hard work can lead to better outcomes.

In a 2006 study of jury decision-making, social psychologist Samuel Sommers of Tufts University found that racially diverse groups exchanged a wider range of information during deliberation about a sexual assault case than all-white groups did. In collaboration with judges and jury administrators in a Michigan courtroom, Sommers conducted mock jury trials with a group of real selected jurors. Although the participants knew the mock jury was a court-sponsored experiment, they did not know that the true purpose of the research was to study the impact of racial diversity on jury decision-making.

Sommers composed the six-person juries with either all white jurors or four white and two Black jurors. As you might expect, the diverse juries were better at considering case facts, made fewer errors recalling relevant information and displayed a greater openness to discussing the role of race in the case. These improvements did not necessarily happen because the Black jurors brought new information to the group—they happened because white jurors changed their behavior in the presence of the Black jurors. In the presence of diversity, they were more diligent and open-minded.

Group Exercise

Consider the following scenario: You are writing up a section of a paper for presentation at an upcoming conference. You are anticipating some disagreement and potential difficulty communicating because your collaborator is American and you are Chinese. Because of one social distinction, you may focus on other differences between yourself and that person, such as their culture, upbringing and experiences—differences that you would not expect from another Chinese collaborator. How do you prepare for the meeting? In all likelihood, you will work harder on explaining your rationale and anticipating alternatives than you would have otherwise.

This is how diversity works: by promoting hard work and creativity; by encouraging the consideration of alternatives even before any interpersonal interaction takes place. The pain associated with diversity can be thought of as the pain of exercise. You have to push yourself to grow your muscles. The pain, as the old saw goes, produces the gain. In just the same way, we need diversity—in teams, organizations and society as a whole—if we are to change, grow and innovate.

Cultural diversity drives innovation: empowering teams for success

International Journal of Innovation Science

ISSN : 1757-2223

Article publication date: 22 September 2020

Issue publication date: 1 October 2020

Though there is broad agreement on the beneficial impact of diversity in management and leadership roles, much of the innovative capacity of an organization is realized at the unit level in working teams. Recent research points to cultural diversity having an especially significant impact on innovation team performance. The reports also highlight the need for the optimal team operating principles to derive maximum benefit. To prepare such innovation teams for success, it is valuable to understand the dynamics of team diversity at the project level and the underlying barriers and opportunities presented.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper reviews the literature and case studies on cultural inputs to ideation and innovation, assessing team diversity through readily available instruments and the deployment of the science of team science (SciTS) principles in innovation teams.

The key learnings include the importance of establishing communication standards, SciTS principles, team assessment of thinking styles and the utility of cultural awareness instruments.

Practical implications

Diversity provides a creative advantage for innovation teams. However, team dynamics play an important role in maximizing these advantages, and cross-cultural competence of team members is required. Deployment of appropriate assessment tools and team methodologies enhances the likelihood of successful outcomes including in remote team settings.

Originality/value

Literature from diverse functional areas is summarized including the science of team science, organizational management, diversity and inclusion methodologies and ethnocultural dynamics. It provides pointers for the optimal formation and operating principles with highly culturally diverse teams.

  • Implementation
  • Team science

Jones, G. , Chirino Chace, B. and Wright, J. (2020), "Cultural diversity drives innovation: empowering teams for success", International Journal of Innovation Science , Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 323-343. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJIS-04-2020-0042

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Graham Jones, Bernardita Chirino Chace and Justin Wright.

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Introduction

Numerous studies confirm the positive impact of diversity at board level, executive leadership and managerial roles in organizations. In the case of innovation, in addition to strategic leadership, one must of course consider the innovation process itself, which typically involves ideators and entrepreneurs from varied backgrounds who work in smaller teams driven by strategic goals ( Nelson, 1991 ). Diversity of thought and approach are naturally assumed to be beneficial to the innovation process, which by its very nature thrives on creative tension and alternating viewpoints. Despite the potential to have a major influence on productivity and impact, relatively few dedicated studies have been reported on the links between diversity and innovation ( Joecks et al. , 2013 ). Factors to consider include, gender, cultural, ethnic, country of origin, geographic location and disciplinary diversity. Studies on gender diversity have modeled the performance impact of uniform, skewed, tilted and balanced groups, often assessed using the Blau index ( Blau, 1977 ). Although not specifically addressing innovative potential, there is overwhelming evidence that gender heterogeneous teams produce higher quality technical and scientific outputs ( Campbell et al. , 2013 ) but concerted engagement is also needed to realize these benefits fully within organizations ( Zheng, 2013 ). One study by the Boston Consulting Group modeled the impact of six components of diversity on innovation team performance (BCG, 2018). Conducted through a survey of >1,700 employees in 8 countries (Austria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Switzerland and the USA) the study examined perceptions of diversity components at management level (gender, age, the nation of origin, career path, industry background and education). Two features are noteworthy. First, a statistically significant correlation was observed between innovation performance and the diversity of management teams across all six diversity indicators (approximately 20% improvement in innovation revenues). Second, the most pronounced impact driver was the nation of origin of team members ( Table 1 ).

If substantiated, this has potentially far-reaching consequences in the pharmaceutical industry where numerous multinational corporations are headquartered around the globe, and routinely assemble and engage teams (both physically and remotely) from vast and highly diverse populations. The revelation even prompted the quote “for management teams there are few slam dunks in the business world – this is one of them” (BCG, 2018). The cultural dimensions uncovered in this survey have been the subject of other research. In an unrelated study, conducted through a survey of 500 corporate executives one in two respondents believed there exists a positive correlation between cultural diversity and innovation drivers ( Bertelsmann, 2018 ). Despite this admission, some 42% of respondents indicated that their organizations did not focus on hiring diverse workforces. The study goes on to conclude that the more varied an innovation team is in terms of country of origin the greater the impact. The authors ascribe this to employees with diverse backgrounds having specific cultural knowledge, which can be deployed to assess and solve problems in different ways, and they may also have a higher tolerance for taking risks. Caution is also signaled in that different cultural methods of interpretation and values can present challenges in team settings, as there exists the potential for misunderstanding among members. This underscores the importance of studying team dynamics to maximize potential and fully exploit the value of team diversity ( vide infra ). Accordingly, the impetus for assembling this review was to highlight studies, which assess the origins and impact of cultural diversity on innovation team performance, readily available instruments, which assess cultural contributions and tools which can be deployed to optimize team dynamics. Our focus area is on innovation teams and it is of course recognized that corporate innovation is guided by business drivers which may determine the composition, scope and success factors of any given team ( Nelson, 1991 ). Nonetheless, given the significance and implications of the subject matter across various industries (BCG, 2018) it is instructive to examine even in the most general sense.

Power distance index (PDI):

“The extent to which people expect and agree that power should be shared unequally.”

A higher degree signifies hierarchy is clearly established, a lower degree that people question authority.

Individualism vs collectivism (IDV):

“Degree to which society rewards individual versus collective action.”

Higher degrees, individualistic societies, emphasize the “I” versus the “we.”

Uncertainty avoidance (UAI):

“A society’s tolerance for ambiguity.”

A higher degree suggests societies, which opt for stiff codes of behavior, guidelines and laws.

Masculinity vs femininity (MAS):

“Societal preference for achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material rewards for success.”

Its counterpart values cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life.

Long-term orientation vs short-term orientation (LTO-STO):

“A societies’ connection of the past with the current and future actions/challenges.”

In high preference, LTO traditions are honored, whereas in STO adaptation is viewed as a necessity.

Indulgence vs restraint (IND):

“Degree of freedom societal norms afford to citizens in fulfilling their human desires.”

In its counterpart, society controls gratification and regulates by means of strict social nor.

Specimen dimensions data are presented for the six most populous nations in the world, plus Switzerland, highlighting the wide scoring ranges typically observed ( Figure 1 ). Implicit within the data are myriad dynamic factors including religious preferences, governmental structures, historical backgrounds, philosophical beliefs, coupled with socio-economic drivers e.g. education, health, poverty, incarceration rates, etc. Obviously, due caution and judgment need to be exercised when viewing such data, as individual choices, behaviors and attitudes that are contrary to those implied by the indices will be expected and stereotypes should be avoided. Additionally, great regional differences can exist within individual countries (e.g. the USA and Switzerland) and even cities (urban v suburban). It is also recognized that nations continually evolve – the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia into culturally distinct countries being a case in point. Moreover, individuals who live in different countries during their formative years would be expected to be influenced by the multiple environments and a single point of reference could be entirely misleading.

There is a negative relationship between power distance and innovation.

There is a negative relationship between uncertainty avoidance and innovation.

There is a positive relationship between individualism and innovation.

There is a negative relationship between masculinity and innovation.

Significantly, H1, H2 and H4 were supported by data regarding patenting intensity. In the case of H3 , though partially supported by data the authors concluded that the impact of family collectivism versus corporate collectivism complicated data sets, precluding a definitive outcome ( Kaasa and Vadi, 2010 ). The authors advance that a reliable link between cultural dimensions and patenting intensity does exist. Obviously, caution needs to be exercised using patents as a surrogate for innovation activity as decisions to pursue are complex undertakings, requiring significant capital investment, often describing inventions a long way prior to market introduction and which in some cases are used defensively ( Martínez-Piva, 2009 ). Nonetheless, they are generally accepted as one of several measures of performance at the so-called “fuzzy front end” of innovation or FFEI ( Gassmann and Schweitzer, 2014 ). Additional studies have examined the impact of culture on innovation ( Herbig and Dunphy, 1998 ), including national ( Shane, 1993 ) and multi-nation studies ( Dakhli and de Clercq, 2004 ), downward trends in cultural differences in Europe ( Gooderham and Nordhaug, 2002 ) and the impact of national networks ( Ahuja, 2000 ). Related work has mapped national culture correlations to two individual components of innovation, namely, the initiation and implementation phases ( Nakata and Sivakumar, 1996 ). For example, the contribution of individualism (ranked high in the USA) to the first, initiation stage of innovation can be understood (ideation and concept testing), as equally can be the value of collectivism (ranked high in Japan) to the second, implementation phase of innovation (product development and launch) which requires concerted, group effort. These studies are insightful, and, coupled with comparative re-assessments between Eastern and Western cultures ( Wu, 2006 ), have allowed researchers to correlate observed contributions to innovation with national propensities ( Smale, 2016 ).

Though understanding the drivers and proclivities of individual contributors is instructive, an obvious challenge lies in managing the dynamics of innovation teams to establish the most creative and productive environment. Studies suggest that published outputs from diverse teams are cited more frequently than from those with less heterogeneity, and the notion that ethnic diversity reflects idea diversity has been advanced ( Freeman and Huang, 2014 ). It has also been suggested that the management of teams with high cultural diversity may warrant special considerations within organizations ( Mannix and Neale, 2005 ). Accordingly, when capitalizing on opportunities imbued by cultural diversity in innovation teams, attention to cultural competence of assembled teams (cultural intelligence (CQ)) should also be studied, alongside traditional evaluative (EQ and IQ) measures.

Cross-cultural competence in innovation teams

Assembling teams who hail from a multitude of diverse cultural backgrounds is a routine occurrence in modern multinational corporations, and especially prevalent in the global pharmaceutical sector. Accordingly, a degree of cross-cultural awareness and competence could be considered a natural advantage to a team member. In addition to working within the team, cross-cultural competence could also be valuable for interactions external to the organization e.g. customers, suppliers, regulators and patients in the myriad markets the team is engaged in ( Ramalu et al. , 2010 ). For these reasons, it is logical that an assembled team considers the cultural awareness and competence (CQ) of its members ( Ang and van Dyne, 2008 ). Such insights could be reasoned to help the team establish itself and function more effectively, and would have added value within innovation teams. Creative tensions are expected and encouraged in such environments, and CQ competence could reduce the likelihood of any ad hominem behaviors by reducing potential misunderstandings and miscommunications which have cultural origins. These cultural touchpoints can range from subtle, interpersonal nuances through to organizational edicts and operating models and team members with experience would be able to mentor and socialize new colleagues. For example, when communicating decisions stemming from teams and units, in certain countries (e.g. India and Japan) they are sometimes pre-socialized in smaller groups to secure buy-in prior to formal announcements, whereas in others (e.g. the USA) external advisors are often engaged to make recommendations which are subsequently announced ( Gibson and Gibbs, 2006 ). Navigating these norms requires due diligence and skill, best gained from exposure to the cultural elements in person or through structured training. Even at the most basic level, conversational styles need to be mindful of cultural norms ( Ang and Van Dyne, 2008 ). For example, in some countries pauses in conversations are deliberate, injected to allow the parties to reflect upon and honor what was just said. Conversely, some cultures seem to promote the rapid exchange of conversational points as a sign of productivity and alignment (the USA is a good example). Accordingly, one needs to be mindful not to unintentionally show disrespect to a person based on the cadence of a conversation ( Fussell and Setlock, 2012 ). As diligent employees will no doubt be mindful of these issues in a global corporation, they can become of special significance for the effective functioning of culturally diverse teams. Another example can be observed in the way different cultures use facial expressions to communicate ( Barrett et al. , 2019 ). While in certain western countries an exaggerated smile may be offered to an individual to express welcoming and project a degree of confidence, in other countries it can be deemed inappropriate ( Coles et al. , 2019 ). Japanese business culture values humility and suppression of emotions to convey trust, and fewer emotions are communicated using the mouth (Stanford, 2016). Smiling at a stranger in other countries can be interpreted as a sign of stupidity, insanity, insincerity or even dishonesty ( Krys et al. , 2016 ). Likewise, the application of direct eye contact can be interpreted as a sign of confidence and respect in some countries whereas in others it can signal disrespect and insubordination, requiring cultural context and awareness ( Uono and Hietanen, 2015 ). In-depth studies have been conducted on the perceptions of facial expressions, including the so-called “Duchenne” smile and apparent disconnects between people’s self-reported degree of happiness and smile tendency ( Gunnery and Hall, 2014 ). It has also been determined that of a possible total of 16,384 possible facial configurations, only 35 are used to transmit emotive information across cultures and within these 8 are dominant in most cultures ( Srinivasan and Martínez, 2018 ). Correlations with the Hofstede cultural dimensions have also been explored. In countries with low scores on the uncertainty avoidance dimension (UAI) non smiling individuals were deemed as more intelligent ( Hareli and Hess, 2010 ), and second, in countries with high corruption indicators, smiling correlated with reduced levels of trust ( Ozono, 2010 ). Another crucial factor for team members relates to communication style ( Figure 2 ). Under the principles outlined by Hall ( Hall, 1977 ), individuals can be categorized as either direct or indirect communicators and there are cultural underpinnings for each ( Gudykunst and Ting-Toomey, 1988 ). Under this framework, direct communicators are seen to operate with a low situational context, with a high emphasis on actual words being spoken irrespective of any possible nuances ( Hall, 1977 ).

Conversely, an indirect communicator will place a high degree of context to the conditions under which words are spoken including tone, body language and what is not said in addition to spoken word ( Clyne et al. , 2009 ). Though most people function as a blend of the two, extreme differences between the two approaches can naturally lead to conflict or misunderstanding in team settings, e.g. where an email communication might be interpreted as blunt or obtuse by one member or straight to the point/not beating about the bush by others ( Management, 2014 ). The more culturally diverse the team, the more important it becomes to understand each member preferred communication styles, to the point of which guidelines may become appropriate ( Mayer and Bello, 2012 ). In an attempt to codify/quantitate our capacity to function effectively in culturally diverse settings, a cultural intelligence index or CQ has been developed ( Van Dyne et al. , 2012 ).

The cultural intelligence four-factor model

Metacognitive CQ, which represents a person’s consciousness and awareness of cultural cues during interactions with people from other cultural backgrounds. It has also been described as representing the processes we use to acquire and understand cultural knowledge.

Acquired through a combination of education and personal experience, cognitive CQ represents our level of competence of the conventions, practices and norms used in different cultural settings. This can include social systems and structures of other cultures and their value systems.

Motivational CQ assesses the level of interest and energy directed toward learning and functioning in situations characterized by cultural differences people with high motivational CQ express confidence in their personal cross-cultural effectiveness.

Behavioral CQ measures peoples’ ability to exhibit appropriate verbal and nonverbal behavior when interacting with people from different cultures. This may include, for example, the use of culturally appropriate words, tones, gestures and facial expressions.

Significantly within the context of this paper, a study of 73 teams with over 327 members revealed that high levels of CQ within multi-cultural teams had a positive benefits, equipping the teams to overcome numerous obstacles and potential barriers ( Moon, 2013 ). A number of scales and assessment modalities have been developed to gauge CQ competence, including the Intercultural Adjustment Potential Scale (ICAPS) ( Matsumoto et al. , 2001 ), the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) and the Intercultural Developmental Inventory (IDI) ( Matsumoto and Hwang, 2013 ). While the IDI is often deployed for individuals engaging on overseas assignments and the ICAPS for individuals in global leadership roles ( Rose et al. , 2010 ), the CQS is seen as a useful assessment for multicultural teams and has been studied globally with different audiences ( Ng et al. , 2009 ). Pioneered by the Cultural Intelligence Center in the USA, the assessment focuses on specific capabilities, namely, CQ drive (motivation), knowledge (cognition), strategy (metacognition) and action (behavior) ( Figure 3 ; SHRM, 2015 ).

Respondents receive an integrated assessment including the four key dimensions, and also personal orientation on a total of 10 culture value dimensions, which are compared against tendencies within the 10 largest cultural cluster groupings recognized globally as illustrated in Table 2 ( Jung, 1933 ; Pittenger, 1993 ). Outputs from the assessment consist of a scoring regimen (0–100 scale) for each of CQ drive, knowledge, strategy and action with 3 or 4 sub-categories in each grouping. A reference scale is provided against worldwide norms for each category and sub-category, recorded as low (bottom 25%), moderate (middle 50%) and high (top 25%). The assessment comes with a workbook allowing respondents to develop and deploy strategies and tactics to address low scoring areas.

The roots of the culture value dimensions used in the CQS assessment instrument have origins in other models, including the PDI, IDV, UAI and LTO indices advanced in the Hofstede analyzes. Though necessarily inexact based on personal circumstances, environment and beliefs, the value dimensions have been mapped against the major cultural clusters into high, medium and low tendencies based on analysis of published studies ( Ng et al. , 2009 ; SHRM, 2015 ). The mere suggestion of potential differences across the dimensions and the purported range of preferences serves to raise awareness of cross-cultural complexities which can factor into team dynamics and signals the importance of CQ knowledge ( Figure 4 ).

The relative contributions of the four CQ dimensions to work-related functions have been investigated and highlight distinct relationships between components. Through consistent patterns, metacognitive CQ and behavioral CQ predict task performance, metacognitive CQ and cognitive CQ predict both cultural judgment and decision-making ability and motivational CQ plus behavioral CQ predict cultural adaptation. Accordingly, CQS assessment would seem particularly useful for members of newly formed culturally diverse teams, and for individuals relocating to a new (cultural) environment ( Ang et al. , 2007 ). More recent studies have attempted to correlate relationships between CQ and individual personality traits ( Lievens et al. , 2003 ). The prevailing taxonomy on human personality is commonly referred to as the “Big Five” model ( Murugesan and Jayavelu, 2017 ).

The big five model of personality

Extraversion (sociable, assertive, ambitious).

Agreeableness (friendly, trusting, cooperative).

Conscientiousness (responsible, organized, dependable).

Emotional stability (control, calm, secure).

Openness to experience (imaginative, inquiring, artistic).

As the Big Five model has been validated across cultures, there is a natural interest in associations between individual factors and the “four factors” of CQ dimensionality. Based on a number of studies in different settings, relationships have been correlated which allow connections between personality and cultural competence to be made ( Ang et al. , 2006 ). Such has far-reaching consequences, given the expanding diversity and mobility of the global workforce and may have special connotations within innovation teams ( Elenkov and Manev , 2008, 2009 ). Research has also been conducted to validate the correlations by studying team coaches ( Devin, 2017 ).

Conscientiousness and metacognitive CQ.

Agreeableness and emotional stability with behavioral CQ.

Extraversion with cognitive, motivational and behavioral CQ.

Openness with all four factors of CQ.

Assessing the composition of teams

The majority of projects conducted in the pharmaceutical industry are through divisional channels with personnel who were hired based on specific skill sets. Teams within these sub-organizations (often called line functions) will be pre-formed and ready to deploy or will assemble then disassemble as needed as projects are identified. Considerable effort has been devoted to our understanding of team dynamics and the contributions of individual members through the assessment of personality traits and modes of engagement. The origins of personality typing date back to the Greco-Roman era with the description of the “four temperaments” by Hippocrates (c.460–c.370 BC). According to this proto-psychological theorem, four medical determinants (sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic temperaments) were assigned as personalities based on the relative prevalence of bodily fluids and the possibility of mixed categories advanced were personality types overlapped ( Merenda, 1987 ). Some 2,300 years later, application of personality classification and typing became of prime importance in the post-industrialized business world where tasks began to involve diverse teams of workers. One of the most widely used assessment tools is the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) which is designed to highlight specific personality factors, which may influence behavior in a team ( Jung, 1933 ). Based on the theories of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung the instrument provides an assessment of individuals’ preferred stances within team environments, with binary categorization in terms of attitudes ( I ntrovert/ E xtrovert), lifestyle ( J udging/ P erceiving) and functions ( S ensing/ I ntuition and T hinking/ F eeling) ( Pittenger, 1993 ). The various combinations of tetrads (16 total) are assigned monikers which serve as terms of reference for the individual and team members who will interact with the person ( Table 3 ). Of interest to innovation communities, it is suggested that Apple CEO Steve Jobs was an ENTJ (“Field Marshall”), Albert Einstein INTP (“Architect”) and Thomas Edison an ENTP (“Inventor”).

In terms of diversity elements, based on an analysis in >30 countries all of the type preferences (E/I, S/N, T/F and J/P) have been observed in each culture studied, however, distribution of the 16 types differ across cultures but retain patterns within these cultures. Across all cultures, (X)STJ is the predominant triad and men in each culture typically respond for T (c.f. F) at rates ranging from 10–25% higher than for female respondents ( Seegmiller and Epperson, 1987 ). Jung’s work also extended to the related DISC assessment tool, which scrutinizes four areas of behavior, namely, D ominance (in approach to problem-solving), I nfluence (approach to people), S teadiness (pace and attitude to change) and C ompliance (procedures, standards) ( Jones and Hartley, 2013 ).

Another popular assessment tool is the team roles system introduced by Belbin (2010) . The instrument is derived from analysis of clusters of behaviors and skills that are required to produce team results and is embodied in a total of nine teams “roles” which stem from three centricities, namely, thinking, action and people-oriented ( Table 4 ).

Belbin role assessment allows team members to identify their preferred roles in a team and also uncover inherent strengths, which they may be unaware of. Though no concrete correlations between the MBTI and Belbin system are evident, the use of the former to gain insight to personality factors and the latter for behavioral pointers has been advocated for effective team building ( Higgs, 1996 ). Although the Belbin and MBTI assessments provide useful pointers for the assembly and successful working of cross-functional teams, for innovation-centric programs the Four Sight Thinking Profile has gained popularity. Its basis is that four fundamental forms of thinking roles are used in creative processes (clarification, ideation, development and implementation) and the relative preferences for each allow categorization for team building ( Bratsberg, 2012 ). Team members develop a chart, plotting high and low preferences for each of the four categories, providing a holistic view on preferences and proclivities that the individual and team can use ( Figure 5 ). For individuals with a single high preference (against statistical means), they are assigned a designation from one of the four categories. Individuals with two or three high preferences are designated into sub-categories and were equivalent in all four categories, as an integrator ( Figure 6 ).

Similarly to other evaluative instruments, the Four Sight program provides participants guidance on the best mode of interaction with colleagues in each of the 15 possible categories, which can be pivotal for team building. For example, it is suggested that ideators who are often regarded as “spontaneous,” “imaginative” and “adventurous” should be afforded “constant stimulation,” “variety and change” and “scope to dream” by other teams members. Equally importantly, the instrument points to areas where ideators may cause friction for the team e.g. by drawing attention to themselves, being impatient or too abstract, allowing them to modify their approach. The utility of the instrument for innovation teams is underscored by the fact that two of the preferences (ideator, implementer) map directly to the two phases of innovation (initiation, implementation). In terms of relationships with other assessment tools, the communicating author recorded high preference as a driver under Four Sight, typed as ENTJ ( Field Marshall ) with Myers-Briggs and shaper with Belbin, suggesting action-oriented roles in all three.

While MBTI, Belbin and Four Sight represent assessment tools useful for team assembly and functioning, some other more reflective team profiles have also been advanced including the 9 innovation team personality types articulated by the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation ( Figure 7 ) ( Van Wulfen, 2009 ). It is easy to recognize and identify with some of these characters, and many will map onto Belbin and MBTI profiles readily. In a similar vein and with a degree of comedic interpretation (inspired by characters in a children’s book series), in their award-winning innovation text The Corporate Startup , Viki, Toma and Gons identify eight innovation characters/caricatures which allow people to relate to Viki et al. (2017) . Though certain team members may naturally exude one such persona it is also an interesting proposition to have team members deliberately adopt one for the purposes of role-play discussion or order that all viewpoints represented by the characters are articulated and appreciated.

No discussion of team roles would be complete without mention of de Bono’s six hats ( Table 5 ). The so-called six thinking hats model is a tool to promote parallel then lateral thinking in groups and teams. Each imaginary hat ascribes a designated mindset of an individual, and discussions are choreographed by the wearer of the blue hat, who is the group/team controller ( Kivunja, 2015 ). On socializing the particular topic for discussion, the white hat bearer seeks to clarify information, the red hat bearer delivers an emotional response, the yellow hat bearer positive elements, the black hat bearer cautions and concerns and the green hat bearer creative opportunities. This can be an effective tool for entire teams to adopt a single hat/thinking mode (with the exception of blue which is singular) to align on parallel thinking and then be assigned assorted hats for lateral thinking. The added benefit of this approach is that if conducted with random assignments, individuals may be forced to act outside their comfort zones, promoting personal growth and empathy for team members with differing natural preferences.

The science of developing diverse innovation teams: the science of team science

Forming : The team is established using either a top-down or bottom-up approach.

Storming: Team members establish roles and responsibilities. This can often be the onset of turf battles as persons from diverse backgrounds exchange views through a combination of dialog and debate. If the pressure to reach consensus prematurely is avoided, this phase can be particularly creative as the full team is more likely to input.

Norming: Team members begin to work together effectively and efficiently, start to develop trust and comfort with one another and learn they can rely on each other.

Performing: The team works together seamlessly, focuses on a shared goal and efficiently resolves issues or problems that emerge.

Teams may come to a natural end. The team’s dissolution should be celebrated and the accomplishments recognized and rewarded.

The team may take on a new project with a new goal, applying its ability to work together to solve a new problem.

Absence of trust.

Fear of conflict.

Lack of commitment.

Avoidance of accountability.

Inattention to results.

Within these, fear of conflict is often seen as the most pervasive and insurmountable issue. On any challenging project, the team will be continually exchanging viewpoints from differing perspectives and vulnerability and trust are key issues that need to be addressed. Individuals have widely differing approaches to conflict resolution, and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument was developed to help team members identify their most natural style. The five styles categorized are, namely, competing, accommodating, avoiding, collaborating and compromising ( Thomas and Kilmann, 1974 ). Another key success factor for teams is to understand and navigate the boundaries of dialog and debating schemas ( Table 6 ). As articulated by Berman, very different drivers are associated with each and recognizing these behaviors upfront can allow a team to steer clear of potential conflict forming activities ( Berman et al. , 1997 ). Collectively, these SciTS learnings have been found to be equally applicable from fundamental through to translational research and have become recommended reading for any cross-functional and/or diverse team ( NIH, 2010 ).

Equipping innovation teams for success

The process of innovation has been described using a variety of terms, but within the context of the pharmaceutical industry, we refer to the ideation, design, initiation and subsequent implementation of novel scientific and technological approaches for the development of new products. Innovation within the industry is typically confined to a restricted number of products, which vary from company to company based on expertise, therapeutic areas and collaborative agreements and the products themselves can be either branded or generic. In the strictest sense, it has been argued that the business does not routinely engage in white space or open innovation and instead largely innovate in areas of competence and familiarity ( Nelson, 1991 ). However, from time to time there are groundbreaking advances that open new avenues in health-care and disrupt the industry e.g. life-saving gene therapies, CAR-T immunotherapies and drug-free all digital therapies which were introduced in the past few years alone. What is well understood within organizations, however, is that competition is ever-present and the discovery, production and management of new medications represents a global challenge that requires continuous forms of innovation throughout the organization. For this reason, organizations study the structure, formation, operation and performance of teams very closely to derive maximum benefit. Measuring the outputs of innovation within a team can sometimes be challenging given the incubation period for marketed products can often exceed a decade, by which time a team’s composition will have changed many times. Another more focused approach to innovation within the industry can be to deliberately establish designated innovation teams assigned to tackle specific problems rapidly. In this case, there is a degree of control that can be exerted in the selection of the team, and it is commonly recognized that the diversity of the team (across multiple dimensions) leads to myriad benefits. Fortunately, the modern global pharmaceutical industry is blessed with a highly diverse workforce, making individual team diversity a routine expectation. Our interest and motivation behind the writing of this review are to begin to understand how aspects of team diversity benefit innovation teams. In this context we refer to teams, which have been assembled to execute on a project within a fixed time period, and where the expected outputs will include generation of new knowledge, reducing to practice a new process or product or development of proprietary principles. In each case, a metric could be a generation of a patentable idea, trade secret or publishable concept related to a product intended to enter the marketplace. The recent reports on the correlation between a team’s cultural diversity and higher innovation performance (BCG, 2018; Bertelsmann, 2018 ; Kaasa and Vadi, 2010 ) are intriguing and are readily relatable. Teams composed of members from diverse backgrounds may approach problems from different perspectives and have different tolerances for risk-taking, both of which are essential attributes needed in creative, innovative teams. A corollary exists, however, in that the more diverse the team, the more potential for culturally inspired misunderstandings to occur, which may be exacerbated under conditions where creative tensions are heightened and time constraints are omnipresent. Accordingly, it is likely that a study of dynamics and operating principles can benefit the entire team, and thus forms a substantial component of this review. Equally importantly, many scientists and engineers will be unaware of the cultural origins of different decision-making processes or communication preferences which over time might be detrimental to the team. For teams established over a long period, it could be expected that members learn each other’s preferences, proclivities and idiosyncrasies which attenuates the potential for conflict. In contrast, a freshly formed culturally diverse (innovation) team might need to adapt very quickly, underscoring the need for active assessment and coaching during the onboarding process.

Many of the excellent tools and approaches described herein can provide key learnings for teams and offer unique perspectives tailored to individual circumstances. Through a series of systematic evaluations of the tools and instruments described herein, our internal innovation program selected the CQS assessment, FourSight preference and SciTS framework for deployment in innovation teams ( Jones et al. , 2020 ). They are being made available to all newly formed teams, actively supported by coaches who are versed in deploying their learnings in mentoring activities and initial results are encouraging ( Jones et al. , 2020 ). The formation and normalizing of an innovation team represent two important phases in its development, but it is also imperative that the team’s operating principles are appropriate. For any innovation team, openness, trust, candor and psychological safety are pre-requisites for success and to monitor the health of the team an anonymous/confidential scorecard tool is advocated ( Figure 8 ). Adapted from SciTS principles, this is used to record progress or signal advanced warnings at specific intervals during the project, allowing intervention by the assigned coach if necessary ( Jones et al. , 2020 ). Aggregate analyzes from these surveys (issued with regular frequency) are shared with teams with emphasis placed on driving to full inclusivity for all team members. We believe with these guidance teams have the maximum chances of success and a framework is in place to monitor impact over extended periods and multiple cycles. We intend to report the long term findings and implications from these studies in due course ( Jones et al. , 2020 ).

Conclusions and implications

A considerable body of literature supports the notion that cultural diversity in teams correlates with improved innovation performance. Creative tensions in these teams need to be managed appropriately and numerous excellent instruments and strategies are available to leaders. Ideally, these should include cultural assessment (awareness and competence), team dynamics (individual and team integration) and inclusive and transparent operating principles grounded in team science methodology. Systematic analysis using appropriately powered studies and controls will ultimately help quantitate the impact of various components in innovation teams and across programs, although initial observations from our internal innovation program are encouraging ( Jones et al. , 2020 ). Such learnings could then be used to inform and guide team development and ultimately allow correlation of diversity elements with predictive outcome metrics. The high levels of cultural diversity in the global pharmaceutical industry make it ideally suited to study these key topics. Another principle to study is whether the behaviors learned in diverse innovation teams are then transferred to new teams that the individuals participate in. Equally interesting is to study whether diverse, established teams diminish their innovative capacity over time due to a normalization process. This could lead to the concept of regular rotations through different teams helping maximize the impact and learnings. With the steady globalization of industries and the increasingly diverse workforce, studies of this nature can play an important role in the success of innovation programs. Scientists, engineers and technologists may seldom read the social science or management literature, but the availability of intuitive tools and instruments to empower their teams to success will ensure continual progress is made. Finally, successful adaptation to remote working conditions mandated by social distancing requires consideration of intra- and inter-team dynamics and the learnings can provide additional benefit for innovation teams operating virtually for extended periods.

1 how does diversity encourage innovation and problem solving

Cultural Dimension maps for the six most populous nations plus Switzerland

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Cultural Relationships to Communication Preferences proposed by Hall ( 1977 )

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Components of the CQS Profile developed by the Cultural Intelligence Center

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A total of 10 culture value dimensions used in CQS assessment

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Specimen Four Sight thinking preferences plot

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The 15 Four Sight Thinking Profiles

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Hypothetical Team Characters from the Mayo Clinic CFI (left) and The Corporate Startup (right)

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Team Performance and Inclusivity Tracking Tool

% Leadership team appointments needed to effect a 1% increase in innovation revenue

The 10 largest cultural groupings globally

The 16 Myers-Briggs type indicators

The nine Belbin team roles

The six hats of de Bono

The dialog and debating schemas articulated by Berman (Berman et al. , 1977)

Ahuja , G. ( 2000 ), “ Collaboration networks, structural holes, and innovation: a longitudinal study ”, Administrative Science Quarterly , Vol. 45 No. 3 , pp. 425 - 455 .

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Further reading

De Abreu Dos Reis , C.R. , Sastre Castillo , M.Á. and Roig Dobón , S. ( 2007 ), “ Diversity and business performance: 50 years of research ”, Service Business , Vol. 1 , p. 257 .

Novartis ( 2020 ), available at: www.fastcompany.com/company/novartis .

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Elena Rodriguez, Anastacia Awad, Ivonna Demme, Nancy Long, Christian Pihlgren, Unmesh Deodhar, Rahul Sharma and Clara Fernandez de Castro for inputs on the manuscript.

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1 how does diversity encourage innovation and problem solving

  • Product Inclusion Leadership

How to enable creativity and innovation: Work with diverse teams in an inclusive culture

Editor's note: This story originally appeared on our partner site,  Think with Google ; each month, Accelerate teams up with Think to offer fresh content that shows the value of seeking growth through inclusive business models and product design. In this opinion piece, Professor David Slocum , academic director at Rare, a Google platform that enables underrepresented talent to thrive and businesses to drive more inclusive cultures, shares practical tips for other organizations who seek to do the same.

Homogenous teams produce homogenous outcomes. But diverse teams, built around different perspectives, experiences, and sets of skills, enable creativity and innovation. And that leads to better products and more meaningful marketing campaigns.

The good news is that most of us in creative industries know this by now. The harder part, though, is putting that understanding and commitment consistently into practice. I've worked with hundreds of creative leaders as they aim to go beyond “talking the talk” of values to “walking the walk” of meaningful change, and improving inclusion and diversity in their workplace.

And here's what I've learned: it's really easy to have great intentions and to know all the reasons why they should do more. It’s even easy to draft insightful action plans and make gestures like one-off trainings. It's much harder to change people’s habitual ways of seeing others, and the behaviors that enable them to respect diversity and make their teams and companies more inclusive. That's why we all have to keep sharing what's working, what's not, and how to make that learning live.

We at Rare work to drive change by sharing tangible tools, thought leadership, and proven practices. Our approach is grounded in decades of research and experience that marketers, no matter the industry, can benefit from.

Abandon trade-off thinking

Hiring diverse employees has always been a challenge, considering the urgent need to fill positions. But it also presents leaders with an opportunity to go beyond traditional trade-off thinking. Rather than rejecting the longer time period often required to recruit and hire diverse candidates, leaders should focus on the benefits those candidates bring to an organization.

While there’s no perfect formula, transparent leadership, a commitment to organizational strategies, and thoughtful hiring practices can create meaningful change. Here, I'll share some concrete strategies that we’ve seen work well in practice in the industry.

10 ways to hire diverse talent

- Collaborate with universities and external affinity organizations (for example, SheSays , Creative Equals , The Future Is ND ) to determine how to shape job searches and target appropriate D&I candidates.

- Conduct deliberate outreach to diverse networks and individuals across industries to identify the actual talent.

- Expand points of entry within your company with paid internships, contractors, and rotational programs.

- Standardize evaluation criteria and use specific measures across candidate screening systems. For example, Deloitte Canada uses a system called “extreme recruiting” in which the company sources and assesses candidates differently for different roles, and acknowledges cultural and generational differences.

- Upgrade from the applicant tracking systems of a decade ago to emerging candidate assessment tools, integrating social media, machine learning, and increased analytics capabilities.

- Remove biased language from job descriptions, application materials, and interviews. For example, use gender-neutral terms, and only list the skills required for the job rather than ideal candidate descriptors like, “positive attitude” or “team-oriented,” which can unintentionally invite bias.

- Ask for employee feedback on job descriptions and at other stages in the application, screening, and onboarding processes.

- Identify individual traits or skills that cause candidates to fail and examine ways to address them. For example, provide post-hiring English language support for otherwise strong candidates.

- Establish partnerships across human resources and communications functions within your company to ensure processes are shaped by a clear and consistent prioritization of diversity.

- Create “innovation portfolios” — evolving toolkits for recruitment, hiring, and retention — to support action-taking for different demographics and functions. Allow for experimentation and learning.

Re-design your culture

Hiring is only half the equation. Retention efforts are important, too. For the diverse individuals and teams that do make it into a company’s ranks, a host of issues can arise: unconscious bias, microaggressions, exclusion, and discrimination in the workplace. Which means great talent often ends up driven out of the industry.

In a  2017 Deloitte study , 23% of respondents indicated they left their organizations for more inclusive ones. That’s expensive. Replacing an employee costs more than one-fifth of their salary, on average. And the loss of talent can be an even bigger blow in terms of the creative cost.

Changing mindsets and habitual behaviors, that is, changing culture, is the way to embed diversity into how we do business. It requires (re)designing work processes and behaviors, maximizing the ability of diverse individuals to contribute, and enabling everyone to establish new habits.

10 ways to retain diverse talent

- Understand who your employees are through segmented survey assessments, independently facilitated focus groups, or one-on-one talks. Then understand the obstacles to supporting their inclusion through things like barrier analysis and culture research.

- Set inclusion targets; then track and share results. Train mid-level leaders in fostering inclusion, and then hold them accountable.

- Identify concrete engagement points for senior leaders. For example, foster listening, feedback, and storytelling sessions, and solidify executive sponsorships of employee groups.

- Upgrade mentorship to include sponsorship of and reverse mentoring by employees from diverse groups. Create formal sponsorship networks to help diverse community members navigate the organization.

- Support and empower employee resource groups to leverage and distribute learning and development opportunities. For example, encourage them to  develop diversity and inclusion playbooks that include not-so-frequently-asked questions.

- Institutionalize consistent, structured feedback processes for performance and promotion reviews. Train managers in providing feedback to individuals who may suffer from imposter syndrome, stereotype threat, or backlash avoidance.

- Ensure unconscious bias and inclusive mindset training are based on the latest research and best practices. These should be part of a coherent series of engagements, and drive both greater awareness and action-taking.

- Institute gender-neutral parental leave policies, including supporting reintegration through formal return-to-work programs.

- Pursue pay equity and make efforts, status, and outcomes transparent.

- Embed diversity and inclusion goals and efforts into overall strategic and operational conversations. For example, include employees in organizational decision-making, make those efforts visible, and share ongoing progress and challenges.

Diversity helps build relevance, engagement

Leaders won’t always get it right, and we need to allow for failure.

But competition for diverse talent only increases. And organizations who successfully foster a culture of diversity and inclusion will be best positioned to hire and retain diverse teams, ultimately making their companies more relevant and their employees more engaged. Drawing from a line by Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella at the World Economic Forum earlier this year, “the business case for diversity is as straightforward as it ever was. It’s time now to act.”

Photograph by Creative Theory

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  • NATURE INDEX
  • 07 December 2022

Diversity and inclusion is a must to make innovation work for all

1 how does diversity encourage innovation and problem solving

  • Marte C. W. Solheim 0

Marte C. W. Solheim is head of the Stavanger Centre for Innovation Research, University of Stavanger Business School, Norway.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

A decade ago, I was working in Norway’s maritime industry as a communications adviser, and I noticed how diverse the workforce was, with a large number of highly skilled foreign-born workers. It became obvious how they could contribute to innovation in many ways, for example, through their unique position to boost their employers’ international presence by helping to secure contracts with businesses in their countries of origin.

Many studies have also described the benefits of a diverse workforce. The commonly painted picture is that a diverse workforce improves creativity, complex problem solving and innovation thanks to a collection of different views. Yet the foreign-born workers I have studied often feel excluded. I learnt when I was a communications adviser about the potential that diversity can offer, and the lost opportunities caused by work cultures that don’t recognize this. In the knowledge economy, success depends on bringing in diverse perspectives and making use of them.

It’s easy to see how diversity is connected to innovation. After all, innovation is a social process whereby a problem is solved in a new and creative way, and it often happens when different ways of thinking collide. Research has suggested, however, that although diversity does bring new perspectives and ideas, it’s not always plain sailing. It takes effort to create a culture in which people feel they will be taken seriously if they suggest a new way of doing things. If that doesn’t happen, it can lead to a less-than-harmonious workplace where people feel ostracized and pigeon-holed.

1 how does diversity encourage innovation and problem solving

Nature Index 2022 Innovation

Public attitudes are equally important. In recent years this has become especially salient as discourse around diversity has shifted. In a 2022 paper, my co-author and I highlighted how anti-immigration stances have become more acceptable and more mainstream ( S. M. Moss and M. C. W. Solheim Human Arenas 5 , 488–508; 2022 ). There is a risk of such thinking seeping into the workplace. Firms can only gain a competitive advantage through increased diversity if they reject this premise and integrate the knowledge and expertise of their employees in meaningful ways. This needs to be an active process.

In a 2021 paper, researchers examined the willingness of white participants to follow the example of Black participants in solving a puzzle ( S. S. Levine et al. Sci. Adv. 7 , eabg9508; 2021 ). White participants often presumed that their Black peers were less competent and thus failed to learn from Black participants’ experience. The researchers then tested two exercises to try to change this. In the first intervention, white participants were told about the prior successes of Black participants in solving the puzzles. That did improve how the white participants rated the skills of their Black colleagues, but it still didn’t remove their hesitancy to follow the examples set by Black participants. The second intervention had more success. When white participants observed the accomplishments of Black participants first-hand, it made them more likely to follow their lead.

Managers need to do more than just highlight the good work done by minority groups in the workplace; they should do as much as they can to make sure other employees are also witnessing their successes. This isn’t yet the norm, minorities often report that their contributions are undervalued. All employees must also feel confident that their attempts to innovate will be well received; in other words, people from different backgrounds need to be sure they will be genuinely listened to if they suggest doing things a different way.

There is no automatic relationship between diversity and innovation. Companies must develop a culture that fosters a creative and constructive dynamic between groups. This involves challenging established practices. Consider, for example, the rugby team in England that started doing ballet to increase their posture and reduce injury rates. They understood the importance of challenging convention.

The potential of a diverse workforce can be nurtured by a work culture in which employees feel it’s not the end of the world to fail. This concept is often called ‘psychological safety’ and I came across a example when I met the manager of a dairy company in Norway. He spoke about how he wanted to launch a Coca Cola-flavoured milk on to the market. It failed, but afterwards his company launched a museum of failed innovations. In doing so, he created a culture in which failure is acknowledged and celebrated as a natural part of trying.

Nature 612 , S11 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04205-2

This article is part of Nature Index 2022 Innovation , an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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Why Diverse Teams are More Creative: How Inclusion Leads to Innovation

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In a fast-changing world that demands innovative solutions to complex problems, we all know we need to work hard to stay ahead of the competition.

To encourage a thriving culture of creativity and innovation in our companies, one vital factor to manage is team composition. Diverse teams have consistently proven to be more creative and innovative. Why? Because diverse teams encompass a broad range of perspectives, backgrounds, and experience which in turn leads to better ideas.

I’ve seen it happen myself many times when we run our Creative Ideation Workshops . Delegates will show up with a thorny challenge that they’ve been struggling with for a while, but often within just a few minutes they will have a whole bunch of new ideas to consider.

It’s simple: People with different life experiences see the problem different ways – from the perspective of their knowledge, work, values and more. And that often leads to totally new ways to solve a problem.

In this blog post, we look at why diverse teams are more creative, how inclusion leads to innovation and what you can do to boost ideation through diversity in your team.

The Power of Diversity

  • Different Perspectives Diverse teams bring together individuals with varied backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. When people from different walks of life come together, they approach problems from unique angles and suggest novel solutions. This fusion of perspectives can lead to more innovative and effective problem-solving strategies.
  • Enhanced Problem Solving Research has shown that diverse teams are better at solving complex problems. They can process information more thoroughly and accurately, which helps them to identify critical issues and develop effective solutions. This is because diverse team members bring a wealth of knowledge and skills that can be harnessed for better decision-making.
  • Increased Creativity Diversity in a team can help spark new ideas and foster a more creative environment. When team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, ideas, and experiences, they are more likely to engage in open, honest discussions that lead to innovative thinking.
  • Reduced Groupthink Groupthink is a phenomenon where conformity within a group leads to poor decision-making. In diverse teams, the presence of different perspectives makes it less likely for groupthink to occur. This diversity fosters a culture of constructive criticism, leading to more informed, well-rounded decisions and ultimately less risk.

Inclusion: The Key to Harnessing Diversity

While diversity is essential for creativity and innovation, it is not enough by itself. Inclusion, which refers to creating an environment where every team member feels valued and respected, is a critical component in ensuring that diverse teams can fully realize their potential. Here are some ways to foster inclusion in the workplace:

  • Active Listening Encourage team members to actively listen to each other’s ideas, opinions, and perspectives. This helps to create an environment where everyone feels heard and respected, leading to increased collaboration and creative thinking.
  • Encourage Collaboration Create opportunities for team members to work together and collaborate on projects. This helps to break down barriers and allows team members to better understand each other’s strengths and perspectives.
  • Promote a Culture of Respect Establish a workplace culture that values and respects diverse backgrounds, experiences, and opinions. This can be achieved through consistent communication, clear expectations, and ongoing training and development programs.
  • Provide Equal Opportunities Ensure that all team members have access to the same opportunities for growth and development, regardless of their background or identity. This helps to create a level playing field and promotes a culture of inclusivity and innovation.

How to Get Started

So you’re convinced: Embracing diversity and fostering an inclusive environment are crucial steps toward building more creative and innovative teams. As leaders or managers, it’s essential for us to prioritize diversity and inclusion to unlock the full potential of our teams.

If you’re eager to get started, here are some solid, practical steps you can take:

  • Assess Your Current Situation As with anything in life, change starts with understanding where you are today. Begin by evaluating your team’s current situation. Study the demographics of your team and identify areas where you may be lacking diversity. This can include factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, age, and educational background. Also, consider conducting surveys or to gather insights on your team’s perceptions of inclusivity within the workplace.
  • Short-term Tactics When we run pizza-sized teams, it’s simply not possible to cover all aspects of diversity in a single team. So we need to tactics to help out. We recommend running regular ideation workshops . Bring teams together from across the organization with real problems to solve. Mix them up, then run through a set of structured ideation and innovation exercises. You’ll be amazed at the results you achieve.
  • Long-term Strategy Develop a plan to address diversity and inclusion challenges in your team. This includes setting the tone and reinforcing the importance of these values. Act as a role models and demonstrate inclusive behaviours in your day-to-day interactions with team members. When hiring for new team members consider how their addition to the team would aid your diversity strategy.
  • Monitor Progress and Iterate Like the heading says… measure the impact of your diversity and inclusion efforts, and then be prepared to adjust your strategy as needed. Use data to track progress against your objectives and take feedback from team members to identify where additional focus may be needed.

Remember that fostering an inclusive environment is an ongoing process that requires consistent effort and commitment. When team members from diverse backgrounds come together and feel valued and respected, they are more likely to contribute unique perspectives and ideas. When you get this right, you will find you are able to solve complex problems, drive innovation, and ultimately achieve greater success.

If you would like any help kick-starting your innovation and ideation processes, be sure to contact us for a chat.

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22 Working in Diverse Teams

Learning Objectives

  • Describe how diversity can enhance decision-making and problem-solving
  • Identify challenges and best practices for working with multicultural teams
  • Discuss divergent cultural characteristics and list several examples of such characteristics in the culture(s) you identify with

Decision-making and problem-solving can be much more dynamic and successful when performed in a diverse team environment. The multiple diverse perspectives can enhance both the understanding of the problem and the quality of the solution. Yet, working in diverse teams can be challenging given different identities, cultures, beliefs, and experiences. In this chapter, we will discuss the effects of team diversity on group decision-making and problem-solving, identify best practices and challenges for working in and with multicultural teams, and dig deeper into divergent cultural characteristics that teams may need to navigate.

Does Team Diversity Enhance Decision Making and Problem Solving?

In the Harvard Business Review article “Why Diverse Teams are Smarter,” David Rock and Heidi Grant (2016) support the idea that increasing workplace diversity is a good business decision. A 2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found that those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to have returns above the industry mean. Similarly, in a global analysis conducted by Credit Suisse, organizations with at least one female board member yielded a higher return on equity and higher net income growth than those that did not have any women on the board.

A photo shows a diverse team of business professionals working together on a laptop.

Additional research on diversity has shown that diverse teams are better at decision-making and problem-solving because they tend to focus more on facts, per the Rock and Grant article. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology showed that people from diverse backgrounds “might actually alter the behavior of a group’s social majority in ways that lead to improved and more accurate group thinking.” It turned out that in the study, the diverse panels raised more facts related to the case than homogeneous panels and made fewer factual errors while discussing available evidence. Another study noted in the article showed that diverse teams are “more likely to constantly reexamine facts and remain objective. They may also encourage greater scrutiny of each member’s actions, keeping their joint cognitive resources sharp and vigilant. By breaking up workforce homogeneity, you can allow your employees to become more aware of their own potential biases—entrenched ways of thinking that can otherwise blind them to key information and even lead them to make errors in decision-making processes.” In other words, when people are among homogeneous and like-minded (non-diverse) teammates, the team is susceptible to groupthink and may be reticent to think about opposing viewpoints since all team members are in alignment. In a more diverse team with a variety of backgrounds and experiences, the opposing viewpoints are more likely to come out and the team members feel obligated to research and address the questions that have been raised. Again, this enables a richer discussion and a more in-depth fact-finding and exploration of opposing ideas and viewpoints in order to solve problems.

Diversity in teams also leads to greater innovation. A Boston Consulting Group article entitled “The Mix that Matters: Innovation through Diversity” explains a study in which they sought to understand the relationship between diversity in managers (all management levels) and innovation (Lorenzo et al., 2017). The key findings of this study show that:

  • The positive relationship between management diversity and innovation is statistically significant—and thus companies with higher levels of diversity derive more revenue from new products and services.
  • The innovation boost isn’t limited to a single type of diversity. The presence of managers who are either female or are from other countries, industries, or companies can cause an increase in innovation.
  • Management diversity seems to have a particularly positive effect on innovation at complex companies—those that have multiple product lines or that operate in multiple industry segments.
  • To reach its potential, gender diversity needs to go beyond tokenism. In the study, innovation performance only increased significantly when the workforce included more than 20% women in management positions. Having a high percentage of female employees doesn’t increase innovation if only a small number of women are managers.
  • At companies with diverse management teams, openness to contributions from lower-level workers and an environment in which employees feel free to speak their minds are crucial for fostering innovation.

When you consider the impact that diverse teams have on decision-making and problem-solving—through the discussion and incorporation of new perspectives, ideas, and data—it is no wonder that the BCG study shows greater innovation. Team leaders need to reflect upon these findings during the early stages of team selection so that they can reap the benefits of having diverse voices and backgrounds.

Challenges and Best Practices for Working with Multicultural Teams

As globalization has increased over the last decades, workplaces have felt the impact of working within multicultural teams. The earlier section on team diversity outlined some of the highlights and benefits of working on diverse teams, and a multicultural group certainly qualifies as diverse. However, there are some key practices that are recommended to those who are leading multicultural teams so that they can parlay the diversity into an advantage and not be derailed by it.

People may assume that communication is the key factor that can derail multicultural teams, as participants may have different languages and communication styles. In the Harvard Business Review article “Managing Multicultural Teams,” Brett et al. (2006) outline four key cultural differences that can cause destructive conflicts in a team. The first difference is direct versus indirect communication, also known as high-context vs. low-context communication . Some cultures are very direct and explicit in their communication, while others are more indirect and ask questions rather than pointing our problems. This difference can cause conflict because, at the extreme, the direct style may be considered offensive by some, while the indirect style may be perceived as unproductive and passive-aggressive in team interactions.

The second difference that multicultural teams may face is trouble with accents and fluency. When team members don’t speak the same language, there may be one language that dominates the group interaction—and those who don’t speak it may feel left out. The speakers of the primary language may feel that those members don’t contribute as much or are less competent. The next challenge is when there are differing attitudes toward hierarchy. Some cultures are very respectful of the hierarchy and will treat team members based on that hierarchy. Other cultures are more egalitarian and don’t observe hierarchical differences to the same degree. This may lead to clashes if some people feel that they are being disrespected and not treated according to their status. The final difference that may challenge multicultural teams is conflicting decision-making norms. Different cultures make decisions differently, and some will apply a great deal of analysis and preparation beforehand. Those cultures that make decisions more quickly (and need just enough information to make a decision) may be frustrated with the slow response and relatively longer thought process.

These cultural differences are good examples of how everyday team activities (decision-making, communication, interaction among team members) may become points of contention for a multicultural team if there isn’t adequate understanding of everyone’s culture. The authors propose that there are several potential interventions to try if these conflicts arise. One simple intervention is adaptation , which is working with or around differences. This is best used when team members are willing to acknowledge the cultural differences and learn how to work with them. The next intervention technique is structural intervention , or reorganizing to reduce friction on the team. This technique is best used if there are unproductive subgroups or cliques within the team that need to be moved around. Managerial intervention is the technique of making decisions by management and without team involvement. This technique is one that should be used sparingly, as it essentially shows that the team needs guidance and can’t move forward without management getting involved. Finally, exit is an intervention of last resort, and is the voluntary or involuntary removal of a team member. If the differences and challenges have proven to be so great that an individual on the team can no longer work with the team productively, then it may be necessary to remove the team member in question.

Developing Cultural Intelligence

There are some people who seem to be innately aware of and able to work with cultural differences on teams and in their organizations. These individuals might be said to have cultural intelligence . Cultural intelligence  is a competency and a skill that enables individuals to function effectively in cross-cultural environments. It develops as people become more aware of the influence of culture and more capable of adapting their behavior to the norms of other cultures. In the IESE Insight article entitled “Cultural Competence: Why It Matters and How You Can Acquire It,” Lee and Liao (2015) assert that “multicultural leaders may relate better to team members from different cultures and resolve conflicts more easily. Their multiple talents can also be put to good use in international negotiations.” Multicultural leaders don’t have a lot of “baggage” from any one culture, and so are sometimes perceived as being culturally neutral. They are very good at handling diversity, which gives them a great advantage in their relationships with teammates.

In order to help people become better team members in a world that is increasingly multicultural, there are a few best practices that the authors recommend for honing cross-cultural skills. The first is to “broaden your mind”—expand your own cultural channels (travel, movies, books) and surround yourself with people from other cultures. This helps to raise your own awareness of the cultural differences and norms that you may encounter. Another best practice is to “develop your cross-cultural skills through practice” and experiential learning. You may have the opportunity to work or travel abroad—but if you don’t, then getting to know some of your company’s cross-cultural colleagues or foreign visitors will help you to practice your skills. Serving on a cross-cultural project team and taking the time to get to know and bond with your global colleagues is an excellent way to develop skills.

Once you have a sense of the different cultures and have started to work on developing your cross-cultural skills, another good practice is to “boost your cultural metacognition” and monitor your own behavior in multicultural situations. When you are in a situation in which you are interacting with multicultural individuals, you should test yourself and be aware of how you act and feel. Observe both your positive and negative interactions with people, and learn from them. Developing “ cognitive complexity ” is the final best practice for boosting multicultural skills. This is the most advanced, and it requires being able to view situations from more than one cultural framework. In order to see things from another perspective, you need to have a strong sense of emotional intelligence, empathy, and sympathy, and be willing to engage in honest communications.

In the Harvard Business Review article “Cultural Intelligence,” Earley and Mosakowski (2004) describe three sources of cultural intelligence that teams should consider if they are serious about becoming more adept in their cross-cultural skills and understanding. These sources, very simply, are head, body, and heart . One first learns about the beliefs, customs, and taboos of foreign cultures via the head . Training programs are based on providing this type of overview information—which is helpful, but obviously isn’t experiential. This is the cognitive component of cultural intelligence. The second source, the body , involves more commitment and experimentation with the new culture. It is this physical component (demeanor, eye contact, posture, accent) that shows a deeper level of understanding of the new culture and its physical manifestations. The final source, the heart , deals with a person’s own confidence in their ability to adapt to and deal well with cultures outside of their own. Heart really speaks to one’s own level of emotional commitment and motivation to understand the new culture.

The authors have created a quick assessment to diagnose cultural intelligence, based on these cognitive, physical, and emotional/motivational measures (i.e., head, body, heart). Please refer to the table below for a short diagnostic that allows you to assess your cultural intelligence.

Cultural intelligence is an extension of emotional intelligence. An individual must have a level of awareness and understanding of the new culture so that he or she can adapt to the style, pace, language, nonverbal communication, etc. and work together successfully with the new culture. A multicultural team can only find success if its members take the time to understand each other and ensure that everyone feels included. Multiculturalism and cultural intelligence are traits that are taking on increasing importance in the business world today. By following best practices and avoiding the challenges and pitfalls that can derail a multicultural team, a team can find great success and personal fulfillment well beyond the boundaries of the project or work engagement.

Digging in Deeper: Divergent Cultural Dimensions

Let’s dig in deeper by examining several points of divergence across cultures and consider how these dimensions might play out in organizations and in groups or teams.

Hofstede's cultural dimensions theory. Comparison of 4 countries: US, China, Germany and Brazil in all 6 dimensions of the model.

Low-Power versus High-Power Distance

How comfortable are you with critiquing your boss’s decisions? If you are from a low-power distance culture, your answer might be “no problem.” In low-power distance cultures , according to Dutch researcher Geert Hofstede, people relate to one another more as equals and less as a reflection of dominant or subordinate roles, regardless of their actual formal roles as employee and manager, for example.

In a high-power distance culture , you would probably be much less likely to challenge the decision, to provide an alternative, or to give input. If you are working with people from a high-power distance culture, you may need to take extra care to elicit feedback and involve them in the discussion because their cultural framework may preclude their participation. They may have learned that less powerful people must accept decisions without comment, even if they have a concern or know there is a significant problem. Unless you are sensitive to cultural orientation and power distance, you may lose valuable information.

Individualistic versus Collectivist Cultures

People in individualistic cultures  value individual freedom and personal independence, and cultures always have stories to reflect their values. You may recall the story of Superman, or John McLean in the Diehard series, and note how one person overcomes all obstacles. Through personal ingenuity, in spite of challenges, one person rises successfully to conquer or vanquish those obstacles. Sometimes there is an assist, as in basketball or football, where another person lends a hand, but still the story repeats itself again and again, reflecting the cultural viewpoint.

When Hofstede explored the concepts of individualism and collectivism across diverse cultures (Hofstede, 1982, 2001, 2005), he found that in individualistic cultures like the United States, people perceived their world primarily from their own viewpoint. They perceived themselves as empowered individuals, capable of making their own decisions, and able to make an impact on their own lives.

Cultural viewpoint is not an either/or dichotomy, but rather a continuum or range. You may belong to some communities that express individualistic cultural values, while others place the focus on a collective viewpoint. Collectivist cultures  (Hofstede, 1982), including many in Asia and South America, focus on the needs of the nation, community, family, or group of workers. Ownership and private property is one way to examine this difference. In some cultures, property is almost exclusively private, while others tend toward community ownership. The collectively owned resource returns benefits to the community. Water, for example, has long been viewed as a community resource, much like air, but that has been changing as business and organizations have purchased water rights and gained control over resources. Public lands, such as parks, are often considered public, and individual exploitation of them is restricted. Copper, a metal with a variety of industrial applications, is collectively owned in Chile, with profits deposited in the general government fund. While public and private initiatives exist, the cultural viewpoint is our topic. How does someone raised in a culture that emphasizes the community interact with someone raised in a primarily individualistic culture? How could tensions be expressed and how might interactions be influenced by this point of divergence?

Masculine versus Feminine Orientation

There was a time when many cultures and religions valued a female figurehead, and with the rise of Western cultures we have observed a shift toward a masculine ideal. Each carries with it a set of cultural expectations and norms for gender behavior and gender roles across life, including business.

Hofstede describes the masculine-feminine dichotomy not in terms of whether men or women hold the power in a given culture, but rather the extent to which that culture values certain traits that may be considered masculine or feminine . Thus, “the assertive pole has been called ‘masculine’ and the modest, caring pole ‘feminine.’ The women in feminine countries have the same modest, caring values as the men; in the masculine countries they are somewhat assertive and competitive, but not as much as the men, so that these countries show a gap between men’s values and women’s values” (Hofstede, 2009).

We can observe this difference in where people gather, how they interact, and how they dress. We can see it during business negotiations, where it may make an important difference in the success of the organizations involved. Cultural expectations precede the interaction, so someone who doesn’t match those expectations may experience tension. Business in the United States has a masculine orientation—assertiveness and competition are highly valued. In other cultures, such as Sweden, business values are more attuned to modesty (lack of self-promotion) and taking care of society’s weaker members. This range of difference is one aspect of intercultural communication that requires significant attention when the business communicator enters a new environment.

Uncertainty-Accepting Cultures versus Uncertainty-Rejecting Cultures

When we meet each other for the first time, we often use what we have previously learned to understand our current context. We also do this to reduce our uncertainty. Some cultures, such as the United States and Britain, are highly tolerant of uncertainty , while others go to great lengths to reduce the element of surprise. Cultures in the Arab world, for example, are high in uncertainty avoidance ; they tend to be resistant to change and reluctant to take risks. Whereas a U.S. business negotiator might enthusiastically agree to try a new procedure, the Egyptian counterpart would likely refuse to get involved until all the details are worked out.

Short-Term versus Long-Term Orientation

Do you want your reward right now or can you dedicate yourself to a long-term goal? You may work in a culture whose people value immediate results and grow impatient when those results do not materialize. Geert Hofstede discusses this relationship of time orientation to a culture as a “time horizon,” and it underscores the perspective of the individual within a cultural context. Many countries in Asia, influenced by the teachings of Confucius, value a long-term orientation, whereas other countries, including the United States, have a more short-term approach to life and results. Native American cultures are known for holding a long-term orientation, as illustrated by the proverb attributed to the Iroquois that decisions require contemplation of their impact seven generations removed.

If you work within a culture that has a short-term orientation ,  you may need to place greater emphasis on reciprocation of greetings, gifts, and rewards. For example, if you send a thank-you note the morning after being treated to a business dinner, your host will appreciate your promptness. While there may be a respect for tradition, there is also an emphasis on personal representation and honor, a reflection of identity and integrity. Personal stability and consistency are also valued in a short-term oriented culture, contributing to an overall sense of predictability and familiarity.

Long-term orientation  is often marked by persistence, thrift and frugality, and an order to relationships based on age and status. A sense of shame for the family and community is also observed across generations. What an individual does reflects on the family and is carried by immediate and extended family members.

Time Orientation

Edward T. Hall and Mildred Reed Hall (1987) state that monochronic time-oriented cultures consider one thing at a time, whereas polychronic time-oriented cultures schedule many things at one time, and time is considered in a more fluid sense. In monochromatic time , time is thought of as very linear, interruptions are to be avoided, and everything has its own specific time. Even the multitasker from a monochromatic culture will, for example, recognize the value of work first before play or personal time. The United States, Germany, and Switzerland are often noted as countries that value a monochromatic time orientation.

Polychromatic time  looks a little more complicated, with business and family mixing with dinner and dancing. Greece, Italy, Chile, and Saudi Arabia are countries where one can observe this perception of time; business meetings may be scheduled at a fixed time, but when they actually begin may be another story. Also note that the dinner invitation for 8 p.m. may in reality be more like 9 p.m. If you were to show up on time, you might be the first person to arrive and find that the hosts are not quite ready to receive you.

When in doubt, always ask before the event; many people from polychromatic cultures will be used to foreigner’s tendency to be punctual, even compulsive, about respecting established times for events. The skilled business communicator is aware of this difference and takes steps to anticipate it. The value of time in different cultures is expressed in many ways, and your understanding can help you communicate more effectively.

Review & Reflection Questions

  • Why are diverse teams better at decision-making and problem-solving?
  • What are some of the challenges that multicultural teams face?
  • How might you further cultivate your own cultural intelligence?
  • What are some potential points of divergence between cultures?
  • Brett, J., Behfar, K., Kern, M. (2006, November). Managing multicultural teams. Harvard Business Review . https://hbr.org/2006/11/managing-multicultural-teams
  • Dodd, C. (1998). Dynamics of intercultural communication (5th ed.). New York, NY: Harper & Row.
  • Earley, P.C., & Mosakowski, E. (2004, October). Cultural intelligence. Harvard Business Review . https://hbr.org/2004/10/cultural-intelligence
  • Hall, M. R., & Hall, E. T. (1987). Hidden differences: Doing business with the Japanese . New York, NY: Doubleday.
  • Hofstede, G. (1982). Culture’s consequences (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
  • Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Hofstede, G. (2005). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
  • Lee, Y-T., & Liao, Y. (2015). Cultural competence: Why it matters and how you can acquire it. IESE Insight . https://www.ieseinsight.com/doc.aspx?id=1733&ar=20
  • Lorenzo, R., Yoigt, N., Schetelig, K., Zawadzki, A., Welpe, I., & Brosi, P. (2017). The mix that matters: Innovation through diversity. Boston Consulting Group. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2017/people-organization-leadership-talent-innovation-through-diversity-mix-that-matters.aspx
  • Rock, D., & Grant, H. (2016, November 4). Why diverse teams are smarter . Harvard Business Review . https://hbr.org/2016/11/why-diverse-teams-are-smarter

Author & Attribution

This remix comes from Dr. Jasmine Linabary at Emporia State University. This chapter is also available in her book:  Small Group Communication: Forming and Sustaining Teams.

The sections “How Does Team Diversity Enhance Decision Making and Problem Solving?” and “Challenges and Best Practices for Working with Multicultural Teams” are adapted from Black, J.S., & Bright, D.S. (2019). Organizational behavior. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/organizational-behavior/ . Access the full chapter for free here . The content is available under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 license .

The section “Digging in Deeper: Divergent Cultural Dimensions” is adapted from “ Divergent Cultural Characteristics ” in Business Communication for Success from the University of Minnesota. The book was adapted from a work produced and distributed under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-SA) by a publisher who has requested that they and the original author not receive attribution. This work is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license .

A set of negative group-level processes, including illusions of invulnerability, self-censorship, and pressures to conform, that occur when highly cohesive groups seek concurrence when making a decision.

a culture that emphasize nonverbal communication and indirect communication styles

a culture that emphasizes verbal expression and direct communication styles

a competency and a skill that enables individuals to function effectively in cross-cultural environments

cultures in which people relate to one another more as equals and less as a reflection of dominant or subordinate roles, regardless of their actual formal roles

culture tends to accept power differences, encourage hierarchy, and show respect for rank and authority

cultures that place greater importance on individual freedom and personal independence

cultures that place more value on the needs and goals of the group, family, community or nation

cultures that tend to value assertiveness, and concentrate on material achievements and wealth-building

cultures that tend to value nurturing, care and emotion, and are concerned with the quality of life

cultures with a high tolerance for uncertainty, ambiguity, and risk-taking. The unknown is more openly accepted, and rules and regulations tend to be more lax

cultures with a low tolerance for uncertainty, ambiguity, and risk-taking. The unknown is minimized through strict rules and regulations

focus on the near future, involves delivering short-term success or gratification and places a stronger emphasis on the present than the future

cultures that focus on the future and delaying short-term success or gratification in order to achieve long-term success

an orientation to time is considered highly linear, where interruptions are to be avoided, and everything has its own specific time

an orientation to time where multiple things can be done at once and time is viewed more fluidly

Working in Diverse Teams Copyright © 2021 by Cameron W. Piercy, Ph.D. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The Science and Value of Diversity: Closing the Gaps in Our Understanding of Inclusion and Diversity

Talia h swartz.

1 Department of Medicine, New York, New York

2 Department of Medical Education, New York, New York

3 Medical Scientist Training Program, New York, New York

Ann-Gel S Palermo

4 Office for Diversity and Inclusion in Biomedical Education, New York, New York

Sandra K Masur

5 Department of Ophthalmology, New York, New York

6 Office for Women’s Careers, and, New York, New York

Judith A Aberg

7 Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York

Diversity drives excellence. Diversity enhances innovation in biomedical sciences and, as it relates to novel findings and treatment of diverse populations, in the field of infectious diseases. There are many obstacles to achieving diversity in the biomedical workforce, which create challenges at the levels of recruitment, retention, education, and promotion of individuals. Here we present the challenges, opportunities, and suggestions for the field, institutions, and individuals to adopt in mitigating bias and achieving greater levels of equity, representation, and excellence in clinical practice and research. Our findings provide optimism for a bright future of fair and collaborative approaches that will enhance the power of our biomedical workforce.

Diversity enhances excellence and innovation. Including diverse individuals who are also different thinkers because of their lived experiences can increase the breadth and depth of biomedical and clinical inquiries to improve the scope and approach to problems that affect all corners of society. Our goal should be to foster a culture of prioritizing and sustaining diversity at all levels of the biomedical workforce, including the trainee pipeline, trainees, faculty, institutional leadership, committees, national organizations, and government. This article addresses the values of diversity, the data on inclusion and diversity in science, and approaches to improve our effort to foster this diversity.

Here we present data on the benefits of diversity to science and medicine, an extensive list of references on the gaps and paradigms for practices, and specific guidance on how institutions and individuals can promote diversity in their realms. Those who prefer the actionable guidance may read the section “What Are Ways That Our Field Can Foster a Culture of Diversity?”

WHY IS DIVERSITY BENEFICIAL TO SCIENCE?

“Diversity—defined as differences in how we see the world, how we think about the world, how we try and solve problems, the analogies we use, the metaphors, the tools we acquire, the life experiences we have—makes us better at what we do.” Scott E. Page, Robert L. Harris, Jr, ADVANCEments in Science Lecture, Cornell University, 22 April 2015

Diversity has many facets, including background, age, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, geography, disability, socioeconomic status, area of expertise, level of experience, thinking style, and skill set. The benefits of engaging individuals with a wide swath of perspectives have great potential to improve our capacity to innovate. Why? Overwhelming evidence suggests that teams that include different kinds of thinkers outperform homogeneous groups on complex tasks, including improved problem solving, increased innovation, and more-accurate predictions—all of which lead to better performance and results when a diverse team is tasked to approach a given problem [ 1–3 ]. Diverse and inclusive scientific teams can generate new research questions that have yet to be asked by our field, develop methodical and analytical approaches to better understand study populations, and offer approaches to problem solving from multiple and different perspectives. Diverse groups published higher numbers of articles, and these receive more citations per article [ 4 ].

Diverse Groups Publish More Frequently and Are Cited More

A study from 2013 indicated that articles published from the United States and the United Kingdom that included an international author had a significant increase in citations over articles with authors from the same country [ 4 ]. Using surname as a proxy for ethnicity, a 2014 analysis showed that articles with 4 or 5 authors of different ethnicities had 5%–10% more citations than articles with all authors of the same ethnicity [ 2 ]. To probe the patterns of diversity driving collaborative work, AlSheblie, Rahwan, and Woon queried the scholarly database Microsoft Academic Graph [ 3 ]. They ascribed impact to particular papers published between 1958 and 2009, based on 5-year citation counts, and found that increased diversity with regard to ethnicity, age, gender, and affiliation was associated with increased 5-year citation count, with ethnic diversity having the greatest impact.

Diverse Groups Can Have Complementary Skill Sets

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan instituted a mandate that 50% of all researchers be from outside Japan. In 2012, the institute began recruiting from 6 continents and, by 2018, rose in a ranking of academic institutions in Japan based on research output. The recruitment efforts were broad, recognizing diversity of ethnicity, gender, academic background, and field of interest [ 5 ]. Mukhles Sowwan was a researcher from Jerusalem who came to OIST and recruited 10 scientists from around the world. He made 2 broad generalizations about scientific approaches, based on country of origin: researchers from large world-class universities tend to have a more global perspective, while those from countries with less developed infrastructure tend to be more detail oriented. Working together, individuals with both perspectives can complement each other and inform new approaches.

Diverse Groups Are Better Equipped to Address Health Disparities

Diverse and different thinkers can, as physicians and scientists, impact the outer boundaries of healthcare inequity by allowing their practice and research to be informed by broader social contemporary issues [ 6 , 7 ]. Diverse clinical and scientific teams may be better at addressing the disparities in health outcomes observed among patients of certain racial and ethnic groups. They may be able to do so because they are interested in examining the role that nonscientific factors have in health and well being, such as adverse social determinants of health. Thus, diverse teams in academic medicine can contribute to improving the educational infrastructure to provide robust and meaningful content on diverse patient populations and biomedical problems to equip physicians with relevant knowledge to better take care of patients and begin to undo health-outcome disparities. The recruitment of diverse teams to tackle these problems can result in higher quality and meaningful clinical studies that benefit greater numbers of patients [ 8 ].

Intersectionality Allows Us to Highlight and Enrich Our Overlapping Identities

Diversity is complex at the individual or group level when intersectionality is recognized. Intersectionality is the interconnected nature of social categories, such as race, class, disability, and gender, as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. Valuing intersectionality in the training, development, retention, and design of scientific teams can enrich the work of research because it is informed by rich and complex heterogeneity in thinking and practice [ 6 ].

WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS TO INCREASING DIVERSITY?

Moving through the educational pipeline is a challenge for underrepresented applicants.

The educational pipeline poses a challenge for underrepresented students who may not have had sufficient educational exposure or support. Many have to overcome significant barriers to access education. Understanding these obstacles should help medical and biomedical graduate schools develop improved recruitment and retention programs and take an active role in promotion and outreach initiatives. Institutions should not assume that reputation alone is sufficient to recruit the top candidates among applicants from underrepresented groups. It is possible that perceived institutional culture may dissuade applicants of certain backgrounds. Outreach efforts can enforce a commitment to fostering diversity [ 8 , 9 ]. Individuals from underrepresented groups may not have had access to the same resources while growing up as those from other backgrounds, who may have received advice in how to improve their curriculum vitae (CV), application, and test-taking and interview skills [ 10 ]. When students from underrepresented groups matriculate, many may experience imposter syndrome, in which an individual doubts their own achievements and fear being perceived as a fraud. This perpetuates feelings of inadequacy and isolation [ 11 ]. Stereotype threat occurs when individuals feel pressure to conform to preconceived notions about their identity. Many of these circumstances can lead to choices in subspecialty later in training, resulting in lower rates of application to various residency programs and fellowships among students from underrepresented groups [ 12 ]. The choice of advanced training relates to numerous factors, including lifestyle, competitive prerequisite requirements, and level of debt [ 13 ].

Individuals on Selection Committees May Have Biases of Which They Are Unaware

Unconscious (implicit) bias is the automatic impact of attitudes or stereotypes on our on our view of the world, actions, and decisions without our awareness [ 14 ]. Unconscious bias affects judgment and can pose a critical barrier to the recruitment and retention of a diverse biomedical workforce. We all have biases. It is important that we learn them and recognize them in our daily decision-making. The Implicit Association Test [ 15 ] is a good way to gauge individual biases because it measures the automaticity with which our brain makes associations. Biases can impact our perceived competence of applicants, even in the dearth of objective information. A nationwide study of science professors evaluated the application from a female and a male undergraduate student for a laboratory manager position in which the same CV was presented but the applicant’s name was different [ 16 ]. All found the female applicant to be more likeable, less competent, and less hirable than the male applicant, and the female candidate was offered a lower annual salary (by nearly $4000) and less mentoring than the male candidate. Another study found that letters of recommendation for medical school applications had coded language that differed between female and male applicants, including longer reference letters and more references to the applicant’s CV, publications, patients, and colleagues for men, and shorter reference letters, including more “doubt-raising items,” such as irrelevant information and nondefinitive statements, and more references the applicant’s personal life [ 17 ]. Bias can also impact on peer review. Scientists from underrepresented groups receive fewer National Institutes of Health (NIH) awards [ 18 ]. Bias can also lead to trainees, faculty, and staff feeling marginalized and not able to reach their full potential and to disparities in awards and promotions. Selection committees may not be sufficiently diverse to represent the need for recruitment of diverse trainees [ 18–20 ]. Availability bias is the human tendency to think of examples that come to mind readily and may explain why underrepresented individuals are less likely to be selected as speakers, nominated for awards, or recommended for committees [ 21–23 ].

Criteria for Admissions Can Disproportionately Disadvantage Applicants From Educationally and Economically Disadvantaged Backgrounds

Successful outcomes on standardized tests are associated with early exposure to standardized examinations and having access to test-preparation resources to develop a test-taking mind-set. Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds perform worse on standardized tests than other students, and this creates a disadvantage for these students as applicants to graduate and professional education programs. Institutional pressures to maintain status in national rankings may increase their emphasis on standardized testing and may disadvantage students from underrepresented backgrounds; emphasizing a holistic review can yield a more diverse group of incoming students [ 18 , 24 ].

Medical School Curricula Can Be Based on Old Paradigms That Fail to Address Diverse Populations

Traditional medical schools have failed to address such topics as cross-cultural patient-physician interactions, health disparities, and actionable strategies to improve health outcomes for underserved communities [ 25 ]. Furthermore, physiological and genomic paradigms are based on antiquated concepts and often do not represent the patient populations for which physicians will need to care. This is an important area for medical students to reorient to the current needs of disadvantaged patient populations. In addition, evaluative measures during training may be based on subjective measures, leading to bias, rather than on objective measures and competency-based assessments. This can result in great heterogeneity in evaluations and can disadvantage introverted students whose knowledge or skill set may be less evident than that of students who are more extroverted and promote their capabilities [ 26 ]. Based on these subjective criteria, underrepresented students are less likely to be represented in the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society [ 26 ].

Individuals With Disabilities Are Underrepresented in the Academic Medicine Workforce

While almost 20% of the United States population has a disability, a small percentage (only 2.7%) of medical students disclose that they have disabilities [ 27 ]. Individuals with disabilities are at risk for health disparities because healthcare professionals may lack appropriate understanding about the impact of disability on health. Physician education emphasizes a patient’s impairment, rather than actionable approaches to break down barriers and improve a patient’s capabilities. Medical trainees with disabilities should be supported in their desire to conduct research on individuals with disabilities, if this is their area of interest. Physicians with disabilities may be more likely to identify and encounter the structural barriers faced by disabled patients, which include policies, practices, accommodations, support, and technical standards that inhibit the achievement of better care for individuals like themselves.

Salary Discrepancies Disadvantage Physicians From Underrepresented Groups

It is well known that there are salary discrepancies across disciplines [ 27–29 ]. Women, physicians from underrepresented groups, and international physicians are disproportionately affected by this. Some cite unsubstantiated excuses, such as the claim that women have personal and social obligations that take time away from their professional obligations. Unmentored individuals may not negotiate well for salary. Salaries for researchers are further lower than those for clinicians, which disincentivizes individuals from pursuing research when clinical work can yield greater reimbursements or financial rewards [ 30 ]. The magnitude of the salary discrepancy between men and women is greater for women with multiple intersectional identities, such as nonwhite race/ethnicity, graduation from an international medical school, and identification as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ), given the overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage each identity brings. A cross-field survey of 65 000 US physicians found that women are paid significantly less across geographic regions and medical disciplines, even when controlled for work hours, age, and other potential contributors [ 31 ]. Among the lowest-salaried fields were pediatric subspecialties, with pediatric infectious diseases (median annual salary, $186 000) at the bottom. Adult infectious diseases physicians were ranked 18th among the 24 lowest compensated subspecialties. Non–US-trained physicians earned 2.5% less than US-trained physicians [ 32 ]. The low salary for infectious diseases physicians poses a barrier to promising graduates pursuing this field after completion of residency [ 28 , 30 , 31 ]. Within the field of infectious diseases, only 7% of trainees and 4% of Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) members are African American. Similarly, only 12% of trainees and 8% of IDSA members are Hispanic [ 27 , 31 ]. Trotman et al performed the largest survey of infectious diseases physicians and found that African American infectious diseases physicians were paid 7%–13% less than those from most other racial/ethnic groups [ 33 ]. Marcelin et al described more-detailed information on gender, racial, and ethnic salary disparities [ 34 ] and cited Aberg et al, who called for concerted efforts to “to establish a diversity and inclusion committee to generate the data necessary for developing a strategic plan to improve the diversity of our workforce and eliminate disparities” [ 32 ].

The Pipeline of Academic Medicine Is Leaky for Underrepresented Groups

Despite great effort to expand diversity in the biomedical workforce over the past several decades, individuals from underrepresented groups advance in careers at substantially lower rates. Although women are receiving over half of PhD degrees in the United States, they only make up 38% of full-time faculty and of that number, only 22% of tenured full-time professors are women, only 16% are deans, and only 15% are department chairs [ 35 ]. The lack of diversity among leadership makes it difficult to cultivate the careers of individuals who cannot find appropriate role models. Numerous sociocultural factors influence this including perpetual and unconscious bias that affects retention and incentives of underrepresented faculty, challenging work-life policies that preclude life events at early stages after training and creating a sense of isolation [ 36 ]. Timing of life events with critical career development milestones can disproportionately disadvantage women of childbearing age. Female and underrepresented scientists are less likely to hold NIH funding and academic leadership positions, and they experience disparities in promotion [ 37 ]. A study of 50 000 medical school faculty who were assistant or associate professors between 1980 and 1989 indicated that, by 1997, nearly 50% of white junior faculty had been promoted while only 30%–36% of underrepresented junior faculty were promoted, even when adjusted for gender, tenure status, and NIH funding [ 38 ]. This was confirmed in 128 academic medical centers in which black and Hispanic faculty were promoted less frequently than white faculty across nearly 75% of institutions. The consequences of this are clear in that the effects include the reduced ability to recruit promising underrepresented applicants in fields in which young trainees cannot find senior role models with whom they can identify [ 39 ]. “Cultural taxation” or the “minority tax” is a byproduct of this, as individuals who are underrepresented are frequently asked to serve on committees, to fill the need for representation [ 40 ]. This is even more pronounced with intersectionality, in which an individual may represent multiple interests. This can create a career burden, particularly on senior women faculty, owing to the shortage of representation on committees. This type of service is often not recognized through compensation or traditional promotion metrics.

The Approach to Fostering Diversity Permeates All Levels, Including Individuals, Institutions, National Organizations, and Government Policy

The Infectious Diseases Society of American (IDSA) has set strategic priorities to establish state-of-the-art clinical guidelines, advocate for funding for critical prevention and public health activities, lead the way in antimicrobial stewardship and combating resistance, promote the value of infectious diseases physician-scientists who focus on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), bring the best and brightest into our field, and put infectious diseases and HIV research front, center, and into practice. The IDSA Board of Directors has launched the Inclusion, Diversity, Access and Equity Task Force (IDA&E) and recognizes that this mission relates to every level of society. “We are confident these talented professionals will successfully fulfill the task force charge to examine the workings of the Society. We are thankful they have volunteered their talent and time to ensure that diversity, inclusion and equity are reflected throughout the organization including the leadership and the strategies of IDSA,” said IDSA President Paul Auwaerter, MD, MBA, in 2018. This governance task force has been charged specifically to support diversity, inclusion, and equity through improved transparency, communication, and efficiency, and to maximize opportunities for members to engage in volunteer leadership.

HOW CAN OUR FIELD FOSTER A CULTURE OF DIVERSITY?

A key first step involves recruitment of individuals who are classically underrepresented in science. It is important to draw from a broad pool of qualified individuals. This may involve outreach, improving pipelines and marketing initiatives, and expanding the definition of excellence [ 41 ]. Importantly, recruitment efforts are coupled to retention, and therefore a strong system of support and mentoring is critical for cultivating the careers of young scientists, particularly those from underrepresented groups. It is essential to ensure that the level of diversity among admissions leadership and personnel represents the level of diversity among candidates the institution is hoping to attract and is capable of supporting. Pipeline programs to enhance mentorship and diversity have been extremely successful in advancing the career of individuals who might not otherwise have been supported through this training [ 42 ].

Combating Unconscious Bias Requires a Multifaceted Effort

Unconscious bias can be mitigated with data-driven strategies [ 36 ]. A combination of in-person workshop training with regular reminders through committee emphasis and institution-sponsored awareness campaigns have been shown to have sustainable improvement in recruitment of diverse candidates. Ways to systematically mitigate the impact of unconscious bias in recruitment and selection include developing clear criteria and standards for the position prior to recruitment efforts, developing a clear evaluation system in advance, conducting anonymous voting, and ensuring that search committees are diverse. Witteman et al reported on a study of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, which has phased out conventional grant review in which the science and investigator are both evaluated. A new program focused on the research and allowed for the analysis of almost 24 000 grant applications between 2011 and 2016. The authors found that, with a program evaluating research background and qualifications, the gender gap was 4% in favor of male applicants; however, with the new evaluation approach emphasizing the researcher’s science, the gap was closed, resulting in only a 0.9% advantage for male applicants. This study was not randomized, and it is important to note that, in the new review process, reviewers were asked to complete unconscious bias training. which may have had an additional impact on closing the gender gap [ 40 , 41 ]. Still, reviewer training can have a tremendous impact on reducing biased practices. Conference conveners can make efforts to achieve greater equity and diversity in speaker selection by making programs aware of their diversity statistics, by increasing the diversity of the convener teams, and through direct instruction to encourage diversity [ 43 ]. Individuals should promote field experts from underrepresented groups whenever asked for nominations for panels, awards, and speaking opportunities. Creating a database of experts in the field for easy access has been successful in several fields. Social media has also been effective in promoting and disseminating information about oneself and one’s colleagues [ 44 , 45 ].

Leaders in Medical Education Can Aspire to Parse Genetic and Social Determinant of Health

While race has classically been linked with disease as a risk factor, it has become understood that race is more accurately a marker of vulnerability and systemic disadvantage. Our educational systems can better parse genetic predisposition, associated with ancestry, from social determinants of health. There are important differences among individuals of genomic diversity, but this can easily be conflated with social inequalities attributed to determinants such as education, incarceration, and unemployment. Medical students often feel ill equipped to consider race in clinical medicine [ 7 ]. Medical schools are developing curricula that address historical roots of racism and bias and the role that social and genetic determinants of health play in patient care. Sexual and gender minority patient population groups have not historically been emphasized in the undergraduate medical curriculum, and this is important as the LGBTQ population is at increased risk for mental illness, HIV infection, unemployment, poverty, and harassment [ 46 ]. Medical schools have begun implementing curricula that include contexts emphasizing the unique health considerations of LGBTQ and other populations [ 47 ]. Within the medical center, central initiatives can be taken to mitigate racism and bias through change in management strategies [ 47–49 ].

WHAT SHOULD INSTITUTIONS DO TO FOSTER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION?

Identify and define threats to the promotion of diversity and inclusion.

The first step is to engage in an ongoing systemic review of policies regarding recruitment and retention, including equity in salaries and resources. Being transparent by collecting and publicizing diversity metrics can engage faculty in dialogues and promote a culture of openness and inclusivity. Institutions should conduct regular anonymous climate surveys, disseminate their results, and respond to needed circumstances [ 50 ]. These can be effective for gauging the sentiment of individuals and can provide actionable directions for change on a continuous basis.

Develop and Adhere to Policies That Reflect a Lens of Diversity and Inclusion

Recruitment efforts should include outreach efforts and inclusion initiatives to seek out excellence in numerous settings, including pipeline programs and mentoring networks [ 50 , 51 ]. Standardized testing should be deemphasized for the sake of holistic review [ 10 ] and because of data that standardized testing does not predict success in physician-scientist careers. Safe spaces should be created that encourage equity and recognition of individual needs. These can include networking and support groups for specialized groups that provide education and social events [ 9 ]. Policies focused on diversity and inclusion can be extended to educational settings by using nondiscriminatory language in classrooms, curriculum-development programs, and job announcements and by encouraging trainees, faculty, and staff to participate in diversity training [ 52 ]. On a departmental level, the process of simplifying name changes and records can hold meaning for transgender people [ 53 ]. Mentorship is critical and should be made available to individuals throughout their training trajectory in various forms. Institutions can reward mentoring through incentives such as salary, educational, and research support [ 39 ] and by promoting mentors for winning mentorship awards from and participating in professional networks [ 54 ]. Faculty development programs and onboarding protocols are critical for instilling values around inclusion and unconscious bias. These practices should be included in professional development on an ongoing basis. The human resources department should have a specific diversity strategy that ensures that anyone in a leadership role receives proper diversity training. Educating the existing and future leaders is critical to this mission.

Educate and Provide Resources to Uphold Institutional Policies

Individuals working at academic institutions experience life events during their training and work that can take a toll on their wellness and can compromise their ability to succeed. By recognizing the influence of these events on an individual’s wellness and ability to function successfully, institutions can implement initiatives to help support its workforce. These initiatives have been demonstrated to improve profitability and productivity in the business world.

Family Support

For families, institutional resources can include a child development center that provides childcare, childhood education, after school and holiday programs, emergency backup daycare, nursing rooms, changing tables, parent rooms, lactation rooms, professional travel support (ie, support for travel for children and/or childcare providers) while at professional conferences, a stop-the-clock policy (to allow tenure-track faculty to request an extension of their tenure evaluation to accommodate responsibilities related to birth, adoption, illness, and elder care), recruitment packages for dual-career couples, subsidized legal fees for family services (ie, family planning), and elder care [ 55 ].

Mental Health and Wellness

To help ensure mental health and wellness, institutions can provide access to mental health services, culture activities, and a recreation office for low-priced access to concerts, performances, art exhibitions, lectures, and clubs; a robust and centralized wellness program; subsidized health benefits; and physical fitness incentives.

Enforcement of Recruitment and Retention Policy

Institutional leadership can be held accountable for salary equity and diversity at all levels if policies related to recruitment and retention of faculty that emphasize equity in all domains of diversity are enforced.

Language Support

Institutions can offer language classes to those for whom the language of the institution is not the first language, for presentation and writing skill training, for editing support, and for grant writing support.

Credit for Institutional Service

Institutions can provide credit to individuals for institutional service that will contribute to their salary and/or promotion package, so as not to disadvantage those from underrepresented groups who are asked to make contributions in the interest of fostering diversity [ 37 , 56 ].

To address the housing needs of trainees and faculty, institutions can provide resources that help these individuals access affordable residential facilities near campus.

Promote Diversity Publicly

Institutions should implement clear statements to showcase their diversity and nondiscrimination. An inclusion statement should assert that the institution prohibits unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law. A statement preventing unlawful harassment, including sexual harassment and sexual violence, is also critical [ 57 ]. Offices of diversity and inclusion should ensure compliance with the Civil Rights Act, particularly titles VI, VII, and IX; the Equal Pay Act; the Americans with Disabilities Act; Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Executive Order 11246; and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. Outreach and recruitment efforts should ensure that talent searches are broad, wide, and fair. Institutions can demonstrate their commitment to diversity through inclusion in their mission statement and core values. It can also be done by ensuring that inclusion in conveyed in branding materials by being conscious of the faces used in public displays and recipients of honors and awards. In sum, visibility and intersectional innovation should be celebrated, and institutional change arises from embracing an explicit intention to engage stakeholders in moving toward meaningful new directions [ 6 ].

Create a System of Mutual Accountability

There is a need for periodic reassessment of policies to ensure that inclusion efforts are being upheld through recruitment, curriculum, development, and academic affairs [ 58 ]. Annual appraisals and evaluations for trainees and faculty are critical to identifying gaps and should systematically include inclusivity statements to ensure that needs are being met [ 35 , 56 ]. An institutional report card for diversity missions can be created and presented to the dean on an annual or more frequent basis [ 59 ]. A mistreatment or grievance committee [ 60 ], as well as ombuds office, are critical to providing a confidential forum for reporting and accountability. Finally, a policy of zero tolerance for mistreatment and harassment should be developed, with clear consequences outlined in the student and faculty handbook. Departments can be incentivized to reward diversity and inclusion.

CONCLUSIONS

Unconscious bias is a powerful force because it can be unapparent to individuals in leadership positions. Combating unconscious bias on a daily basis is a great challenge of high importance throughout organizations and institutions as they work to overcome the marked challenges that account for underrepresentation in biomedical science and in the field of infectious diseases. Fortunately, there are studies that indicate a positive impact of unconscious bias training, but of greatest importance is the recognition that diversity is everyone’s issue. It is not something that can be left to those who are affected by underrepresentation—it must be imparted to all in leadership, even if they do not understand the affliction of underrepresentation themselves. Individuals have the power to make a difference. Figure 1 outlines steps that any one individual can take to foster diversity and inclusion. Teams are critical to shed light on alternative perspectives and to consider approaches from numerous different angles, to ensure that no one is left out.

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Suggested activities to foster diversity and inclusion.

The IDSA is committed to tackling these problems. The IDSA’s first effort involved establishing the Gender Disparity Task Force in 2016 to identify contributors to gender disparities and to make recommendations to address these disparities [ 32 ]. The hopeful outcome will be to increase physicians’ compensation to create equity. There is great optimism for the IDA&E that will hopefully result in a strong future for infectious diseases physicians and researchers. It will be the work of individuals, leadership, institutions, societies, and government agencies to work together to foster a culture of diversity.

Supplement sponsorship. This supplement is sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Disclaimer . It is not the intent of this article to be linked directly to the Infectious Disease Society of America’s Inclusion, Diversity, Access, and Equity Task Force, nor is it the authors’ intentions to discuss the scope of work assigned to this task force. This article is an independent review addressing the gaps in our understanding of the science and value of diversity.

Financial support . This work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (grant K08AI120806 to T. H. S.).

Potential conflicts of interest . All authors: No reported conflicts. All authors have submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Conflicts that the editors consider relevant to the content of the manuscript have been disclosed.

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Teams Solve Problems Faster When They’re More Cognitively Diverse

  • Alison Reynolds
  • David Lewis

1 how does diversity encourage innovation and problem solving

Find people who disagree with you and cherish them.

Looking at the executive teams we work with as consultants and those we teach in the classroom, increased diversity of gender, ethnicity, and age is apparent. Over recent decades the rightful endeavor to achieve a more representative workforce has had an impact. Of course, there is a ways to go, but progress has been made.

  • AR Alison Reynolds  is a member of faculty at the UK’s Ashridge Business School where she works with executive groups in the field of leadership development, strategy execution and organization development. She has previously worked in the public sector and management consulting, and is an advisor to a number of small businesses and charities.
  • DL David Lewis  is Director of London Business School’s Senior Executive Programme and teaches on strategy execution and leading in uncertainty. He is a consultant and works with global corporations, advising and coaching board teams.  He is co-founder of a research company focusing on developing tools to enhance individual, team and organization performance through better interaction.

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Leveraging Diversity for Innovation and Problem-Solving

Published by hr consultants on january 26, 2024.

In today's rapidly evolving and highly competitive business landscape, organizations are constantly seeking innovative solutions to complex problems. One key driver of innovation and problem-solving lies in leveraging diversity within the workforce. By harnessing the power of diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds, companies can tap into a wealth of creativity and unlock new possibilities.

However, building a truly diverse and inclusive workforce is not without its challenges. In this discussion, we will explore the importance of diversity in driving innovation, the benefits of embracing different perspectives for problem-solving, and the strategies organizations can employ to empower diverse teams for collaborative solutions.

By the end of this exploration, you will gain insights into how leveraging diversity can be a catalyst for innovation and problem-solving, propelling organizations towards success in an increasingly complex and dynamic business environment.

Key Takeaways

  • Diversity fosters creativity and innovation by tapping into a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and ideas.
  • Collaborative problem-solving allows for the integration of multiple viewpoints and the identification of comprehensive solutions.
  • Emphasizing empathy, understanding, and open-mindedness helps break down biases and stereotypes.
  • Cultural diversity fuels creativity and innovation through the unique perspectives and experiences of individuals from different backgrounds.

The Importance of Diversity in Innovation

Diversity plays a crucial role in driving innovation and problem-solving within organizations. Promoting inclusion in innovation and maximizing the potential of diverse teams are key factors in leveraging diversity for innovation and problem-solving.

When organizations embrace diversity, they are able to tap into a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and ideas. This diversity of thought fosters creativity and innovation, as individuals from different backgrounds bring unique insights and approaches to the table. By promoting inclusion in innovation, organizations create an environment where all team members feel valued, respected, and encouraged to contribute their diverse perspectives.

Maximizing the potential of diverse teams involves creating a culture that encourages collaboration and open communication. This enables team members to share their ideas freely, challenge assumptions, and engage in constructive debates. With a diverse team, there is a greater likelihood of identifying a wider range of solutions and approaches to complex problems. The combination of different perspectives and experiences can lead to breakthrough innovations and more effective problem-solving.

Moreover, diverse teams are more adept at understanding and addressing the needs of a diverse customer base. By incorporating a variety of viewpoints, organizations can develop products and services that cater to a broader range of customers, driving business growth and success.

Building a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce

With a solid foundation in leveraging diversity for innovation and problem-solving, organizations can now focus on building a diverse and inclusive workforce to further enhance their potential for success. Inclusive hiring practices play a crucial role in this process. By actively seeking out candidates from different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, organizations can create a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities they serve. This not only brings a wide range of ideas and insights to the table but also fosters a culture of inclusivity and belonging.

To ensure the success of inclusive hiring practices, organizations should implement diversity training programs. These programs help educate employees about the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, as well as provide them with the tools and skills needed to create an inclusive environment. By promoting empathy, understanding, and open-mindedness, diversity training helps break down biases and stereotypes, allowing individuals to work together more effectively.

In addition to inclusive hiring practices and diversity training, organizations should also create policies and procedures that support diversity and inclusion. This includes promoting equal opportunities for career advancement, providing resources for employee support and development, and fostering a culture of respect and appreciation for all individuals.

Embracing Different Perspectives for Problem-Solving

Embracing different perspectives is essential for problem-solving.

Diverse perspectives bring a range of experiences, knowledge, and ideas to the table, which can drive innovation and creativity.

Collaborative problem-solving is particularly beneficial in diverse teams, as it allows for the integration of multiple viewpoints and the identification of comprehensive solutions.

Diverse Perspectives Drive Innovation

Different perspectives are vital for driving innovation and solving complex problems effectively. When a diverse group of individuals with varying backgrounds, experiences, and expertise come together, their unique viewpoints can spark creativity and lead to innovative solutions. By incorporating a wide range of perspectives, organizations can tap into a wealth of knowledge and insights that may not be accessible otherwise.

To illustrate the power of diverse perspectives in driving innovation, consider the following table:

Collaborative Problem-Solving Benefits From Diversity

Collaborative problem-solving is enhanced by the inclusion of diverse perspectives, as it fosters a dynamic and comprehensive approach to finding effective solutions. Embracing different perspectives brings numerous benefits and advantages to the problem-solving process.

  • Increased creativity : When individuals from diverse backgrounds come together to solve a problem, they bring unique insights and experiences that can spark innovative thinking. This diversity of thought leads to fresh ideas and creative solutions that may not have been possible with a homogeneous group.
  • Enhanced problem-solving capabilities : Diverse perspectives offer a wider range of approaches and strategies to tackle complex problems. By considering multiple viewpoints and incorporating diverse knowledge and skills, teams can develop comprehensive and well-rounded solutions.
  • Improved decision-making : Collaborating with people from different backgrounds helps to mitigate biases and blind spots that may exist within a homogeneous team. By embracing diversity, teams can make more informed and objective decisions, minimizing the risk of overlooking important factors or making flawed judgments.

Uniting Different Viewpoints Strengthens Solutions

Bringing together a diverse range of viewpoints strengthens problem-solving solutions by promoting inclusivity, empathy, and analytical thinking.

When individuals from different backgrounds and experiences come together to address a problem, they bring with them unique perspectives and insights. These different viewpoints enable a more comprehensive understanding of the issue at hand and open up new pathways for innovative solutions.

Inclusive problem-solving processes foster an environment where every voice is heard and valued, leading to a deeper sense of empathy and understanding among team members. This empathy allows for better collaboration and the ability to consider multiple perspectives when developing solutions.

Analytical thinking is also enhanced when diverse viewpoints are united, as it encourages critical evaluation of ideas and fosters a culture of creativity and innovation.

Leveraging Cultural Diversity for Creativity

Cultural diversity has the power to fuel creativity and innovation.

When individuals from different backgrounds come together, their unique perspectives and experiences can lead to fresh ideas and solutions.

Cultural Fusion for Creativity

In a world rich with diverse cultures, how can we harness the power of cultural fusion to fuel creativity and innovation?

Cultural fusion refers to the blending of different cultural elements that occurs through cross-cultural exchange. By leveraging cultural fusion, we can unlock new perspectives, ideas, and approaches that lead to enhanced creativity and innovation.

Here are three ways in which cultural fusion can foster creativity:

  • Broadening Perspectives : Cultural fusion exposes individuals to different ways of thinking, enabling them to see problems and solutions from multiple angles.
  • Encouraging Collaboration : When people from diverse cultures collaborate, they bring together their unique experiences and knowledge, leading to the generation of innovative ideas.
  • Inspiring Unconventional Thinking : Cultural fusion challenges traditional norms and encourages individuals to think outside the box, empowering them to break free from conventional patterns and embrace fresh approaches.

Diverse Perspectives Spark Innovation

Building upon the concept of cultural fusion and its impact on creativity, the next subtopic explores how diverse perspectives can ignite innovation by leveraging cultural diversity.

When individuals from different cultural backgrounds come together, they bring with them a wealth of unique experiences, beliefs, and values. This diversity of perspectives fosters a rich environment for creativity to flourish.

By incorporating diverse viewpoints, organizations can tap into a broader range of ideas and approaches, leading to more innovative solutions.

Inclusive problem solving is essential in leveraging the power of diversity and creativity. It involves actively seeking out and valuing diverse voices, ensuring that everyone has a seat at the table and feels heard and respected.

Empowering Diverse Teams for Collaborative Solutions

Diverse teams, with their unique perspectives and backgrounds, have the potential to bring about innovative and collaborative solutions to complex problems. When empowered and given the right tools, these teams can leverage their diversity to drive impactful change.

Here are three ways to empower diverse teams for collaborative solutions:

  • Foster an inclusive environment :

Creating a safe and inclusive space where team members feel valued and respected is crucial. Encourage open dialogue, active listening, and the sharing of diverse viewpoints. This will allow for the exploration of different ideas and perspectives, leading to more comprehensive and innovative solutions.

  • Provide equal opportunities for participation :

Ensure that everyone on the team has an equal opportunity to contribute and be heard. Avoid favoritism and unconscious biases that may hinder certain team members from fully participating. By valuing and leveraging the unique strengths and experiences of each team member, you can tap into their full potential and drive collaboration.

  • Promote diverse leadership :

Empower diverse team members to take on leadership roles and responsibilities. By having leaders who represent the diverse makeup of the team, you can foster an environment where everyone's voices are heard and valued. This will not only boost team morale but also lead to more inclusive and effective decision-making.

Overcoming Challenges in Implementing Diversity Initiatives

When implementing diversity initiatives, organizations often encounter various challenges that require thoughtful consideration and strategic approaches. These challenges can arise from both internal and external factors, and addressing them is crucial for the success of diversity initiatives.

One common challenge is resistance or lack of support from within the organization. Some employees may view diversity initiatives as unnecessary or even as a threat to their own positions. Overcoming this challenge requires effective communication and education to help employees understand the value and benefits of diversity in the workplace. It is essential to foster an inclusive culture that embraces diversity and creates a supportive environment for all employees.

Another challenge is the difficulty of measuring the impact of diversity initiatives. While organizations may implement various strategies to promote diversity, it can be challenging to quantify the outcomes and assess the effectiveness of these efforts. To overcome this challenge, organizations can establish clear metrics and evaluation methods to track progress and measure the impact of diversity initiatives on employee engagement, team performance, and overall organizational success.

Furthermore, ensuring diversity initiatives are sustainable and integrated into the organization's long-term goals can be a challenge. Many organizations may treat diversity as a standalone initiative rather than embedding it into their overall business strategy. To overcome this challenge, organizations should integrate diversity into all aspects of their operations, including recruitment, talent development, decision-making processes, and leadership development.

Measuring the Impact of Diversity on Innovation Success

To accurately measure the impact of diversity on innovation success, organizations must establish clear evaluation methods and metrics that capture the tangible and intangible outcomes resulting from diverse perspectives and experiences. Measuring diversity impact requires a thoughtful and comprehensive approach that takes into account various factors and indicators. Here are three key considerations for organizations looking to assess the influence of diversity on innovation success:

  • Quantitative Metrics :

Organizations can use quantitative metrics such as the number of diverse employees in leadership positions, the percentage of diverse teams, and the number of patents filed by diverse employees. These metrics provide a quantitative measure of diversity and innovation success, allowing organizations to track progress over time.

  • Qualitative Assessment :

In addition to quantitative metrics, organizations should also conduct qualitative assessments to understand the impact of diversity on innovation success. This can involve conducting interviews, surveys, and focus groups with employees to gather insights on how diversity has influenced their ability to innovate and solve problems.

  • Innovation Outcomes :

Organizations should evaluate the impact of diversity by examining the outcomes of their innovation efforts. This can include assessing the number of successful product launches, revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and market share. By analyzing these outcomes, organizations can determine the extent to which diversity has contributed to their innovation success.

In conclusion, embracing diversity is not just a moral imperative, but a strategic advantage for organizations seeking to foster innovation and solve complex problems.

By building a diverse and inclusive workforce, organizations can tap into a wealth of different perspectives, experiences, and cultural backgrounds, which can lead to more creative and effective solutions.

It is crucial to empower diverse teams and overcome challenges in implementing diversity initiatives to fully leverage the potential of diversity for innovation success.

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Voices

Diversity in STEM: What It Is and Why It Matters

Innovations resulting from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields have positively touched nearly every aspect of human life.

  • By Kenneth Gibbs, Jr.  on  September 10, 2014

Innovations resulting from science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields have positively touched nearly every aspect of human life. Scientific innovations do not arise on their own ; each is brought forth through the hard work and ingenuity of scientists. Therefore, the quality of the scientific research enterprise, and its ability to meet the needs of, and positively impact the lives of individuals, communities, nations and the world is inextricably linked to the individual “STEMists” involved. In my 16 years in science (from high school intern to postdoc at the National Institutes of Health ), I’ve never encountered a person who disagrees with these statements.

On the other hand, I have often found much disagreement when the conversation shifts to diversity in science. While some enter these conversations with much enthusiasm, others view scientific workforce diversity efforts as antithetical to ideals of meritocracy–i.e. the notion that one rises and falls solely on their “ability” and that the “cream” of scientists will eventually rise to the top. I’ve also engaged with colleagues who have never explicitly thought about what diversity means or avoid the topic altogether knowing the controversy it can engender. Recognizing that many come to this conversation from different perspectives, I’ve decided to start my blogging for Voices with a primer on diversity in science: what it is and why it matters.

What is diversity?

One challenge to conversations about diversity is a lack of precision in language. The word “diversity” is used in many contexts to mean many different things. Often, and unfortunately, diversity is used as the antonym of heterosexual, able-bodied, middle-class-to-wealthy white male. This is not what diversity is about. The New Oxford American Dictionary gives us this definition :

diversity |di’v?rsit?, d?-| noun: (a) the state of being diverse; variety: there was considerable diversity in the style of the reports . (b) a range of different things: newspapers were obliged to allow a diversity of views to be printed .

Diversity refers to difference . As such, diversity is a property of groups, not individuals. Although I am a black man in a field where less than 2 percent of research grants are awarded to blacks, I am not diverse. An individual cannot be diverse, but groups of individuals (e.g., the scientific research workforce) can possess diversity.

There are many dimensions of difference (hence, some of the confusion about what diversity means). I will focus on differences across social identity. These include, but are not limited to, race/ethnicity, gender, disability status, nationality, religious affiliation, sexual orientation and socioeconomic background. Every person possesses multiple, intersecting social identities. For some dimensions of social difference (e.g., nationality), the scientific enterprise has a considerable degree of diversity . In other ways, the scientific enterprise lacks diversity–especially as it relates the participation of women, certain minority groups, and people with disabilities .

Diversity in science refers to cultivating talent, and promoting the full inclusion of excellence across the social spectrum. This includes people from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented and those from backgrounds that are traditionally well represented.

Why does diversity matter in science?

1. Diversity is critical to excellence

In western cultures, our narratives about science often focus on the singular, “brilliant” scientist who makes substantial contributions through their innate genius–e.g., Albert Einstein or Isaac Newton. However, “scientific talent” is not innate. It is cultivated through many hours of training and effort. Moreover, teams, not individuals , conduct most scientific research. Thus, the narrative of the brilliant, individual scientist largely fails us in the modern research enterprise.

When we consider scientific research as group problem-solving, instead of the unveiling of individual brilliance, diversity becomes key to excellence . In his book, The Difference , Professor Scott Page lays out a mathematical rationale and logic for diversity . He shows that, when trying to solve complex problems (i.e., the sort of thing scientists are paid to do), progress often results from diverse perspectives. That is, the ability to see the problem differently, not simply “being smart,” often is the key to a breakthrough. As a result, when groups of intelligent individuals are working to solve hard problems, the diversity of the problem solvers matters more than their individual ability . Thus, diversity is not distinct from enhancing overall quality–it is integral to achieving it.

Of course, there are caveats. Two people can be from similar social backgrounds and have lots of difference in perspective and life experience, or two people can be from distinct social backgrounds and yet approach problem-solving almost identically. I get that. However, while it’s important to avoid essentializing people (i.e., saying that an individual’s descriptive social identity prescribes something about how they will approach life and problem-solving), people from different backgrounds do, on average, tend to approach work and problem solving differently. These differences can bring new perspectives needed to promote innovation.

2. Lack of diversity represents a loss of talent

Again, scientific advancement relies on scientific talent. Scientific talent represents the end result of a process of potential being cultivated –by experienced teachers, mentors and colleagues–and hard work on the part of the individual. I’ve done many multisyllabic, very technical sounding things in my scientific career–from utilizing multiparameter flow cytometry to characterize signaling networks in hematopoietic and leukemic stem cells, to multiple logistic regression to study the enterprise itself. I was not born knowing how to do any of them. All of my scientific work has resulted from hours of effort, the guidance of phenomenal colleagues and mentors, and exceptional access to resources.

While there are strong imbalances in the racial/ethnic and gender representation across scientific fields, there is no evidence to suggest that cultivatable scientific potential differentially segregates across lines of social identity. That is, there is no evidence that the ability to develop into a scientist differs across our socially constructed lines of identity (i.e., race/ethnicity, gender, etc.). Thus, the large and persistent underrepresentation of certain social groups from the enterprise represents the loss of talent. As NIH Director Francis Collins has said, chronic and woeful underrepresentation in the workforce leads to “ the inescapable conclusion that we are missing critical contributors to our talent pool.”

3. Enhancing diversity is key to long-term economic growth and global competitiveness

Long-term economic growth is tied to scientific advancement, and scientific advancement relies on having a capable workforce. While there’s no evidence of wide-spread shortages in scientific talent today, there are reasons to be concerned about America’s ability to cultivate adequate domestic, STEM talent in the coming generations . Most children born in America today are non-white , and half of all children born are female . Thus, the continued underrepresentation of minorities and women in the scientific enterprise represents a challenge to the United States’ ability to, in the long-term, cultivate an adequate, domestic scientific workforce. It is hard to grow a workforce–let alone get the “best” workforce–when there’s broad underrepresentation of up to 75 percent of the potential talent pool.

Diversity refers to difference. Science workforce diversity refers to cultivating talent, and promoting the full inclusion of excellence across the social spectrum . Diversity leads to better problem-solving, expands the talent pool and is important for long-term economic growth. In future posts, I hope to shed light on the state of diversity in science currently and to share some thoughts about how we might better promote inclusive excellence.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the author alone, and do not necessarily represent the positions of the institutions with which he is affiliated.

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

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Kenneth (Kenny) Gibbs, Jr., PhD, is a Cancer Prevention Fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) . Dr. Gibbs conducts policy-relevant research aimed at strengthening the research enterprise. His work focuses on (a) understanding the mechanisms of career development among recent PhD graduates, and how they differ based on social identity (specifically, race/ethnicity, gender and their intersection), and (b) developing methodologies for evaluation and dissemination of best practices in "team science." As part of the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program , he completed a Masters of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health . Prior to the NCI, Dr. Gibbs completed a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), Division of Human Resource Development (HRD). As an AAAS fellow, he contributed to the federal government's strategic STEM education plan by developing evidence-based recommendations for engagement programs, and initiated the Burroughs Wellcome Fund supported "STEM Ph.D. Careers" research project to identify the factors impacting the career development of recent Ph.D. graduates. Dr. Gibbs completed his PhD in the Immunology program at Stanford University, and received his B.S. in biochemistry and molecular biology summa cum laude from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where he was a Meyerhoff, MARC, and HHMI scholar. Dr. Gibbs also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Postdoctoral Association , and has written about career development for Science Careers . Follow him on Twitter @KennyGibbsPhD and @STEMPhDCareers .  Follow Kenneth Gibbs, Jr. on Twitter

Recent Articles by Kenneth Gibbs, Jr.

  • Beyond "The Pipeline": Reframing Science's Diversity Challenge

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Justin James Kennedy, Ph.D., D.Prof.

Neurodiversity

Achieving the power of cognitive diversity, different brains do it better..

Posted September 23, 2023 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

  • What Is Neurodiversity?
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This post is part two in a series .

Co-authored with Faye Cormick, Ph.D.candidate.

In our previous post , we looked at what cognitive diversity is, why it matters, the neuroscience behind it, and the benefits it brings to the workplace. Here, we explore the barriers to cognitive diversity and how our commitment to embracing it can unlock its full potential.

Overcoming Barriers to Cognitive Diversity

Diverse perspectives offer great value through different ways of thinking, different ways of processing information, and different individual experiences and knowledges, expanding the bandwidth of human problem-solving, decision-making , creativity , and innovation. We know that each brain is unique, based on how they are wired. Breaking down and removing barriers to cognitive diversity sits with each of us. We each have the potential to change our thinking and be open to differences.

Let’s look at some of the barriers that impede our ability to embrace cognitive diversity. One common barrier is our inclination to surround ourselves with individuals who are similar to us, resulting in a homogeneous social circle in which everyone thinks and behaves alike. This makes it difficult to introduce cognitive diversity. To surmount this barrier, we must actively seek opportunities to connect with people from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. This can be accomplished by attending events and activities that attract a variety of individuals, volunteering with organizations that serve different communities, or simply engaging in conversations with those who have a different perspective than our own.

Another barrier to cognitive diversity in our personal lives is the fear of discomfort or conflict. Conforming with people who have different opinions or worldviews can be challenging, especially if we need to get used to it. However, avoiding these conversations can prevent us from learning and growing. To overcome this barrier, we must practise active listening and empathy, and be willing to engage in respectful dialogue and invite conversation with those who think differently. The barrier is within us, and we can change the way we think about it if we want to. We may not always change each other's minds, but we can gain a deeper understanding of different perspectives and build stronger relationships.

Our unconscious bias is also a barrier. We all have unconscious biases, which can prevent us from seeing the world in a truly diverse and inclusive way. To overcome these biases, we need to engage in self-reflection and actively work to recognize and address them. This can be achieved by engaging with something different or new, being curious, and having an open mind in seeking different perspectives through reading books and articles and reflecting on our experiences and assumptions.

Breaking down barriers to cognitive diversity in the workplace is important, but can be tricky. Like any challenge, the desire to change sits with each of us. Here are a few common obstacles that we might face, and how you can tackle them.

Barrier #1: We often hang out with people who are similar to us, leading to a narrow social circle. You’ve heard phrases such as "like attracts like" and " groupthink ." The irony is expecting a different outcome without doing anything differently.

Solution: Consciously seek out new opportunities to get diverse perspectives. Step out of the “comfort zone” and meet with diverse people, whether it's by attending events, volunteering, or talking with or listening to people who take a different perspective.

Barrier #2: We're all afraid of discomfort or conflict when engaging with people who hold different opinions. All brains are lazy, which is normal, but not always ideal at work in helping us to try something different, or new.

Solution: Practise active listening and empathy, and engage in respectful dialogue with those who think differently. We may not always agree, but we can learn from each other and strengthen relationships.

Barrier #3: We all have brains that have unconscious biases. These prevent us from seeing things from a diverse and inclusive perspective.

Solution: At the end of the day reflect on one conversation. Challenge your own assumptions and actively seek out diverse perspectives to rethink how you think and become open to different perspectives and conversations with yourself.

Barrier #4: Lack of awareness. We may not understand or be aware of what cognitive diversity is. Without awareness, organizations are less likely to pursue and promote cognitive diversity.

1 how does diversity encourage innovation and problem solving

Solution: Educate yourself and your workplace through conversations, and by undertaking diversity and inclusion training.

A World of Diversity Is at Your Disposal

Cognitive diversity is a powerful force for innovation, problem-solving, and personal and professional growth. We can achieve greater creativity, better decision-making, enhanced learning, and more inclusive communities by valuing and embracing diverse perspectives.

When we commit to embracing cognitive diversity, we can unlock more of the mind's potential achieve a brighter, more inclusive future. Overcoming barriers requires intention and a deliberate effort by individuals and organizations. By actively seeking diverse perspectives, engaging in respectful dialogue, recognizing and addressing our biases, and educating ourselves, we can create a world that values and celebrates cognitive diversity in all its forms.

The bottom line: Embracing cognitive diversity isn't just a nice-to-have. It's a must-have. By valuing and celebrating diverse perspectives, we can achieve greater inclusion, creativity, and innovation. Cognitive diversity is a case for more is more. Different brains do it better.

Faye Cormick, a Ph.D. candidate, is a certified neuro-coach and an accredited training partner with the International Coaching Federation, Fellow of the Institute of Coaching, and Fellow of the Institute of Organisational Neuroscience.

Paulus, P. B., & Argote, L. (2010). The benefits of cognitive diversity in teams: A meta-analysis of team performance and idea generation studies. Human Performance, 23(2), 169-201.

Chen, K. J., & Salas, E. (2009). The role of cognitive diversity in team learning and performance: A review of empirical research. Human Resource Management Review, 19(2), 99-111.

Williams, L. A., & Chen, K. J. (2012). The downside of cognitive diversity: The effects of conflict and dissatisfaction in teams. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 27(1), 12-28.

Justin James Kennedy, Ph.D., D.Prof.

Justin James Kennedy, Ph.D., is a professor of applied neuroscience and organisational behaviour at UGSM-Monarch Business School in Switzerland and the author of Brain Re-Boot.

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COMMENTS

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  2. Why Diversity and Inclusion Are Important for Problem-Solving

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    Most managers accept that employers benefit from a diverse workforce, but the notion can be hard to prove or quantify, especially when it comes to measuring how diversity affects a firm's ability...

  4. How Diversity Makes Us Smarter

    So, what is the upside? The fact is that if you want to build teams or organizations capable of innovating, you need diversity. Diversity enhances creativity. It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving.

  5. How Does Diversity and Inclusion Impact Innovation?

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  7. How Diversity Makes Us Smarter

    It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision-making and problem-solving. Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to...

  8. Cultural diversity drives innovation: empowering teams for success

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  9. How to enable creativity and innovation: Work with diverse teams in an

    10 ways to hire diverse talent - Collaborate with universities and external affinity organizations (for example, SheSays, Creative Equals, The Future Is ND) to determine how to shape job searches and target appropriate D&I candidates. - Conduct deliberate outreach to diverse networks and individuals across industries to identify the actual talent.

  10. Diversity and inclusion is a must to make innovation work for all

    The commonly painted picture is that a diverse workforce improves creativity, complex problem solving and innovation thanks to a collection of different views. Yet the foreign-born workers I have ...

  11. Diversity and Problem-Solving

    A structured, repeatable yet iterative approach to problem-solving enhances mission outcomes while promoting diversity. Part of this approach involves breaking the problem into component parts and identifying resources to provoke diverse thoughts, recommendations, and solutions - from a wide variety of people - not just the experts.

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  14. Working in Diverse Teams

    A Boston Consulting Group article entitled "The Mix that Matters: Innovation through Diversity" explains a study in which they sought to understand the relationship between diversity in managers (all management levels) and innovation (Lorenzo et al., 2017). The key findings of this study show that:

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    By comparison, the impact of identity diversity is mixed. One part of this is due to the fact that routine tasks are better done by individuals. A second part of it is due to the fact that ...

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  17. Teams Solve Problems Faster When They're More Cognitively Diverse

    David Lewis March 30, 2017 Post Post Looking at the executive teams we work with as consultants and those we teach in the classroom, increased diversity of gender, ethnicity, and age is apparent....

  18. Leveraging Diversity for Innovation and Problem-Solving

    Diversity plays a crucial role in driving innovation and problem-solving within organizations. Promoting inclusion in innovation and maximizing the potential of diverse teams are key factors in leveraging diversity for innovation and problem-solving. When organizations embrace diversity, they are able to tap into a wide range of perspectives ...

  19. Diversity in STEM: What It Is and Why It Matters

    These differences can bring new perspectives needed to promote innovation. 2. Lack of diversity represents a loss of talent. ... Diversity leads to better problem-solving, expands the talent pool ...

  20. Diversity: Promoting new perspectives

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  21. Why Is Diversity Important in the Workplace?

    1. Hire leaders that value diversity. A highly effective way for a company to embrace diversity is for its senior leadership team to embrace diversity. Not only does company culture start at the top, but diverse leaders will help write diversity directly into the company's objectives, keeping it at the forefront of its values.

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