Diversity for innovation

Last week I was introduced to the concept of ‘Cognitive diversity’ by a proud CEO brandishing a colourful diagram illustrating the diverse personalities on his leadership team. Leading a business that has disrupted its market for over 10 years, this freshly appointed CEO intends to pay close attention to people dynamics to continue to disrupt and innovate. Diversity from this perspective becomes a powerful and commercial component of business; a catalyst for boosting performance and generating new ideas.

“Where do new ideas come from? The answer is simple: differences. Creativity comes from unlikely juxtapositions.” Nicholas Negroponte, Professor and Co-Founder, MIT Media Laboratory as quoted in John Maeda’s Design in Tech report from SXSW 2017. http://bit.ly/2mVkq0x

“...when we are dealing with complex tasks like engineering problems, or tasks requiring creativity and innovation, or managerial issues, cognitive diversity is a key explanatory variable in levels of performance.”  Steve Denning, forbes.com  http://bit.ly/2ngR5Og

Diversity in business can also be achieved through ‘inter-disciplinary effort’. A theme celebrated this month at a lecture given by Lego’s EVP and CFO John Goodwin. John shared the transformational strategy (and learnings along the way) that helped Lego rise to the second most reputable brand in the world. A vital component of that strategy was a new organisational model that put ‘interconnectivity’ at the heart of the way Lego works. A model that ‘enforces’ cross-functional collaboration. That rewards collaboration over functional measures, promoting ‘team creativity’ with ‘no functional bias’.

When talking about innovation at Lego, John asked a question we should all ask ourselves… if we we claim to be innovative, are we clear what we are innovating for? With the answer comes focus and alignment. Effort coordinated and streamlined. One purpose or goal that teams get behind and willingly apply their diverse minds, skills and talent to achieving.

But a shared purpose will not make it easy to work together. That takes shared values. When the CEO that opened this story talked with confidence of a new appointment - yet another individual that did not fit any existing mould - he did so because he knew they shared similar values. Values that transcend personality, experience or functional expertise.

We help our clients embrace diversity in all its forms, celebrate the values and purpose that binds gloriously diverse teams together and watch with wonder at the innovation that results.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash