Diversity Links

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.

Read more here.

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.

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.

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. 

Read more here.

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.

“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.

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.

Read more here.

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.

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.

Read more here. 

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.

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.

Read more here.

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.

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.

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.

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

1. Question assumptions
2. Reason through logic
3. Seek out diversity of thought and collaboration

Read more here.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.