Diversity Links

Diverse thinking and group decision-making

Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible: Welcome to the ‘BANI’ world

Success in a BANI world—Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible, demands a top-to-bottom transformation of corporate leadership and governance. A crucial element of this transformation is the need for Boards, CEOs, and C-Suite executives to reassess the composition and responsibilities of their respective roles. We propose a five-part framework for this radical shift.

1. Redefining the Board: To provide effective oversight, Boards must recognize the value of every seat at the table. Successfully navigating complex, nonlinear challenges requires a broader definition of diversity to include experiential and cognitive diversity and the goal of true inclusion. Term limits, performance evaluations, and commitment to continuous learning are fundamental to the Board’s ability to stay ahead of rapid changes. And a BANI world requires oversight of corporate strategy to evolve from an annual exercise to a standing agenda item at meetings that include internal and external experts as needed.

Read more here.

Women in leadership: Key insights from the boardroom and beyond

Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible: Welcome to the ‘BANI’ world

In this article, I have sought to capture and synthesize lessons from both worlds: the corporate boardroom and a personal initiative triggered by a crisis more than 2,500 kilometers away. It explores how women can lead effectively with or without formal authority, the importance of diversity in thought and action, and the universal principles that underpin impactful leadership in any context.

In boardrooms across various sectors, what truly matters is diversity of thought, not just gender diversity. The most effective boards demonstrate real diversity of thought, foster a climate of psychological safety, and genuinely accept and celebrate diversity. These elements are crucial for robust decision-making and organizational success.

However, two main failure modes are often observed in boards. The first is a lack of diversity of thought, which can lead to catastrophic decisions. For instance, an investment bank once made a series of poor choices primarily because its leadership was homogeneous – all members shared similar backgrounds and thought patterns. The second failure mode is a lack of psychological safety, where board members feel unable to speak truth to power or challenge ideas. Both scenarios can be detrimental to an organization’s health and performance.

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Does GenAI Impose a Creativity Tax?

Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, and Incomprehensible: Welcome to the ‘BANI’ world

Diversity Was Supposed to Make Us Rich. Not So Much.

The authors propose that whilst Large Language Models (LLMs) can boost worker productivity, outputs may reflect less human creativity and originality. This is especially likely when users are under time pressure and may settle for inauthentic or sub optimal outputs.
Based on mathematical modeling they find that: “…as people try to balance the trade-off between getting optimal output and working most efficiently when interacting with AI, diversity of thought and creativity tend to be lost.”
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Diversity Was Supposed to Make Us Rich. Not So Much.

AI that thinks more like humans using personality-based prompts

Diversity Was Supposed to Make Us Rich. Not So Much.

James Mackintosh writes in the Wall Street Journal sharing that new research questions the methodology of a McKinsey study that helped create widespread belief that diversity is good for profits.

When management consulting firm McKinsey declared in 2015 that it had found a link between profits and executive racial and gender diversity, it was a breakthrough. The research was used by investors, lobbyists and regulators to push for more women and minority groups on boards, and to justify investing in companies that appointed them.

Unfortunately, the research doesn’t show what everyone thought it showed.

Can AI Predict the Future?

AI that thinks more like humans using personality-based prompts

Decision-makers have long relied on the “wisdom of the crowd” — the idea that combining many people’s judgments often leads to better predictions than any individual’s guess. But what if the crowd isn’t human?

New research from Wharton management professor Philip Tetlock finds that combining predictions from multiple artificial intelligence (AI) systems, known as large language models (LLMs), can achieve accuracy on par with human forecasters. This breakthrough offers a cheaper, faster alternative for tasks like predicting political outcomes or economic trends.

“What we’re seeing here is a paradigm shift: AI predictions aren’t just matching human expertise — they’re changing how we think about forecasting entirely,” said Tetlock.

Read more here.

AI that thinks more like humans using personality-based prompts

By incorporating personality-based reasoning and modeling the full spectrum of human thought, this study represents a paradigm shift in AI development. Instead of designing AI that merely provides correct answers, the future of AI may lie in creating systems that think more like us—intuitively, imperfectly, and uniquely.

Read more here.

Forget ‘Owning The Room.’ The Best Leaders Co-Own It

How to lead without authority: Seven lessons from times of crisis

Scott Hutcheson shares that when leaders operate as if they must control the space, they create a bottleneck of decision-making. This approach assumes that one individual (or a select few) has all the necessary insight to navigate complexity. In reality, the best solutions emerge from diverse perspectives—especially in environments where challenges are evolving and unpredictable.

In the 1950s, cybernetics researcher Ross Ashby introduced the Law of Requisite Variety, which states that only a system with sufficient internal variety can effectively respond to complexity. In leadership terms, this means that managing complexity requires cognitive diversity—a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and problem-solving approaches.

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How to lead without authority: Seven lessons from times of crisis

Mary Meaney Haynes shares lessons from leading a humanitarian effort for Ukrainian refugees – despite having no formal authority, title, position, or power.

Leadership comes in many forms, from the boardrooms of global corporations to grassroots efforts in highly challenging circumstances.

7 lessons from times of crisis:

1. Encourage Diversity of Thought.

In both boardrooms and crisis management, diversity of thought is crucial. It’s about bringing together varied perspectives, experiences, and problem-solving approaches. This diversity, coupled with psychological safety, leads to more robust decision-making and innovative, sustainable solutions.

Read more here.

Understanding Different Work Styles Is Key to Team Success

How to lead without authority: Seven lessons from times of crisis

Understanding Different Work Styles Is Key to Team Success

Ed Thompson the founder and CEO of Uptimize, an expert in neuroinclusion in the workplace, and author of A Hidden Force: Unlocking the Potential of Neurodiversity at Work shares that teams cannot achieve their goals unless they appreciate their diversity.

Beyond Simplistic Personality Tests

Some teams, recognizing this fundamental fact at one level, turn to conventional personality tests for answers. Such tests often provide a one-and-done, overly simplified summary of individual contributors—perhaps Ryan is labeled a 'Creator'—that doesn't significantly aid practical collaboration. Indeed, a 2022 study in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes found that 65% of teams that relied solely on personality type indicators showed no measurable improvement in performance or collaboration.

The potential upside of addressing cognitive diversity properly is enormous. Research from MIT's Sloan School of Management demonstrates that teams with high cognitive diversity, when able to work well together, solve complex problems up to 58% faster than more homogeneous teams. Furthermore, a longitudinal study of 150 teams who received cognitive diversity training showed a 34% increase in meeting productivity and a 27% improvement in project completion rates within six months.

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What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety

Why our differences are nature's blueprint for survival

Understanding Different Work Styles Is Key to Team Success

Psychological safety—a shared belief among team members that it’s OK to speak up with candor—has become a popular concept. However, as its popularity has grown, so too have misconceptions about it. Such misunderstandings can lead to frustration among leaders and employees, stymie constructive debates, and ultimately harm organizational performance.

In this article the authors identify the following six common misperceptions: Psychological safety means being nice; it means getting your way; it means job security; it requires a trade-off with performance; it’s a policy; and it requires a top-down approach. They explain why each misperception gets in the way and give advice on how to counter it. They also offer leaders a blueprint for building the kind of strong, learning-oriented work environment that is crucial for success in an uncertain world. Leaders should clearly communicate what psychological safety is and what it isn’t, and take steps to improve the quality of conversations and to establish structures and rituals that will help teams assess their progress in building a psychologically safe environment.

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Why our differences are nature's blueprint for survival

Sam Goldstein Ph.D. from Common Sense Science shares that nature abounds with examples where diversity equals resilience. Coral reefs, often referred to as the rainforests of the sea, thrive partly due to the genetic diversity among their symbiotic algae, which enables different colonies to withstand heat stress in various ways. Likewise, wolves, which once suffered from genetic bottlenecks due to human persecution, have rebounded partly due to careful reintroduction programs that prioritize genetic diversity (Wayne & Hedrick, 2011)...

While genetic diversity is fundamental to biological survival, social and cognitive diversity are equally vital for societal progress. Different ways of thinking, varied cultural experiences, and distinct backgrounds contribute to community innovation and resilience. Page (2007) argues that diverse teams consistently outperform homogeneous teams in terms of problem-solving and creativity. The strength lies not in uniformity but in varied perspectives clashing and coalescing into superior solutions.

The benefits of diversity—both biological and social—are not merely theoretical. They manifest in our capacity to create inclusive societies, develop adaptive technologies, and collaboratively address global challenges. In a rapidly changing world, our collective differences are not liabilities; they are lifelines.

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Why Don't We All Think the Same?

Why our differences are nature's blueprint for survival

From an evolutionary perspective, variation in thought is a strength. Natural selection does not only favor physical traits—it also shapes cognitive diversity. Our ancestors faced various challenges: hunting strategies, social alliances, and interpreting threats. Those who could interpret situations differently from others sometimes survived when the majority made mistakes. That divergence in perspective often meant the difference between survival and demise.

The pressures of group living fostered a division of cognitive labor. In any tribe, some members tended to be cautious while others exhibited more daring tendencies. Some concentrated on long-term planning, whereas others were alert to immediate dangers. This combination enabled groups to adapt flexibly to unpredictable environments.

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20 Key Diversity Factors Businesses Often Overlook (But Shouldn't)

In the workplace, diversity is often limited to visible traits like race and gender, which overlooks factors like neurodiversity or different personality styles. When business leaders account for differences in thinking and problem-solving, they can build stronger, more adaptable teams.

Below, 20 members of Forbes Business Council share insights into the types of diversity that businesses tend to overlook and why these factors matter. By embracing a broader understanding of diversity, business leaders can foster a deeply inclusive workplace where innovation and creativity thrive.

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A Call for New Perspectives on Cognitive Evolution

20 Key Diversity Factors Businesses Often Overlook (But Shouldn't)

A new study, led by SapienCE scientists Andrea Bender and Larissa Mendoza Straffon, – in collaboration with cognitive anthropologist John B. Gatewood from Lehigh, and elaborating on ideas of past SapienCE member Sieghard Beller – argues that data from comparative cognitive studies across cultures and languages, among others, should be systematically incorporated in research on human cognitive evolution. Models that simply reverse-engineer cognitive abilities from the present into the evolutionary past require revision.

In the study published in Psychological Review, the researchers discuss how cultural variation produces diverse ways of seeing and thinking about the world, and how this subsequently influences everything from how we perceive and sort colours or represent spatial relations to the emotions we feel, as demonstrated by cross-cultural and cross-linguistic data.

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How to manage tensions with colleagues and avoid confrontation

20 Key Diversity Factors Businesses Often Overlook (But Shouldn't)

What Our Brain Activity Reveals About Improving Workplace Culture

Having to get along with different kinds of people is a normal part of working life, and some disagreement is inevitable. In fact, it is even a sign of a healthy business, experts say. “Conflict is a sign of a high-performance workplace...of people who care, people who are passionate,” says Leigh Thompson, professor of dispute resolution and organisations at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Illinois. Conversely, organisations where people are too fearful of confrontation can suffer because no one wants to say they disagree or offer a different perspective. “We’re hard-wired for likeability, it’s how we have survived as humans,” says Amy Gallo, contributing editor at Harvard Business Review and author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People). “We really worry about hurting people’s feelings — women, especially, because of the way we’re socialised.” But sometimes there is someone you hit a brick wall with. What then?

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What Our Brain Activity Reveals About Improving Workplace Culture

Inclusion at Work Panel’s recommendations for improving Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace

What Our Brain Activity Reveals About Improving Workplace Culture

Countless management and HR blogs, articles, and books are packed with advice about best practices for improving workplace culture, making teamwork more effective, and ways to stay on task and get the most out of meetings. In parallel, organizations often query employees with self and peer assessments to better understand employee engagement. So why don’t those approaches always work? Most organizations don’t take a neuroscience perspective into account. What people can and are willing to self-report does not always predict their behaviors, decisions, and outcomes. Moving the needle requires getting neuroscience out of the lab and measuring neural activity in the real world and in real contexts. That is, we need to measure our brains while we do work at work, quite literally.

To do just that, Slalom, a global consulting company, and the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative (WiN) set out to do something together in 2022–2023 that had never been done before. With guidance and expert oversight, Slalom employee volunteers agreed to measure their own brain activity while engaged in their real work. This data was then analyzed jointly by WiN and Slalom. This unique collaboration to get neuroscience out of the lab and “into the wild” has some provocative implications for driving creative thinking, boosting employee engagement, and fostering enhanced team chemistry.

Read more here.

Inclusion at Work Panel’s recommendations for improving Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace

The terms ‘diversity’, ‘inclusion’ (and other associated terminology) are conceptually ambiguous, rapidly evolving, and often conflated. The terms ‘equality’ and ‘equity’ are also used interchangeably, incorrectly. Within academic literature[footnote 9] these have different definitions, sometimes as conflicting concepts (equality of opportunity versus equality of outcome). While, recently, much emphasis has been on ‘diversity’ in the form of the descriptive representation of characteristics (primarily ethnicity and gender), it is not self-evident that focusing on visible characteristics promotes a meaningful level of diversity. An organisation may be proportionately representative of the population in gender and race. However, if the workforce remains largely socio-economically and geographically homogenous (for example, composed of middle-class graduates from South East England) it is likely unrepresentative in life experience and values.

‘Inclusion’ is yet more ambiguous as it is less empirical. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) defines inclusion as “the practice of including people in a way that is fair for all, values everyone’s differences, and empowers and enables each person to be themselves and achieve their full potential and thrive at work.” The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) defines it as “ultimately about attracting and unleashing talent, gathering different perspectives to solve wicked problems, creating a collaborative culture and driving innovation.” Each definition implies interventions are necessary but both remain abstract and, fundamentally, subjective.

As noted, employers are also now expected to take action to achieve ‘equality’ and ‘equity’. Harvard Law Professor Minow highlights a conflict between the 2 concepts: equality requires impartiality and focuses on fairness for future opportunities; equity considers past (dis)advantage and intervenes to correct current disparities. However, judgements of relative advantage between individuals and groups (by virtue of their characteristics), and the proportionality of differential treatment required to address disadvantage, is complex and likely beyond the capability of a corporate HR team.

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Diversity, Innovation, and Canned Soup.

Inclusion at Work Panel’s recommendations for improving Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace

In light of a number of somewhat braying articles in the mainstream media suggesting excessive ‘wokeism’ is rife within the military, it seemed an opportune moment to investigate many of the claims of Defence surrounding the topic of Diversity and Inclusion.

By and large, there are now two common uses of the term ‘diversity’:

The first, more traditional usage is an indication of variety, used such as when highlighting the unrivalled diversity of life within the Amazon rainforest, or the splendid diversity of Heinz’ current soup range.

The second, social definition, employed more formally by Defence within this context, refers to an action, being “the recognition of differences between individuals or groups”. In relation to this latter definition, a second element is attached, that of ‘inclusion’, which the organisation characterises as “the effect of good diversity management ensuring that all individuals, no matter what their unique differences feel they belong [and are therein able to contribute effectively] to the wider team.” A prudent step, given that recognition alone without action would amount to no change.

Combined, Diversity and Inclusion within this context therefore seek to optimise the relationships (through inclusion) between all the members of the force, based off understanding and acknowledgement of each individual’s identified differences (Diversity). In this sense, diversity is seen as a start state, and inclusion a vehicle of action by which to optimise it.

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The Art of Asking Smarter Questions

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - Beyond Demographic Diversity

Applying Cognitive Diversity to Sustainability

With organizations of all sorts facing increased urgency and unpredictability, being able to ask smart questions has become key. But unlike lawyers, doctors, and psychologists, business professionals are not formally trained on what kinds of questions to ask when approaching a problem. They must learn as they go. In their research and consulting, the authors have seen that certain kinds of questions have gained resonance across the business world. In a three-year project they asked executives to brainstorm about the decisions they’ve faced and the kinds of inquiry they’ve pursued. In this article they share what they’ve learned and offer a practical framework for the five types of questions to ask during strategic decision-making: investigative, speculative, productive, interpretive, and subjective. By attending to each, leaders and teams can become more likely to cover all the areas that need to be explored, and they’ll surface information and options they might otherwise have missed.

Read more here.

Applying Cognitive Diversity to Sustainability

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - Beyond Demographic Diversity

Applying Cognitive Diversity to Sustainability

Dr Axel Kravatzky shares a perspective on decision-making for sustainability.

The journey towards sustainability is not just about choosing the right thing to do. It is about understanding deeply the ground on which these decisions stand.

This understanding is rooted in strong, evidence-based decision-making processes that can transform how companies perceive their context and the developmental trajectories they choose.

In an era where sustainability challenges are as complex as they are critical, the path to corporate resilience and responsibility is fraught with the need for nuanced decision-making.

Diversity in decision-making is not just about fulfilling a quota or being politically correct. It is about enriching the decision-making process with varied perspectives that can lead to more innovative and effective solutions. Alex Edmans, in his insightful recent book, May Contain Lies highlights how diversity in gender, ethnicity, age and socio-economic backgrounds contributes to a richer, more comprehensive understanding of issues.

This diversity helps in mitigating risks associated with groupthink – a phenomenon where the desire for harmony or conformity results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.

Read more here.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion - Beyond Demographic Diversity

Why diversity on trustee boards is vital to solving the big issues

Alex Edmans, London Business School, CEPR, and ECGI; Caroline Flammer, Columbia University, NBER, and ECGI; Simon Glossner, Federal Reserve Board, share that companies, investors, policy makers, and wider society are paying increased attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within firms. DEI initiatives have two motivations – to improve a company’s long-term financial performance, and contribute to societal goals.

In practice, DEI initiatives focus almost exclusively on demographic diversity because it is easy to measure. Such initiatives have been justified by papers claiming a strong link between demographic diversity and financial returns, but they are deeply flawed. For example, numerous McKinsey studies claim a positive link between ethnic diversity and firm performance, but the results cannot be replicated even with their chosen performance measure (EBIT) and preferred methodology. Moreover, there is no link with other performance measures – gross margin, return on assets, return on equity, sales growth, or total shareholder return – or when using more established methodologies. The UK’s Financial Reporting Council published a study claiming that “Higher levels of gender diversity of FTSE 350 boards positively correlate with better future financial performance (as measured by EBITDA margin)”. Yet out of their 90 regressions linking diversity to the EBITDA margin, zero are significant.

In a recent paper, we take a first step towards measuring the DEI of a company, employing proprietary data used by the Great Place to Work® (GPTW) to compile the list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America.

Read more here.

Why diversity on trustee boards is vital to solving the big issues

Pat Sharman, co-founder of advocacy group Everyone Matters, explains how diversity on trustee boards can help address complex and important issues such as climate change.

A 2016 Harvard Business Review article concluded that cognitively diverse teams are better equipped to manage, and respond correctly to, uncertain and complex situations.

It also found that the most cognitively diverse team more than halved the time it took to complete a strategic exercise compared to their least diverse peers.

Pension scheme trustees are faced with increased complexity – for example, climate change and nature-related risks. These risks are some of the most difficult to understand, make informed decisions on and manage. We need diversity of thought, which will lead to creative and critical thinking, to address these challenges.

Read more here.

Do We Make Better Group Decisions When Our Hearts Synchronize?

Why diversity on trustee boards is vital to solving the big issues

Do We Make Better Group Decisions When Our Hearts Synchronize?

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Michael Platt and his colleagues found heart rate synchrony predicted the probability that groups would reach the correct consensus with more than 70% cross-validation accuracy, thus providing a biomarker of interpersonal engagement that facilitates adaptive learning and effective information sharing during collective decision making.

“Heart rate synchrony was a much better predictor than any of the standard kind of survey questionnaire-based self-reports,” Platt says. “It indicates that heart rate synchrony can be a reliable, scalable measure for assessing and improving team dynamics.”

Read more here.

For New Ideas, Think Inside (This) Box

Why diversity on trustee boards is vital to solving the big issues

Do We Make Better Group Decisions When Our Hearts Synchronize?

Traditional brainstorming, as coined by Alex Osborne in the 1950s, asks participants to consider any and all ideas that might solve a problem. While blue-sky, no-limits thinking has several benefits, the drawback is that leaders often, paradoxically, get stuck. They encounter challenges like the “curse of the blank page,” not knowing where to start because they can start anywhere. They may also face the “Einstellung effect,” a phenomenon whereby the easy recollection of familiar solutions can block their ability to think of new ones.

This has led some to (erroneously) believe that generating solutions is best left to people who are naturally creative. The good news is that there are tools that can help one become much better at generating new ideas.

Read more here.

How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation

The authors surveyed employees at more than 1,700 companies in eight countries (Austria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Switzerland, and the US) across a variety of industries and company sizes. (This was a followup study to one reported on in 2017 The Mix That Matters: Innovation Through Diversity , BCG Focus, April 2017, and discussed in an accompanying TED talk .) We looked at perceptions of diversity at the management level across six dimensions—gender, age, nation of origin (meaning employees born in a country other than the one in which the company is headquartered), career path, industry background, and education (meaning employees’ focus of study in college or graduate school). To gauge a company’s level of innovation, we looked at the percentage of total revenue from new products and services launched over the past three years.

The biggest takeaway they found is a strong and statistically significant correlation between the diversity of management teams and overall innovation. Companies that reported above-average diversity on their management teams also reported innovation revenue that was 19 percentage points higher than that of companies with below-average leadership diversity—45% of total revenue versus just 26%.

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Set Your Committees Up for Success

How Diverse Leadership Teams Boost Innovation

Despite the many advantages that committees bring, decision-making groups are known to face several challenges in surfacing and processing information. These challenges stem from a common root: sharing unique information incurs significant costs to the individual. Research into decision making in the FDA’s Advisory Committees shows how subtle changes in how committees operate can lead to powerful improvements in information sharing, unlocking the genuine potential of the collective expertise assembled in the committee. The general lessons from the research are that in designing committee and other group processes, leaders should focus on committee process, not just outcomes; address status and communication barriers head-on; and adopt simultaneous voting.

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Frustrated by tedious and unproductive meetings? These strategies can help teams work smarter

Most workers will be familiar with this scene: a meeting that goes round and round on a topic – one that may not be important to the priorities of the company. People leave the meeting frustrated and unheard. And the whole experience is repeated the next time everyone meets.

But does this have to be inevitable? Or is there a better way to organise how we interact within teams to support effective decision making?

Team decision making is thought to be critical for organisational success. Yet there are often real challenges that lead to conflict and confusion.

We define effective team decision making as a process of understanding a complex problem, identifying alternative solutions, and finally selecting the most appropriate option to meet the team’s objectives.

Read more here.

The art of making good mistakes

Frustrated by tedious and unproductive meetings? These strategies can help teams work smarter

Do good teams make fewer mistakes? It seems a reasonable hypothesis. But in the early 1990s, when a young researcher looked at evidence from medical teams at two Massachusetts hospitals, the numbers told her a completely different story: the teams who displayed the best teamwork were the ones making the most mistakes.

What on earth was going on?

The researcher’s name was Amy Edmondson and, 30 years after that original puzzle, her new book Right Kind of Wrong unpicks a morass of confusion, contradiction and glib happy talk about the joys of failure. She solved the puzzle soon enough. The best teams didn’t make more errors; they admitted more to making errors. Dysfunctional teams admitted to very few, for the simple reason that nobody on those teams felt safe owning up.

Read more here.

Maximising the effectiveness of R&D teams by optimising cognitive diversity

Frustrated by tedious and unproductive meetings? These strategies can help teams work smarter

Maximising the effectiveness of R&D teams by optimising cognitive diversity

The focus on innovation necessitates an answer to the question, “do you only need innovators in an R&D team?”

In essence, no. Success in R&D spaces must take into account both the research and discovery stage of the project, or process, and the development and execution stage.

R&D team members each have innate ways they prefer to ideate, utilise structures for efficiency, and negotiate rules and norms on their teams. In order to maximise success, it is invaluable for project managers to understand the cognitive diversity of the team and best leverage it at various stages.

Decades of research around Kirton’s Adaption-Innovation Theory, a psychometric measurement of problem-solving, has proven that both adaptive and innovative individuals are needed for teams addressing complex problems.

Adaptive people tend to be more enabled by rules and routines, using tried and tested solutions to solve problems, while innovative people thrive in situations which involve less structure and less constraints.

In recent work with a US-based global home products development company, the author helped identify the preferred cognitive problem-solving style of team members and their managers in order to identify where there may be cognitive gaps between the style of individuals and particular tasks and individuals and team members.

Read more here.

Achieving the Power of Cognitive Diversity

The most important part of diversity is diversity of thought

Maximising the effectiveness of R&D teams by optimising cognitive diversity

Different brains do it better.

Justin James Kennedy and Faye Cormick explore the barriers to cognitive diversity and how our commitment to embracing it can unlock its full potential.

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.

Read more here.

Introducing a rapid self-test for cognitive diversity

The most important part of diversity is diversity of thought

Gary Klein, Emily Newsome, Kari Hoy, Wendy Jephson, and Malcolm MacColl introduce 6 questions to size up your team’s dynamics.

In a previous article on cognitive diversity, the differences in how people think about important tasks and activities, five dimensions that seem to matter in a workplace were described:

Dimension 1: Reactions to novel ideas

Dimension 2: General mindset or stance (contrarian, trend analyst, disruptor)

Dimension 3: Knowledge and experience

Dimension 4: Preference for working collaboratively or independently

Dimension 5: Tolerance for uncertainty

These five dimensions seem to make a difference. You want cognitive diversity on some of the dimensions (reactions to novel ideas, general mindset, knowledge, and experience). However, different preferences for working collaboratively or independently can be counter-productive. So can differences in how well people tolerate uncertainty—when is it time to make a decision versus when do you need to gather more information.

But how can a leader determine where each team member stands on these dimensions? Trying to arrange for sufficient cognitive diversity only makes sense if you can tell where the team members stack up. Ditto for trying to reduce cognitive diversity on dimensions 4 and 5.

Read more here.

The most important part of diversity is diversity of thought

Rachel Treece, CEO of The Henka Institute and FTS Global, shares her perspective on diversity ahead of the Clearstream Fund Summit.

What does diversity mean to you?

The most important part of diversity, ultimately, is diversity of thought. Because when we have diversity of thought, ultimately, that helps bring in a broad range of perspectives.

When we have different perspectives, that can really foster innovation. If we have diverse teams, they can reflect a broader customer base. Diverse workforces can help improve decision-making processes, they can help with risk management and they can help with overall firm performance.

Read more here.

Diversity of Thought A New Approach to Equity Alpha

AI's paradox lies in its potential to both enforce and break societal norms

Diversity of Thought A New Approach to Equity Alpha

AllianceBernstein's Gayle Baldwin| Senior Research Analyst and Portfolio Manager—Equities, and Vivian Lubrano| Portfolio Manager—Equities, share that companies that are thoughtful about assembling teams with different cognitive diversity, different ways of thinking, have the potential to really outperform. Investors don't necessarily understand or are identifying that as a source of alpha.

Read more here.

The Neurodiversity Movement Has A Moment This Year

AI's paradox lies in its potential to both enforce and break societal norms

Diversity of Thought A New Approach to Equity Alpha

Gaining ground in 2023, the movement is making its mark on social media as well as science.

Neurodiversity is a term that refers to the natural range of differences in people’s brains. The neurodiversity movement says that the brains that diverge from the average within that range shouldn’t be dismissed as deficient automatically. Instead, if a neurodivergent person struggles to function in society, it may be because there’s a mismatch between their abilities and their surroundings, not because there’s something inherently wrong with their thinking.

The term dates back to the autism community in the 1990s, though it’s now applied to all sorts of mental differences — from ADHD to synesthesia. And though neurodiversity went mainstream as a social justice movement, it’s now transforming the way we research the brain, with more and more researchers applying neurodiversity-inspired approaches to cognition.

Read more here.

AI's paradox lies in its potential to both enforce and break societal norms

John Nosta, an innovation theorist and founder of NostaLab, shares that the challenge in this AI-dominated era is to find a balance. AI's influence in shaping societal norms and values is profound, not just in technological terms but also in framing how societies think and process information. The critical task is to harness AI's potential for expanding knowledge and cognitive diversity while being vigilant about not falling into digital echo chambers that could limit thought diversity and critical engagement.

Read more here.

Does a psychologically safe environment lead to better decision-making?

AI's paradox lies in its potential to both enforce and break societal norms

Recent research from the University of Canterbury has looked at the way psychological safety, independent thinking and inclusion can have a positive impact on team decision making.

The study involved a survey of 35 New-Zealand based decision making teams and found that those who described higher levels of psychological safety were more likely to report effective decision making.

“Over 60% of those who agreed to the statement ‘I feel safe offering new ideas, even if they aren’t fully formed plans’ also agreed with the statement ‘The selected solutions were of high quality’,” The Conversation reported.

Read more here.

Why good boards make bad decisions

Does a psychologically safe environment lead to better decision-making?

Embracing difference: Why investment teams must be cognitively diverse

Problematic group dynamics can derail all kinds of teams, and boards are no exception. For example, boards can easily find themselves mired in ruts, following comfortably familiar patterns that can lead to ineffective oversight. Directors brought onto boards for their creativity and independence may find themselves in a boardroom culture that pushes them to be deferential and disinclined to challenge the status quo. Reaching consensus may become the goal more than offering input and solutions; consequently, board members known for rationality and agility can become irrational and obstinate.

The good news: board culture doesn’t have to become dysfunctional. Boards can take proactive steps to resolve problems and maintain effectiveness. But this requires directors to be conscious of the dynamics of group behavior — the psychology of the boardroom. It requires them to consider some key questions:

How does this board respond when we feel under threat?
What are we inclined to do when things are not working out as anticipated? Do we double down?
Do we rationalize our past decisions? Do we permit the company to continue to pursue strategies that are not working — or “throw good money after bad” — because we can’t accept that we made the wrong call?
Is our boardroom a place where healthy debate and dissenting views are welcomed? Or is departing from the consensus view a one-way ticket to marginalization?

Read more here.

Embracing difference: Why investment teams must be cognitively diverse

Does a psychologically safe environment lead to better decision-making?

Embracing difference: Why investment teams must be cognitively diverse

Tough and volatile investment environments, pressure on costs and competition for jobs are creating pressure on investment teams to perform better. At the same time investment professionals need to jettison some antiquated approaches to decision making to keep pace with social norms. Cognitive diversity in teams has been hailed as a saviour.

For investment teams, in particular, subject-matter and financial expertise is taken as a given, and it is about finding ways of taking different routes to arrive at conclusions and to make decisions. Bringing more than one way of thinking about something helps teams test, challenge or indeed avoid assumptions and biases than could affect the process if everyone thinks the same way.

For investors facing increasingly complex, inter-related and volatile investment markets, diversity of thinking is a tool to make better investment decisions – both what to invest in, and what not to.

Read more here.

A Recruiter’s Guide to an Effective Board

Inviting Diverse Voices to Speak Up in the Boardroom

Expectations for boards are higher than ever, but finding the right kind of directors is tough. Janice Ellig of executive search firm Ellig Group offers her perspectives on how to make boards run at maximum efficiency.

“From my extensive experience as a search advisor, the hallmarks of effective boards are five components: composition, competencies, courage, communications, and character,” said Janice Ellig, CEO at Ellig Group.

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Inviting Diverse Voices to Speak Up in the Boardroom

The Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) Insights Council shares that all facets of diversity in the boardroom—including gender, race, age, experience and expertise—are intended to strengthen the perspectives that shape and guide a cohesive corporate strategy. However, even diverse boards cannot combat groupthink or improve decision-making unless every director feels free to contribute with their unique perspectives.

As a follow-up to “Best Practices for Welcoming Diverse Board Members,” the Nasdaq Center for Board Excellence’s DE&I Insights Council polled sitting directors about the practices they have observed in the boardroom that encourage every director at the table to speak up—especially when their perspective is not in alignment with the group at-large. Based on their experience sitting on more than a dozen public company boards and some private boards, directors shared their practical tips for fostering an inclusive culture in the boardroom.

Read more here.

Better brainstorming: Try brainwriting

Inviting Diverse Voices to Speak Up in the Boardroom

Better brainstorming: Try brainwriting

Group brainstorming sessions have long been relied upon as the best way to uncover your team’s biggest and brightest ideas.

But the process? Oof, it can be fraught with frustration.

Some people feel may pressured and panicked as they try to come up with anything to share. Others inevitably steamroll their way in and dominate the entire conversation. It can feel like the whole meeting quickly turns into a competition of quantity over quality and, before you know it, you have dozens of half-baked ideas and no clear next steps.

Brainwriting is the better way. It’s a technique that will help your team generate ideas in an intentional, organized, collaborative, and perhaps most importantly, non-panic-inducing way.

Read more here.

DEI and stock returns

Find Your Competitive Edge With Three Modern Approaches To Diversity

Better brainstorming: Try brainwriting

Companies, investors, policymakers, and wider society are paying increased attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) within firms. DEI initiatives have two motivations – that DEI improves a company’s long-term financial performance, and that it contributes to societal goals. Under both financial and social motives, the relevant measures of DEI are holistic. New ideas, and thus superior financial performance, stem from cognitive rather than purely demographic diversity. Similarly, social outcomes stem from providing opportunities to underrepresented groups across all areas, such as demographic, disability status, socioeconomic, and educational. Moreover, both goals require not only diversity but also equity and inclusion. Hiring minorities to tick a box, but failing to ensure that they can thrive and be themselves at work, will achieve neither the financial benefits of cognitive diversity nor the social outcomes of meaningful employment.

However, given measurement challenges, DEI metrics often focus narrowly on demographic diversity. For example, legal quotas or investor guidelines typically capture only the number of women on the board. Perhaps due to the narrowness of such a measure, academic research on the link between boardroom gender diversity and firm performance typically finds negative or insignificant effects. Similarly, company reports often include the percentage of females or ethnic minorities in the wider workforce, but neither measure captures cognitive diversity, nor equity and inclusion.

Read more here.

Find Your Competitive Edge With Three Modern Approaches To Diversity

In the natural world, as in business, variation provides strength and an increased chance of long-term survival. By emulating the variation found throughout nature, companies can better manage complexity, innovation and productivity. Most organizations, however, still limit diversity initiatives to demographic variations, such as ethnicity, age, gender, disability and personal preferences. There is no debate; hundreds of studies already prove that traditional, demographics-based diversity increases a company’s chance for long-term success, and it represents a foundational approach that is already protected by laws developed in the 1960s.

But it is just the beginning of how variation in the workplace can expand in modern times to improve business performance. Beyond demographics, progressive companies can adopt a more strategic approach to variation based on cognitive thinking, cognitive technologies and diversity dynamics.

Read more here.

Messy internal culture' linked to lower investment returns

Find Your Competitive Edge With Three Modern Approaches To Diversity

Companies put themselves at risk by not developing a positive company culture and structure, which can lead to face lower investment returns, greater staff turnover and being shunned by investors, speakers at Investment Week’s Sustainable Investment Festival warned.

Read more here.

Board Development: Embracing Diversity of Thought as a Catalyst for Change

Do Great Minds Really Think Alike? The Necessity for Cognitive Diversity in the Military

Mina Worthington, President and CEO, Solarity Credit Union, shares that modernizing a board can feel like a heavy task, but it's necessary to actualize the change we're looking to create.

The Board of Directors is the heart of an organization. The people sitting around a boardroom table make decisions that can and should enhance your company. Board member diversity can ensure the inclusion of a variety of perspectives to make more informed decisions with more positive impacts on more people.

Traditionally, credit union board members are homogenous, long-tenured, and often share similar stories. This dynamic may have worked in the past, but it risks stagnation and can leave little room for new ideas and perspectives. Over the last 15 years, I've noticed a growing push toward diversifying these credit union boardrooms. However, acknowledging the fact that more diversity is needed is not enough — change often only occurs when bold moves are made.

Read more here.

Do Great Minds Really Think Alike? The Necessity for Cognitive Diversity in the Military

What is cognitive diversity?

Cognitive diversity is the ‘bringing (of) divergent perspectives to the problem in order to redefine or broaden the problem or generate a greater number of possible solutions.' Humans have inherently different cognitive traits, which stem from factors such as upbringing, education, values, and different experiences that make up our personality and thinking styles.

Those in the military context are extensively trained to deal with complex and uncertain operating environments and are forced to make quick, logical decisions under extremely stressful conditions. These individuals are highly educated and professionally trained in the science and art of war and are also provided the opportunity to focus their training to form a specialist skillset. The universal way of teaching in the military begs the question: is there too much of an emphasis on simple linear thinking?

Read more here.

How to vaccinate the Reserve Bank of Australia against groupthink

Do Great Minds Really Think Alike? The Necessity for Cognitive Diversity in the Military

How to vaccinate the Reserve Bank of Australia against groupthink

The Reserve Bank’s new monetary policy committee should operate like the diverse group of health experts that approved the COVID-19 vaccines says Economist Jonathan Kearns.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. It is likely few of us had heard of ATAGI or at least paid it much attention before the pandemic. But as we waited for ATAGI to recommend the approval of COVID-19 vaccines, its work was front of mind. We were hanging on their expertise. ATAGI’s members brought substantial expertise to that critical decision.

The group comprises experts from relevant medical disciplines including epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists, microbiologists, GPs, nurses and an expert on consumer health. Broad, relevant experience and knowledge enables informed debate on policies, including their risks.

This is exactly how a monetary policy committee should operate. Diversity of thought can avoid groupthink. Expertise can deliver better considered policies, cognisant of risks.

Read more here.

Intelligent Failure

What Evolutionary Biology Can and Can't Tell Us About Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

How to vaccinate the Reserve Bank of Australia against groupthink

Charles Lambdin discusses the themes inspired by Sim Sitkin’s “Learning Through Failure,” from Organizational Learning (1996), which introduced the concept of “intelligent failure.”

Sitkin’s argument is twofold:

1) Failure has benefits that need to be leveraged; and conversely,
2) Success has liabilities that need to be managed.
A lack of failures (i.e., unequivocal positive feedback) tends to produce suboptimal results. This is true for organizations, teams, as well as individuals. If a Scrum team keeps building whatever stakeholders request, and they’re always satisfied, success will be declared and “the business” will probably be happy…even though these solutions might be less value-adding than if the team had pushed back and done some discovery.

Read more here.

What Evolutionary Biology Can and Can't Tell Us About Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Prosanta Chakrabarty, a Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Curator of Fishes at Louisiana State University, shares that some human social constructs like gender are viewed erroneously in an evolutionary context. It’s time for our understanding of a person’s self-identity to evolve.

“Sex” is complicated, much more so in the expression of physical traits than of the physical act. It is perhaps even more complicated than “race,” and, as we have done with human “races,” we have historically pigeonholed the spectrum of sex into discrete categories that don’t actually fit reality. Our contrived social abstractions often include treating “sex” as a synonym of “gender” and equating some forms of sexuality with “normal,” relegating all others to “abnormal” choices or preferences. It’s time we incorporated science into our understanding of these very normal human traits in their full spectrum of variation.

Read more here.

David Snowden on future proofing tomorrow's leaders

What Evolutionary Biology Can and Can't Tell Us About Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Professor Dave Snowden is one of the world’s leading experts in the science of common sense, otherwise known as the science of complexity. A former IBM executive, He’s the founder and chief scientific officer of the Cynefin Company and pioneered tools for developing strategy and good leadership using anthropology and neuroscience. When the European Union, US government or major corporations want to figure out how to identify a problem and then solve it, they turn to him. He’s in New Zealand right, sharing ideas about navigating complexity and uncertainty and teaching Kiwis how to use the tools he’s developed.

Professor Dave Snowden is interviewed during a visit to Wellington, New Zealand, and provides an overview of his work.

Listen to the interview here.

How to brainstorm brilliant ideas in teams – without sliding into ‘groupthink’

Sabrina Habib, Associate Professor of Visual Communications, University of South Carolina, shares that creativity is among the most in-demand skills in the workplace. It’s not surprising that top multinational companies are looking to hire inventive thinkers: Research shows that creativity can drive innovation and resilience in organizations. Tech giant Google has grown by innovating the way we all use the internet. Electric car maker Tesla touts a collaborative working environment to “solve the world’s most important problems with talented individuals.” Still, sharing ideas can get messy when colleagues don’t understand or support novel concepts – or if they shut them down. Research offers some concrete ways to facilitate idea generation, both individually and in groups. But first it helps to know what you’re trying to facilitate.

Read more here.

The Problem with the Diversity Dividend

How to brainstorm brilliant ideas in teams – without sliding into ‘groupthink’

This article highlights the unintended consequences of our current approach to ESG. How it could accelerate the shift from a liberal market economy to crony capitalism in which oligopolies prevail. The gap between small and large companies has been expanding for decades and has reached new extremes during the pandemic.

Like many dangerous ideas, the diversity dividend is seductive. It marries the profit motive with a desire for ethical achievement, creating a righteous fervour among its adherents. However, the complex equilibria that comprise capitalist society have enacted sweeping changes to the way we think and interact over the past 200 years. To dismiss their corruption as mere “woke-washing” is wrongheaded and dangerous.

Read more here.

5 Ways To Boost Cognitive Diversity That Can Lead To Greater Innovation

How to brainstorm brilliant ideas in teams – without sliding into ‘groupthink’

5 Ways To Boost Cognitive Diversity That Can Lead To Greater Innovation

Irma Becerra the President of Marymount University, shares that in today's rapidly changing world, organizations must be able to adapt and innovate to survive. Diversity of thought, experience and perspective can lead to greater creativity and the ability to see problems from multiple angles.

Here are five things leaders should keep in mind when building a team strong in cognitive diversity:

1. Lead with a spirit of humility

2. Hire for innovation

3. Practice active listening

4. Create space for everyone at the table

5. Instill a culture of understanding that missteps may happen

The Innovator’s Imperative

Why Your Team Needs More Conflict Not Less

5 Ways To Boost Cognitive Diversity That Can Lead To Greater Innovation

Bill Brady, Renewable Energy & Sustainable Materials Industry Expert, shares his perspective on solving the flaws of the innovation process.

...You have to think about surrounding yourself with a diversity of thought, diversity of experiences, diversity of training and people who come at problems and solutions from different angles. Included in this are gender diversity, ethnic diversity, age/experience diversity and educational diversity.

Once you’ve developed diversity, the most important thing that a leader has to create is an organization that learns. The best way to do that is to fill the company with people who have growth mindsets. A person with a growth mindset comes into every situation and says, “What am I going to learn from this debate/discussion that’s going to make my opinion better?” They do not go in to defend their position.

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Why Your Team Needs More Conflict Not Less

Organizational development innovator Thane Bellomo shares that you probably have too little conflict on your team. Does that sound strange? Even counterproductive? Most leaders spend a good amount of energy trying to minimize conflict on their teams. But they should actually try to generate conflict.

Before going further, let me be clear that by conflict I do not mean insults, passive aggression, and fistfights. That kind of conflict isn’t useful. What I’m talking about is constructive conflict in the form of productive disagreement—sometimes vehement disagreement.

Conflict of all kinds is something that most of us try to avoid. But it is not an overstatement to say that conflict is an engine of human progress. Humans make sense of the world together by trying different things until we come upon the best solution to whatever problem it is we are trying to solve. This process inevitably—and necessarily—involves conflict.

Read more here.

Is DEI’s Bad Rap Justified?

Why Your Team Needs More Conflict Not Less

CEO of Talking Talent Inc Teresa Hopke shares that the hyper focus on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), especially in recent years, has been met with varying degrees of optimism and skepticism in the workplace.

Some see DEI as a long-overdue way to root out systemic discrimination and to create more inclusive cultures. Others have a distinctly different view of DEI, considering it a political ploy in disguise that is causing more division than good. Well, who’s right?

The answer, unfortunately, is really both sides might be right. Despite DEI's noble and necessary purpose, building inclusive, fair cultures so that diverse people, perspectives, and ideas contribute to stronger connections and a stronger organization, the execution of it sometimes falls short and leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths.

Read more here.

Why you need to ask better questions (and how to learn)

What AI can teach us about human bias in decision making

Why you need to ask better questions (and how to learn)

Natalie Nixon shares that to ask better questions and get more diverse inputs, teams have to practice cognitive diversity and embrace creative abrasion.

To reach better outcomes and come up with better answers, you have to first analyze the quality of your questions. The process of inquiry is essential to the system that is creativity, but you need to inquire about the right things—if you start with unenlightened inputs, you’ll end up with unenlightened outputs. Read more here.

Building a Team to Lead in a Crisis: Four Key Steps

What AI can teach us about human bias in decision making

Why you need to ask better questions (and how to learn)

Crises are experienced in different ways by different people at different levels of an organization or ecosystem. Senior decision-makers are unlikely to have the same understanding or insights as those who directly interface with customers or those grappling with the operational technicalities of the situation. For this reason, “Prepared Leaders” (those who have worked to ready themselves and their organizations to withstand crises) should be open to all input and perspectives that can help create a solution and improve outcomes, wherever that input and those perspectives surface within the organizational hierarchy.

Read more here.

What AI can teach us about human bias in decision making

Diversity in the workplace isn't enough: Businesses need to work toward inclusion

An ensemble of algorithms working together will produce far more accurate predictions than one working alone. Howard H. Yu, a Professor of Management and Innovation at IMD shares that It essentially harnesses cognitive diversity in the world of AI.

The ensemble method works by dividing an existing dataset into small samples, which can then independently train different algorithms at the same time. In these smaller sample sets, these algorithms tend to be weaker. They make more errors in their predictions on their own. But the collective insight, or total wisdom of these algorithms is far superior to that of a single algorithm. In fact, it is better than a single algorithm that is trained by all the data in one go.
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Diversity in the workplace isn't enough: Businesses need to work toward inclusion

Inclusion goes beyond diversity. Perhaps it is not a surprise, then, that scholars have called for a shift in emphasis from studying diversity in the workplace to studying inclusion in the workplace, arguing that although diversity and inclusion are interrelated concepts, they are distinct.

Differences among individuals are not just identified, but are celebrated and integrated into daily work life. These differences are also woven into the organization’s culture through policies, climate, leadership and practices.

Fundamentally, an inclusive climate is a diverse environment within an organization that values the contribution of all employees. It is a workplace climate where people with different beliefs, perceptions and observable characteristics are able to work effectively with others, feel valued, and have strong feelings of belonging within that organizational context.

Read more here.

FCA Recommends Measures Encouraging Diversity and Inclusion in Financial Services

Diversity in the workplace isn't enough: Businesses need to work toward inclusion

FCA Recommends Measures Encouraging Diversity and Inclusion in Financial Services

In 2021 and 2022, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) carried out a survey of firms in respect of their approach to diversity and inclusion.

In advance of a full consultation on new rule proposals in 2023, the FCA has provided a progress update. Overall, the FCA remains concerned about the lack of progress in the industry and has highlighted a number of key points that it encourages regulated firms to consider and use.

Read more here.

Why Diversity and Inclusion Are Good for Business

Diversity in the workplace isn't enough: Businesses need to work toward inclusion

FCA Recommends Measures Encouraging Diversity and Inclusion in Financial Services

Implementing diversity and inclusion is not about representing every race, age, gender and ethnicity group in proportion to the surrounding area. It is also about promoting "cognitive diversity," because people who think differently blend perspectives for stronger collaboration, problem-solving and innovation. Differences in thought processes also help to avoid groupthink, which stifles creativity and results in stale ideas.

Read more here.

Group-think: what it is and how to avoid it

Teams Succeed When They Balance Creativity and Focus

How to Become a Master at Talking to Strangers

The essential ingredient when trying to avoid group-think is to focus first on options and information, and to hold off preferences and advocacy for as long as possible. After determining their objectives, groups should consider as many options as possible. All members should be asked for all relevant information about all of these options – even if the information doesn’t favour options other members seem to prefer. Only after a thorough, systematic search for information should members begin to discuss their preferences or advocate for one option over another.

Read more here.

How to Become a Master at Talking to Strangers

Teams Succeed When They Balance Creativity and Focus

How to Become a Master at Talking to Strangers

Do you talk to strangers and people that are clearly living different lives to you? If you only converse with those you already know, you're very likely limiting your opportunities to hear different points of view. This article by the author of "The Power of Strangers" Joe Keohane is well worth your attention.

"A lot of people hate small talk...Most people don’t understand what it’s for. It’s not the conversation. It’s the opener for a better conversation. It’s a way to get comfortable with one another and cast around for something you want to talk about." If someone asks: What do you do? - you need to understand this question is really asking: What should you and I talk about?"

Read more here.

Teams Succeed When They Balance Creativity and Focus

Diversity and Inclusion in the UK Financial Sector - The UK Regulators' Proposals

Beyond their demographic differences, people working in a group will likely think differently about a collaborative task. That cognitive diversity can be helpful — or not. “In an organization, there’s tension between people who have incongruent ways of thinking about a specific problem to solve,” Amir Goldberg of Stanford Graduate School of Business says.

Read more here.

Diversity and Inclusion in the UK Financial Sector - The UK Regulators' Proposals

Backgrounds, brains, and the business case for diversity: Focus on cognitive diversity

Diversity and Inclusion in the UK Financial Sector - The UK Regulators' Proposals

The objective of the D&I initiatives proposed by the Regulators is to ensure that the financial system is better able to support the economy through well-run firms which can meet the diverse needs of their customers. The Regulators seek a resilient financial services sector which brings together and responds to different views and perspectives so that concerns are raised, and decisions challenged effectively. Diversity and inclusion are seen as reducing “groupthink” and encouraging debate and innovation, thereby improving outcomes for consumers and across markets and supporting financial stability.

The purpose of the Discussion Paper is, amongst other things, to enable the Regulators better to understand from financial firms and other stakeholders how the Regulators can accelerate the pace of meaningful change and what role they can most usefully play to support that change, whilst also recognising the need for collective commitment and leadership from firms on D&I issues. Whilst gender has historically been the focus of diversity initiatives, it is recognised that there is an imbalance in the extent to which other aspects of diversity, including intersectionality, have been addressed. In addition, throughout the Discussion Paper the Regulators are keen to emphasise that any measures introduced should not result in a box-ticking exercise.

Read more here.

SEC approves Nasdaq board-diversity proposal

Backgrounds, brains, and the business case for diversity: Focus on cognitive diversity

On Friday, August 6th 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a plan set forth by the Nasdaq stock exchange to promote diversity among the companies it lists. Late last year, Nasdaq suggested that all listed companies would either have to have underrepresented minority groups on their boards of directors—or would have to explain why they are unable, at this time, to have such minority representation—or they would be delisted.

Skeptics of ESG have argued that the movement’s interpretation of diversity is superficial and potentially violates the law as well as, in their view, best business practices. Proposals like Nasdaq’s, in their opinion, are damaging to business and capital markets over the long-term.

Read more here.

Backgrounds, brains, and the business case for diversity: Focus on cognitive diversity

Now is the time for financial services firms to refocus their efforts on cognitive diversity. This means looking beyond gender and ethnicity, to place emphasis on diversity of both brains and backgrounds, argue the Diversity Project’s Social Mobility workstream leads David Aujla and James Whiteman. Read more here.

Learning: an anthro-complexity perspective

Fostering Diverse Thought Through Representation and Safe Spaces

Are Teams Better Than Individuals at Getting Work Done?

Dave Snowdon reflects on the efficiency focus of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) and the Learning Organisation, which appealed to a more human approach to work.

He shares that anthro-complexity provides a sense of direction and a set of practices that are not dependent on people changing their ‘mindsets’ or behaviour before acting, instead people change as a result of those actions in their own time, and in their own way. Shifting from talking about how things should be to definine the practice, to initiating micro and localised changes in connectivity that of themselves result in change and create a natural environment for talking about things. Safe-to-fail activity, in order to enable conversations, is key here. Read more here.

Are Teams Better Than Individuals at Getting Work Done?

Fostering Diverse Thought Through Representation and Safe Spaces

Are Teams Better Than Individuals at Getting Work Done?

When it comes to getting work done, two heads are better than one. Except when they aren’t.

A new study from Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions Duncan Watts digs into the question of whether it’s better for employees to work in teams or alone — and the answer may be surprising for managers trying to figure out the best way to assign tasks.

In their research, Watts and his co-authors found that the answer depends on the complexity: Simple tasks are best accomplished by individuals, while difficult ones are more efficiently completed by a group

Read more here.

Fostering Diverse Thought Through Representation and Safe Spaces

How To Create Belonging In The Workplace Without Undermining Diversity

Lindsay Jones, Chief People Officer at Delta Capital shares that there is momentum building around “Diverse Thinking.” In particular, but it gets conflated with the topic of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and becomes a convenient alternative.

We must avoid thinking of these initiatives in isolation. Organisations can only really achieve diversity of thought by including employees from all demographics with varied life experiences.

To nurture diverse thought leadership and to incorporate a genuinely successful DEI program, organisations must reinvent their environment.

Read more here.

How To Create Belonging In The Workplace Without Undermining Diversity

From Out Of Touch To Plugged In: Sharing Information Across The Organization

How To Create Belonging In The Workplace Without Undermining Diversity

Audrey Hametner shares how to advance diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging (DEIB) without sacrificing diversity of thought.

It’s absolutely crucial from day one that new hires feel that they are able to propose ideas for change and feel confident to share recommendations for improvement. The reality of their working week then needs to live up to that onboarding "pitch." All too often, creativity and new ideas are stifled by the need to ensure individuals are following the company line and keeping to the processes set out by "invisible" departments.

Read more here.

From Out Of Touch To Plugged In: Sharing Information Across The Organization

Most executives we work with feel a keen sense of responsibility to their organization via strong decision-making. So why are employees so critical? Most executives are making decent decisions, right? Well, maybe not.

Global management consulting firm McKinsey recently released the results of their major study, which indicates that only 28% of executives believe their leadership team consistently makes solid strategic decisions, and 60% of executives believe bad decisions come out of their C-Suite just about as frequently as good ones.

Read more here.

How Artificial Intelligence Can Kill Creativity And Make Us Dumber

From Out Of Touch To Plugged In: Sharing Information Across The Organization

New behavioral experiments by Alok Gupta from University of Minnesota and Andreas Fügener, Jörn Grahl, and Wolfgang Ketter from University of Cologne in Germany bring a cautionary tale for current AI applications. The research, published in late 2021, uncovers risks, consequences, and solutions to over reliance on AI in business and creative decisions.

A good example is over reliance by social media platforms on AI engines to power news feeds. If the AI algorithm converges to certain types of personalized content for a group of individuals, it can lead to an echo chamber within this group. Group members, in turn, can become content with a consistent, self-indulging, AI-filtered message, which is reinforced by peers in the social circle. Oh well, isn’t this already happening in some circles?

Read more here.

Keep Brainstorming — Your Best Ideas Are Still to Come

Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case

Across several studies, Loran Nordgren, a professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School, and Kellogg PhD alumnus Brian Lucas, now of Cornell University, discovered a widespread, persistent, and mistaken belief that creativity drops off with time. They dub this the “creative-cliff illusion.”

What’s more, they found, the illusion is self-defeating. The more people believe in it, the fewer creative ideas they generate. But with experience comes wisdom, Nordgren and Lucas learned: people who do lots of creative work do not fall victim as often to the myth of declining creativity.
Read more here.

Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case

Leaders may mean well when they tout the economic payoffs of hiring more women and people of color, but there is no research support for the notion that diversifying the workforce automatically improves a company’s performance. To fully benefit from increased racial and gender diversity, organizations must adopt a learning orientation and be willing to change the corporate culture and power structure.

Four actions are key for leaders: building trust and creating a workplace where people feel free to express themselves; actively combating bias and systems of oppression; embracing a variety of styles and voices inside the organization; and using employees’ identity-related knowledge and experiences to learn how best to accomplish the firm’s core work.

Read more here.

When Should Leaders Own a Decision and When Should They Delegate?

Getting Serious About Diversity: Enough Already with the Business Case

When Should Leaders Own a Decision and When Should They Delegate?

Who gets involved in making the decision? A well-run company has the right people focused on the right risks. Ideally, the CEO and board of directors should only make decisions at the extremely high end of a risk continuum, leaving mid- and low-risk decisions to those further down the corporate ladder.

Unfortunately, this does not always happen. Too often, low-risk decisions get escalated up to the leadership team. This can happen for a couple of reasons. Sometimes CEOs act like vacuum cleaners, “hoovering” even the smallest decisions upwards. Other times, though, the problem is that the people below the CEO are unwilling to be accountable for mid-risk decisions and push them up to the top.

Read more here.

How Much Board Turnover Is Best?

Proxy Advisory Firm and Institutional Investor Board Diversity Policies

When Should Leaders Own a Decision and When Should They Delegate?

George M. Anderson, a member of Spencer Stuart’s North American board and CEO practice and David Chun, the founder and CEO of Equilar, studied board turnover and shareholder returns for the S&P 500 companies from 2003 to 2013.

On a rolling three-year basis, they divided firms into four groups according to director turnover, then calculated annual total shareholder returns during the subsequent three-year period relative to the industry average.

The results: Companies and investors do best with moderate turnover.

Read more here.

Why You Need a ‘Challenge Network’

Proxy Advisory Firm and Institutional Investor Board Diversity Policies

In an excerpt from his new book, Wharton’s Adam Grant explains why success often comes from surrounding ourselves with “disagreeable” people – skeptics who can point out blind spots, question assumptions and help us overcome our weaknesses.

"We learn more from people who challenge our thought process than those who affirm our conclusions. Strong leaders engage their critics and make themselves stronger. Weak leaders silence their critics and make themselves weaker."
- Adam Grant

Read more here.

Proxy Advisory Firm and Institutional Investor Board Diversity Policies

Institutional investors and proxy advisory firms continue to develop and refine their policies regarding board diversity. While gender diversity on public company boards has been in focus for some time now, institutional investors and proxy advisory firms are also increasingly focusing on racial and ethnic diversity as part of their evolving approach to board diversity.

This is a summary of published board diversity policies of certain institutional investors and proxy advisory firms into a singular resource for ease of reference. Below the initial breakdown, certain policies concerning board diversity shareholder proposals are described.

Read more here.

Do CEOs Matter?

How Leaders Can Truly Improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Their Organizations

It depends, says Guoli Chen, a Professor of Strategy at INSEAD in this insightful interview. He attributes 15 - 20% of firm outcomes to CEOs. Those who have the greatest opportunity to actually do things and make changes are more likely to have an impact.“CEOs and leaders are important, but maybe not as much as we thought”, people tend to over-attribute successes or failures of organisations to a single individual: “the romance of leadership”. Overconfidence and narcissism were two common personality traits for CEOs, which appeared to provide advantages (in moderation), such as creating opportunities. Although the benefits of diverse thinking can certainly be undone by hubristic CEO.
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How Leaders Can Truly Improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Their Organizations

Two professors share research-backed tips for rethinking your recruiting efforts and getting the most out of diversity training.

In many organizations, efforts to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive are falling short. “I think organizations are sort of reckoning with the [reality that] feelings or desires are not enough, that there’s more that needs to be done,” says Ivuoma Onyeador, an assistant professor of management and organizations at Kellogg. “Over the last few years, several companies have faced allegations of discrimination and have had to wrestle with how to address these incidents.”

The stakes for doing better are high—for society, and for the organizations, which face reputational risks and market risks if they cannot reach an increasingly diverse base of employees and customers.

Thankfully, there are tangible things that leaders can do to promote meaningful change in their organizations.

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Boardroom Diversity: beyond gender

How Leaders Can Truly Improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Their Organizations

Four Lessons for Building Diverse Teams

The topic of diversity in the boardroom has been under increasing scrutiny over the years as it is seen to be an important factor in creating a sustainable and successful company. With the question of what makes a diverse board, there have been a variety of initiatives across the globe to increase the representation of wider groups of society at board level for listed companies. While great strides have been made by many countries in relation to gender diversity, is action being taken to expand the diversity of boards beyond this first target?

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Four Lessons for Building Diverse Teams

Companies often hire the exact same type of employee over and over. The thinking is that if employee X is doing a great job and everyone gets along with them, then the smart thing to do must be to hire more people exactly like them. This mentality leads to hiring managers seeking out candidates that identically mirror their existing workforce. They’ll look for the same educational background and skillsets, source from the same narrow list of companies, and look for similar personality traits during interviews. Before you know it, you end up with an entire staff that looks, thinks, and — to a degree — acts almost exactly the same. Not only does this tend to result in a reduction in diversity of thought (among other aspects of diversity), but it can prevent the company from realizing its true potential. Fresh new perspectives are necessary to bring forth bold new ideas, challenge long-standing internal thinking, and provide a more complete internal representation of the customer base.

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The Importance of Diversity of Thought

Four Lessons for Building Diverse Teams

Four common biases in boardroom culture

The word “diversity” often conjures images of a workplace consisting of people from different backgrounds, cultures and genders. While those things certainly explain a component of diversity, it’s only part of what diversity includes. Realistically speaking, physical and social aspects only make up about half of diversity. The remainder lies in diversity of thought.

Not long ago, Denise Young Smith, Apple’s vice president for diversity and inclusion, received criticism for making remarks about white men that many considered to be controversial. She said, ”12 white, blue-eyed, blonde men could be diverse.” Despite the way she framed her statement, Smith may have been on to something.

The point she seemed to be making was that you can have 12 different ethnicities of various ages with an equal number of males and females, yet you may not be fully maximizing the opportunities to drive diversity if you are not also considering diversity of thought.

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Four common biases in boardroom culture

Four Lessons for Building Diverse Teams

Four common biases in boardroom culture

It’s clear that improving board dynamics is an ongoing challenge facing modern companies. For two years running, PwC’s Annual Corporate Directors Survey has revealed that about half (49%) of directors believe that at least one fellow director on their board should be replaced. Here, we lay out how boards can spot the issues that may be holding them back in four key areas: authority bias, groupthink, status quo bias, and confirmation bias. Each has clear warning signs. And for each, equally clear techniques are available to combat the harmful effects.

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Many types of diversity

Diversity of Thought - Thought Leadership Paper with the Chartered Governance Institute

Auckland University of Technology's Dr Akshaya Kamalnath writes that despite [a broad dictionary definition of diversity], we have had almost a single-minded emphasis on gender diversity to the exclusion of other forms of diversity, including racial diversity. Thus, the other types of diversity seem to require a new justification...certain types of companies may feel they value a particular type of diversity over others and prioritise it. If we want companies to truly engage with these issues, they should be given the leg room to decide their priorities and then work towards it.

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Diversity of Thought - Thought Leadership Paper with the Chartered Governance Institute

The concept of diversity of thought (DoT) continues to grow in prominence in governance and other group decision-making contexts. This trend is greatly encouraging. DoT holds the potential to improve both the composition of boards, by bringing together different perspectives, and the way that boards address complex challenges and opportunities.

To date, however, three factors have held back the potential usefulness of DoT:

The lack of a consistent definition for DoT, making it more difficult to identify whether DoT is present (or absent)
Poor dissemination of research findings that provide insight into when DoT is likely to have a positive (or negative) impact on group decision-making
The absence of an effective method for evaluating whether decision-making
groups have sufficient DoT and an ability to apply it – you can only manage what you can measure

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The Role of Psychological Safety in Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity of Thought - Thought Leadership Paper with the Chartered Governance Institute

The Role of Psychological Safety in Diversity and Inclusion

Amy C. Edmondson: Imagine a diverse workplace in which all employees felt a genuine sense of inclusion and belonging. It’s unlikely you work in such an organization today. But it’s clear that every organization, public and private sector alike, is increasingly aware of the need to get to work on making this a reality. I’ve spent over 20 years studying workplaces in healthcare delivery, high tech, the drug industry, consumer products, and more, where people with diverse skills and backgrounds must work together effectively to accomplish challenging goals, and one consistent finding from this research is that psychological safety plays a central role in their success.

Psychological safety – an environment in which people believe that they can speak up candidly with ideas, questions, concerns, and even mistakes – is vital to leveraging the benefits of diversity, because it can help make inclusion a reality. In brief, psychological safety is about enabling candor. Inclusion is necessary for mutual learning – and mutual learning is necessary to progress in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. Extensive academic literature on psychological safety has demonstrated its powerful association with learning and performance in teams and organizations.

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This CIA spy game reveals the secrets of successful teams

The Role of Psychological Safety in Diversity and Inclusion

Researcher Anita Woolley has studied what makes people work well together, so that teams become more than the sum of their parts.

In the late 2000s, the CIA conducted a research project with Harvard University called Project Looking Glass, designed to understand why the intelligence community had failed to foil the September 11 attacks. The project consisted of a spy-game simulation of a terrorist attack: a team of scientists was tasked with planning an attack, and a group of intelligence officers asked to prevent it.

During the simulations, the “terrorists” consistently beat the “spies”. Researchers noticed that the experts struggled to collaborate effectively because they were not making use of individual team members’ different strengths. It was only when they forced them to communicate properly – instructing members to talk to each other about their areas of expertise before moving forward – that they managed to be successful.

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Stand-up Meetings Inhibit Innovation

This CIA spy game reveals the secrets of successful teams

Stand-up Meetings Inhibit Innovation

Andy Wu of Harvard Business School and his doctoral student Sourobh Ghosh embedded a field experiment in a Google hackathon to investigate the impact of stand-up meetings—a core component of agile management practices—on innovation. They found that the teams that engaged in them developed less-novel products. The conclusion: Stand-up meetings inhibit innovation.

Wu: More and more companies are adopting agile practices in product development, but it isn’t always clear why. There seems to be an assumption that agile is a cure-all for innovation. The study that Sourobh and I did, however, shows that one key element of the agile approach—regular stand-up meetings—is great for implementation but actually undermines idea generation.

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Stop Hiring for “Cultural Fit”

This CIA spy game reveals the secrets of successful teams

Stand-up Meetings Inhibit Innovation

When your company is hiring, do people focus on whether a candidate is a good “cultural fit” for the organization?

If the answer is yes, you’re in good company. The vast majority of managers surveyed worldwide consider cultural fit to be one of the top priorities in hiring, explains Lauren Rivera, an associate professor of management and organizations at Kellogg. But, she explains, this is generally a bad instinct.

Hiring for cultural fit, when done well, can boost retention and productivity. But most organizations do it badly, Rivera says. Instead of looking for people who share the company’s values, hiring managers look for people who share their own background and interests. And if the people doing the hiring are predominantly male, or white, or wealthy, then they perpetuate that lack of diversity in their organization.

“What you’re going to get is a copy of your existing employees,” she says. “In many instances, it is a form of discrimination.”

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In R&D, Generalists Are More Valuable Than You Think

How To Attract Top Diverse Talent For Private Equity-Backed Companies

Innovation is an increasingly important source of competitive advantage for companies: Over the last 40 years, organizations have increased their expenditures on R&D as a percentage of all expenses by 800%. However, increased R&D budgets alone do not always lead to real innovation. The types of researchers a company hires plays an important role in whether it will succeed in leaping ahead of competition. But what types of researchers are most valuable?

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How To Attract Top Diverse Talent For Private Equity-Backed Companies

Diverse boards and management teams have been shown to drive innovation through diversity of thought, skills and perspective.

Because private equity firms are accountable for driving long-term returns for their limited partners, and the right executive team can mean the difference of tens to hundreds of millions of value creation, there is little room for error in hiring. How should private equity firms solve the "pipeline" issue and look to find and attract strong diverse candidates in the near term? The key to finding and hiring high-caliber leaders is to expand networks and examine which qualifications will really drive success for the hiring company and its private equity backer.

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Overcoming unconscious bias and implicit associations

How To Attract Top Diverse Talent For Private Equity-Backed Companies

5 Ways to Improve Diversity Training, According to a New Study

While in many cases unconscious bias awareness training may result in insightful discussions, behaviour change may not occur or may only be short term. Additionally with some people, awareness raising may actually unintentionally encourage more biased thinking and behaviours. Also, by hearing that others are biased and it’s ‘natural’ to hold stereotypes, some people may feel less motivated to change their biases.

Moving beyond awareness of unconscious bias and implicit associations to long term bias reversal and inclusive behaviours requires changes in organisational practices plus practical interventions to address personal biases and creation of new positive behaviours and pro-active approaches to working with people who are ‘different’ from the majority group.

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5 Ways to Improve Diversity Training, According to a New Study

Perspectives and the Truth: A Case for diversity, not just in subjects but in researchers too

5 Ways to Improve Diversity Training, According to a New Study

Is that money actually creating meaningful change? In recent years, some social scientists have argued that it isn’t. And studies show little conclusive evidence that diversity trainings shift attitudes and behaviors in a lasting way.

But in a new paper, Ivuoma Onyeador, an assistant professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School, argues that we shouldn’t give up so quickly. She and her coauthors—Evelyn R. Carter of Paradigm Strategy Inc. and Neil A. Lewis Jr. of Cornell University—reviewed the existing research on diversity trainings and used that data to make evidence-based recommendations on how to improve them.

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Perspectives and the Truth: A Case for diversity, not just in subjects but in researchers too

The human mind is inherently interdependent with its ecological, social, political, and cultural environment. Therefore, any understanding of the mind is necessarily incomplete if it fails to consider this interdependence. By hiding the mind’s interdependence with its environment, a mind = computer metaphor may obscure why psychological science requires diversity in both study participants and the scholars who test them. Inclusion and diversity are required for reasons of social justice and fairness...however, that yet another strong case for them can be made.

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It’s time for audit to embrace change and introduce more diversity of thought

Perspectives and the Truth: A Case for diversity, not just in subjects but in researchers too

Katie Canell, Deloitte UK’s managing director for audit innovation: Audit needs to evolve to adapt to the modern business world and the changing needs of its stakeholders. To do this, all parts of the business community need to work together – policymakers, investors, company directors and auditors. You need diversity of thought if you’re going to take a truly holistic look at audit and how it can adapt to modern business and governance needs. That diversity of thought needs to exist within audit firms as well as across the business community. “From our newest recruits at associate level, right the way up to partnership, we have a huge opportunity to draw on different perspectives and challenge different mindsets,” says Canell. “Diversity of thought is so important; those new to the profession bring a valuable fresh perspective and insight.”

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Has the Covid crisis meant that ‘experts’ are once again in charge? Which ones should we listen to?

David Landsman: A narrative has emerged that COVID-19, for all the obvious tragedy, has a “silver lining” in that it has restored the rightful relationship between experts and populists. We have progressed from the public having “had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms…” to hanging on the every word of the scientists. Brexit gives way to COVID-19, with climate change to follow.

Before we jump to conclusions, it might help to ask which experts we should listen to, on which subjects, and on the basis of what criteria. It turns out that expertise is something of a paradox, if not several paradoxes rolled into one. Some three months since we started listening to Coronavirus experts, the paradoxes are becoming harder to ignore.

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An interview with Lloyd Mander: Demystifying diversity of thought

Has the Covid crisis meant that ‘experts’ are once again in charge? Which ones should we listen to?

OnBoard is all about increasing the pool of potential independent directors, with the aim of increasing diversity of thought on startup boards. As a leader in the field of diversity of thought and decision making, we quizzed Lloyd how this can be maximised in practice, along with demystifying some common terms and hearing first-hand how his tool works.

Lloyd spends a load of his time working with boards and executive teams to help them make better decisions by uncovering ways they can optimise for diversity of thought. In between, he has a handful of directorships, including in startup world as the Chair of Ministry of Awesome, an organisation based in Christchurch focusing on growing entrepreneurs and world class innovation locally. Read more here.

Diverse Leadership and the COVID-19 Crisis

Has the Covid crisis meant that ‘experts’ are once again in charge? Which ones should we listen to?

Diverse Leadership and the COVID-19 Crisis

Lloyd W. Howell, Jr., CFO of Booz Allen Hamilton: The positive impact of diversity in all its iterations, is particularly powerful as we come together as a team to consider larger issues that directly impact financial performance. Take capital deployment strategy as an example area that would be reviewed through the lens of a crisis: In my group, a respected, credentialed treasury team looks at balance sheet capacity, tax experts review those considerations, accounting and reporting teams have a role, and the operational staff weighs in on issues of banking and payroll. In capital deployment, many decisions are of a highly judgmental nature — it’s never black and white; there are many options. To get to the right answer requires diversity in personal and life experience layered with diversity in deep professional expertise, along with the willingness to be inclusive of other ideas. Read more here.

Tokenism on boards

What's the difference between race and ethnicity?

Diverse Leadership and the COVID-19 Crisis

We’ve heard this a lot of times recently from under-represented groups, usually women and people from ethnic minorities. Fair play. We get what you mean. Who would want to feel they were only hired simply because of their ______?!

This is a multifaceted problem. An individual can feel that they were a token hire, others can perceive them as a token hire, and organisations can run a recruitment process in a tokenistic way.

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What's the difference between race and ethnicity?

Emma Bryce describes how these words are often used interchangeably, but technically, they're defined as separate things. Nina Jablonski, an anthropologist and palaeobiologist at The Pennsylvania State University, who is known for her research into the evolution of human skin color says "Race is understood by most people as a mixture of physical, behavioral and cultural attributes. Ethnicity recognizes differences between people mostly on the basis of language and shared culture." Read more here.

When Woman don't speak up

What's the difference between race and ethnicity?

“Group-level decision making is ubiquitous,” says Karpowitz. It ranges from the highest level, where men and women work together in Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court, on down to juries, town halls, PTAs, and work teams. It applies even on Church ward councils and in families, he stresses. In one realm or another, no one falls outside the scope of this research.

Rather than outright misogyny, she says it’s usually cultural norms and gendered messages that subtly—and profoundly—shape the rules of engagement. Individuals who suppress female speech may do so unwittingly. “They may love women,” says Preece. “They may even be a woman!” But as a society we have been “slowly socialized over years to discount” female expertise and perspectives. Read more here.

How Small Cap Companies Can Build a Strong Governance Framework

Kaley Childs Karafa, Director of Board Engagement at Nasdaq: Board composition – and diversity, in particular - has been a top governance topic not only among boards themselves, but also among investors, state legislatures, employees, and the public. The board chair of a small cap corporation recently remarked, “diversity is in the DNA of our board, and it’s why we have more robust discussions and better board dynamics.” On the other hand, some boards may still view diversity as simply checking a box in the composition matrix. The perception that having one or two women on the board means the board has achieved diversity does not reflect an enlightened understanding of the value true diversity brings to a board. A diverse board is one where there is diversity of thought, experience, and background.

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The Right Way to Use the Wisdom of Crowds

How Small Cap Companies Can Build a Strong Governance Framework

Management teams are responsible for making sense of complex questions. Maybe it’s estimating how much a market will grow next year, or finding the best strategy to beat a competitor. One popular approach for navigating these questions is turning to the “wisdom of crowds” – asking many people for their opinions and suggestions, and then combining them to form the best overall decision.

Evidence suggests that the combination of multiple, independent judgments is often more accurate than even an expert’s individual judgment. Research by Harvard's Brad De Wees and Julia A. Minson identifies a hidden cost to this approach. When someone has already formed an opinion, they’re far less likely to be receptive to the opinions of others – and this can lead to evaluating other people and their ideas more negatively. Read more here.

Diversity and Inclusion Efforts That Really Work

How Small Cap Companies Can Build a Strong Governance Framework

Diversity and Inclusion Efforts That Really Work

In the wake of major social and political changes over the past decades, leading companies are taking steps to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yet progress in most sectors remains tepid. Programs designed to increase diversity and inclusion in the workplace often fail. So that leads to a natural question: What’s actually working?

Devah Pager and David Pedulla dove into these promising areas and produced a report, titled “What Works? Evidence-Based Ideas to Increase Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace.” Here, David highlights five key insights that can serve as tools for those looking to make their workplaces more diverse, more thriving places.

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Is humility the secret of smart leadership?

Coronavirus Researchers Are Dismantling Science’s Ivory Tower—One Study at a Time

Diversity and Inclusion Efforts That Really Work

This excellent article by science writer David Robson brings together research showing that people with greater humility are better learners, decision-makers and problem solvers.

Humility is especially important for leaders, with evidence that displays of humility can improve strategic thinking and boost the performance of colleagues across an organisation. This fits with the well-established models of servant leadership.

Here are a few points that resonated with me:

- You need confidence to be humble
- Leaders humility creates space for others to disagree with decisions, reducing the risk of "groupthink"
- Humility builds trust, which is critical for engagement (see https://lnkd.in/gmwkKhZ)
- Expressing humility through asking questions does not undermine your authority (unless you've otherwise incompetent of course...)

Read more here.

Four signals to watch that can make diversity initiatives succeed

Coronavirus Researchers Are Dismantling Science’s Ivory Tower—One Study at a Time

NYU professor Lisa Leslie says that the reason many diversity initiatives don’t work isn’t always about the content or about specific policies.

Despite the billions of dollars U.S. companies spend on diversity programs each year, current strategies will not necessarily achieve their goals, according to an Academy of Management Review article.

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Coronavirus Researchers Are Dismantling Science’s Ivory Tower—One Study at a Time

Cross-institutional, almost cross-cultural, work is very much at odds with academia's usual way of doing things. Prior to the pandemic, it was rare that any of us ventured outside the bubble of our own universities and hospitals. Over the decades, this siloed approach to research has shaped the way science gets done—and who gets to do it. The system tends to favor the career advancement of those who belong to a select few institutions over all others, irrespective of the depth of their skills or training. A growing body of literature suggests that underrepresented minorities are less likely to attend prestigious universities, even when they are equally qualified to do so. As a result, scientific research suffers from a lack of diversity—despite the fact that deeply diverse teams appear to produce better solutions to problems.

Read more here.

Chairing a diverse board in an age of complexity

Teams Solve Problems Faster When They’re More Cognitively Diverse

Chairing a diverse board in an age of complexity

In this dynamic world where competition, management of risk and technology are in a constant state of change and flux, boardroom leadership is also evolving rapidly to keep pace.

First becoming a director at just 32 years of age, today Abby Foote is one of a new breed of directors rising to the challenge and leading a new governance style that recognises the changing demands of the role of directors in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world.

Read more here.

Why We Should Be Disagreeing More at Work

Teams Solve Problems Faster When They’re More Cognitively Diverse

Chairing a diverse board in an age of complexity

Disagreements are an inevitable, normal, and healthy part of relating to other people. There is no such thing as a conflict-free work environment. You might dream of working in a peaceful utopia, but it wouldn’t be good for your company, your work, or you. In fact, disagreements — when managed well — have lots of positive outcomes. Amy Gallo outlines the benefits.

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Teams Solve Problems Faster When They’re More Cognitively Diverse

Received wisdom is that the more diverse the teams in terms of age, ethnicity, and gender, the more creative and productive they are likely to be. However, Alison Reynolds and Davis Lewis have found no correlation between this type of diversity and performance with a strategic execution exercise, which required executive groups to manage new, uncertain, and complex situations.

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How to Make Meetings Less Terrible

Men Agree That Gender Diversity on Boards Is Important—But They’re Sick of Hearing About It

Teams Solve Problems Faster When They’re More Cognitively Diverse

50 percent of meeting agendas are recycled from other gatherings. Perhaps not surprisingly, 70 percent of senior managers consider meetings unproductive.

In the U.S. alone, 55 million meetings are held a day. Most of them are woefully unproductive, and tyrannize our offices. The revolution begins now — with better agendas, smaller invite lists, and an embrace of healthy conflict.

Read or listen to more here.

Men Agree That Gender Diversity on Boards Is Important—But They’re Sick of Hearing About It

In a PwC survey, 62% of directors strongly agree that diversity brings unique perspectives to the boardroom. 52% strongly agree that gender diversity is very important in achieving diversity of thought. But 72% of male directors say too much attention is paid to gender diversity, while only 25% of female directors agree. 76% of the men surveyed said they believe boards will naturally become more diverse over time; only 33% of women said the same.

Read more here.

Can a Little Embarrassment Make Your Team More Creative?

Men Agree That Gender Diversity on Boards Is Important—But They’re Sick of Hearing About It

It’s important to celebrate your accomplishments. But as Leigh Thompson a Professor at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, watched executives engaging in a “brag session” at a corporate retreat, she began to wonder if feeling proud could also inhibit creativity. “Because if you are engaging in a brag session or being prideful, you are unwittingly encouraging people to self-censor their own ideas,” says Thompson.

Listen to the podcast here.

How to Do Design Thinking Better

Cognition and cognitive dissonance in the boardroom is getting much more air time

The design-thinking approach loosely follows a four-step process that involves observing a problem, reframing it, designing solutions, and testing them—all with the end goal of improving how humans experience a product or service.

Rather than blindly following the approach, it can be helpful to understand the psychology behind it. And critically, social psychology also offers insight into specific ways to get more out of each step in the process.

So why does design thinking work? And how can businesses effectively apply these principles themselves? Thompson and Schonthal explain.

Read more here.

Cognition and cognitive dissonance in the boardroom is getting much more air time

It is perhaps tangential to the dominant diversity debate, yet the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) notes: "The boardroom should be a place for robust debate where challenge, support, diversity of thought and teamwork are essential features.

"Diversity of skills, background and personal strengths is an important driver of a board's effectiveness, creating different perspectives among directors, and breaking down a tendency towards' group think'."

"Factors known to distort judgement are conflicts of interest, emotional attachments, unconscious bias and inappropriate reliance on previous experience and decisions."

Read more here.

NZ Boards and Frontier Firms

Cognition and cognitive dissonance in the boardroom is getting much more air time

7 Strategies for Better Group Decision-Making

A very strong theme from the interviews was

that to be successful, boards must have diversity of thinking, skills and experience. This is not about quotas, but about having a broad range of expertise, experience, perspectives and mindsets, to avoid getting stuck in a particular way of thinking. However, boards often recruit who they know, so end up with more people like themselves. Read more here.

7 Strategies for Better Group Decision-Making

Getting The Silent Majority To Speak: Boards During Disruption

7 Strategies for Better Group Decision-Making

Based on behavioral and decision science research and years of application experience, Torben Emmerling and Duncan Rooders of Affective Advisory outline the right processes to allow groups to make better decisions together. Read more here.

Getting The Silent Majority To Speak: Boards During Disruption

In times of crisis, diversity of thought is critical—but a minority at the table often dominate discussion. Advice from an introvert on amplifying the voices and perspectives of those least likely to offer them. Read more here.

Evidence-Based Strategies For Better Teamwork

Getting The Silent Majority To Speak: Boards During Disruption

Ed Salas: Several myths show up with troubling frequency. The first is viewing teamwork as a distraction from real work. That may be true if you equate teamwork with hosting company get-togethers and birthday parties. But the research is really clear. Teamwork is about how work gets done, and teams that do it better outperform others by 20% or more.

A second myth is that if team members like each other and maintain harmony, the team will be successful. Of course, we prefer working with people we like, but liking or hanging out together doesn’t ensure great teamwork. In fact, a little discord may be helpful at times, if team members feel comfortable speaking up and can disagree constructively.

Read more here.

Why diverse talent matters for boards

The Startup Board Report: Don't just appoint your mates to the board

Professor Paul Healy from Harvard Business School has surveyed over 2,000 directors of global companies about their boards' diversity, size and composition, internal dynamics, internal governance, and effectiveness.

He says an effective board should be seen as a team of people, rather than an exclusive club, with a varied skill set and not too many high profile members.

Also recommended is taking the time to understand the culture and tone of the whole organisation rather than just the elite, and avoiding group think. Read more here.

The Startup Board Report: Don't just appoint your mates to the board

A research report by Think & Grow and KPMG High Growth Ventures

Australia’s startup boards are predominantly recruited through the referral networks of founders and investors — most of whom are men. This lack of diversity and formal recruitment processes could be holding back emerging businesses, according to a report from KPMG.

Read more here.

Seek out diversity of thought and collaboration

The Startup Board Report: Don't just appoint your mates to the board

Critically important (But less obvious) elements of leadership team diversity

Helen Lee Bouygues, President of Reboot Foundation share her three simple habits to improve critical thinking:

Question assumptions
Reason through logic
Seek out diversity of thought and collaboration

Read more here.

Critically important (But less obvious) elements of leadership team diversity

Fred Crawford of Alix Partners is concerned that a lack of diversity of background, experience, education and type of intelligence is a risk for effective organizational leadership.

Read more here.

The Stormtrooper problem: Why thought diversity makes us better

Critically important (But less obvious) elements of leadership team diversity

How do you support a diverse and inclusive culture, practically?

Diversity is what makes us stronger, not weaker. Biologically, without diversity we die off as a species. We can no longer adapt to changes in the environment. This is true of social diversity as well.

Read more here.

How do you support a diverse and inclusive culture, practically?

Critically important (But less obvious) elements of leadership team diversity

How do you support a diverse and inclusive culture, practically?

What practically can organisations do to improve diversity of thought today? Below are six things you can do now to take Diversity and Inclusion forward in your company.

Read more here.

Singapore study supports the business case for diversity on boards across multiple dimensions

Survey: 93% of New Zealanders want to be part of a workplace where there is diversity of thought

The analysis of the top 100 Singapore listed companies illustrates a strong relationship between board diversity and company performance. In a diverse society, a diverse board can provide multiple perspectives, helping increased social acceptability and, in turn, ensure that the board conducts itself appropriately. It is critical for boards to ensure they have diversity of experience, background and thought.

Read more here.

Survey: 93% of New Zealanders want to be part of a workplace where there is diversity of thought

According to Hays’ Staff Engagement: Ideas for action report, which is based on a survey of 1,196 employers and employees, 93% of employees want a ‘voice’ and the ability to share their opinions at work and the same percentage want to work in an inclusive culture where differences are valued.

Read more here.

How To Build Work Cultures Of Psychological Safety Rather Than Fear

Survey: 93% of New Zealanders want to be part of a workplace where there is diversity of thought

How To Build Work Cultures Of Psychological Safety Rather Than Fear

Kathy Caprino interviews Any Edmondson – the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, to learn more about how an organization can move away from promoting a culture of fear, to one of psychological safety.

Read more here.

Great Teams, Psychological Safety And The CEO

Reality check: more women on boards doesn’t guarantee diversity

How To Build Work Cultures Of Psychological Safety Rather Than Fear

In today’s world, it’s hard to imagine a more important skill for CEOs than the ability to create and develop high performing teams in their organizations.

According to Google’s work on teams and research from The Power of Peers (2016) on groups, neither high performing teams nor groups were necessarily comprised of the most talented individual members. The best teams/groups were those whose members collaborated most effectively. Read more here.

Reality check: more women on boards doesn’t guarantee diversity

Dr Akshaya Kamalnath outlines how more women on boards can important indicator of gender equality and board effectiveness but gender is only one facet of diversity.

In the longer run, investors, employees, customers and wider society can all benefit from companies taking a broader approach to board diversity that aims to get multiple viewpoints into corporate decision-making.

Read more here.

How Agile Leadership Can Improve Board Governance

Reality check: more women on boards doesn’t guarantee diversity

Dr Darleen DeRosa outlines how modern board governance is a far more proactive undertaking, and many organizations are taking steps to change the composition of their boards to encourage a greater diversity of thought and promote the agile leadership qualities necessary to compete in a business environment beset by disruption.

What Science Tells Us About Building Great Teams

Need to Make a Critical Decision? Here’s How to Ensure You Have the Right Intel

How the Best Bosses Interrupt Bias on Their Teams

How well do you understand what makes a great team?

If you think it’s simply assembling a group of highly talented people and letting them do their thing, then you’re in good company. Research shows that’s what people tend to believe. But, unfortunately, you’d also be wrong. Teams are more than the sum of their parts. In fact, sometimes having lots of top talent on a team actually hurts performance.

Read more here.

How the Best Bosses Interrupt Bias on Their Teams

Need to Make a Critical Decision? Here’s How to Ensure You Have the Right Intel

How the Best Bosses Interrupt Bias on Their Teams

Companies spend millions on antibias training each year. The goal is to create workforces that are more inclusive, and thereby more innovative and more effective. But research also shows that bias prevention programs rarely deliver. And some companies don’t invest in them at all. So how can you, as an individual leader, make sure your team is including and making the most of diverse voices?

Read more here.

Need to Make a Critical Decision? Here’s How to Ensure You Have the Right Intel

For business leaders, there are few things more unnerving than making decisions with enormous consequences, only to later discover that key information relevant to those decisions had not been conveyed. A former Army colonel shares four steps leaders can take to get the information they need when they need it. Read more here.

How you can make the wrong choice for CEO

Businesses vital in driving diversity and inclusion, business leaders say

There is ample research to show that diversity, when harnessed properly, can improve corporate performance. In cases of CEO succession, a board with diversity of thought, backgrounds, and traits benefits the organization by staving off groupthink and increasing the breadth of perspectives. Constructing a quality board is about the caliber and perspective of individual directors as well as the deliberate rules of engagement that allow for productive debate and effective decision making.

Read more here.

Businesses vital in driving diversity and inclusion, business leaders say

Ziena Jalil, former New Zealand Trade Commissioner to Singapore and consulting partner at SenateSHJ, says organisations that embrace diversity and inclusion outperform their peers in profitability and productivity. Jalil said diversity was not just about ethnicity, it is also about gender, race, sexual orientation, physical ability, age, socio-economic background and beliefs, which organisations need to represent. Read more here.

The Dangers of Categorical Thinking

Businesses vital in driving diversity and inclusion, business leaders say

Using Diversity of Thought to Tackle Complex Problems

Bart de Langhe and Philip Fernbach outline the risks of relying too much on categorical thinking:

Compression - disregarding variation within a category
Amplification - exaggerating differences across category boundaries
Discrimination - excessive focus on some categories at the expense of others
Fossilization - difficulty escaping entrenched ideas

Read more here.

Using Diversity of Thought to Tackle Complex Problems

Does thinking about things 'on a spectrum' make us more enlightened?

Using Diversity of Thought to Tackle Complex Problems

An aspect of diversity that is getting greater attention is “diversity of thought”. This is the concept that people who have had different experiences, hold different beliefs or use contrasting ways of addressing problems, will think differently to each other. Diverse thinking allows people to frame problems in different ways, generate different potential solutions, and even creatively build on others’ ideas. It holds great promise if used in the right settings.

Does thinking about things 'on a spectrum' make us more enlightened?

Black and white thinking may die hard, yet never has society been quite as comfortable with the concept of the spectrum than the present.

According to researchers at Merriam-Webster, use of the word “spectrum”, in a wide range of contexts, has grown dramatically within the current decade. Coined by Isaac Newton in 1672 to describe refractions of light, today referencing a “spectrum” is almost always shorthand for acknowledging a metaphorical range of nuances.

Read more here.

Might board experience help more women get executive roles in NZ?

Does thinking about things 'on a spectrum' make us more enlightened?

Recently published in an HBR article, a study by Catherine Tinsley and Kate Purmal found that prior to becoming a US public company CEO, women were significantly more likely than men to have served on a corporate board. More than half of the female CEOs (59%) served on a public company board, as compared with 42% of the men. Almost twice as many women (23%) as men (12%) served on a private company board.

Might this be applicable to CEOs and other C-Suite Executives in NZ?

Read more here.