Article

Diversity's new frontier

Diversity of thought and the future of the workforce
Anesa "Nes" Diaz-Uda, Carmen Medina, Beth Schill July 23, 2013

Executive Summary
Up to now, diversity initiatives have focused primarily on fairness for legally protected populations.
But organizations now have an opportunity to harness a more powerful and nuanced kind of diversity:
diversity of thought. Advances in neurological research that are untangling how each of us thinks and
solves problems can help organizations, including governments, operationalize diversity of thought
and eventually change how they define and harness human capital.

Diversity of thought can bring an organization the following benefits:

1. It helps guard against groupthink and expert overconfidence. Diversity of thought can
help organizations make better decisions and complete tasks more successfully because it triggers
more careful and creative information processing than typically occurs in homogeneous groups.
2. It helps increase the scale of new insights. Generating a great idea quickly often requires
connecting multiple tasks and ideas together in a new way. Technological advances are enabling
new ways, such as crowdsourcing and gamification, to bring the diversity of human thinking to
bear on challenging problems.
3. It helps organizations identify the right employees who can best tackle their most
pressing problems. Advances in neuroscience mean that matching people to specific jobs
based on more rigorous cognitive analysis is within reach. Organizations that can operationalize
faster ideation can begin to purposely align individuals to certain teams and jobs simply because
of the way they think.

To increase diversity of thought among their workforce, governments can:

1. Hire differently. The job description and interview process should contain competencies and
questions designed to help identify and select a cognitively diverse organization. Organizations
also need to recruit top talent—even if it means shaking up the status quo with opinionated
employees.
2. Manage differently. Instead of seeking consensus as an end goal, managers should encourage
task-focused conflict that can push their teams to new levels of creativity and productivity. The
aim is to foster an environment where all feel comfortable sharing their views and their authentic
selves.
3. Promote differently. One way government organizations can retain and advance cognitively
diverse talent is to enact sponsorship programs directed at individuals who represent different
thinking styles. Moving to a team-based performance evaluation framework can allow an
organization to create and foster a culture of inclusion that empowers its people, spurs
collaboration, and inspires more innovation.
A more nuanced approach to diversity
It’s time to rethink diversity. Up to now, diversity initiatives focused primarily on fairness for legally
protected populations—historically underrepresented in the American workforce.1 Today we are living
through the demographic transformation of the US labor market, which will make ethnic diversity a
permanent fixture of the future workplace.2 This demographic reality provides the opportunity to
reexamine diversity policies and ask what workplace diversity really should mean in the 21st century.

Of course, the growing natural diversity of the American workforce does not mean that the
representation of historically underrepresented individuals will equalize throughout all levels of an
organization. For example, diversity programs will still need to focus on promoting participation of
women and ethnic minorities at executive levels in organizations. The shifting demographics do
provide government leaders, however, with the opportunity to refresh the business case for diversity
and take advantages of significant advances in how to think about the optimum level of diversity in the
workplace. Smart organizations will realize that they now have an opportunity to introduce more
powerful and nuanced approaches to operationalize the full range of human diversity: Namely, they
can begin to harness diversity of thought.3

Diversity of thought is the next frontier. Diversity of thought refers to a concept that all of us know
intuitively and experience throughout our lives. Each human being has a unique blend of identities,
cultures, and experiences that inform how he or she thinks, interprets, negotiates, and accomplishes a
task. Diversity of thought goes beyond the affirmation of equality—simply recognizing differences
and responding to them. Instead, the focus is on realizing the full potential of people, and in turn the
organization, by acknowledging and appreciating the potential promise of each person’s unique
perspective and different way of thinking. The implication of this new frontier in diversity is that
leaders and organizations must let go of the idea that there is “one right way” and instead focus on
creating a learning culture where people feel accepted, are comfortable contributing ideas, and actively
seek to learn from each other.4

What is new today and is only likely to grow in the next few years are the unprecedented advances in
neurological research that are untangling how each of us thinks and solves problems. These insights
can help organizations operationalize diversity of thought and can eventually change how they define
and harness human capital.

In the not-too-distant future, managers adept at leading a diverse work team will be sensitive not only
to factors of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and ability, but also to the new research and enabling
technologies that will help organizations understand how people think. Managers will also need to
understand how to use emergent technologies to help employees evaluate their unique thinking
strengths and identify their optimum contributions to the mission. Technology, of course, is not a
panacea. Leaders will also need to learn how to adjust their management styles and tactics to better
encourage the connections between individuals and their ideas to improve problem solving, learning,
cooperation, and innovation in their organizations. Leaders and managers will thus face the need to
take increasing ownership of creating an inclusive culture.

Hiring practices will also need to evolve to ensure organizations have the necessary diversity of
thought in their workforce. Hiring for a diversity of backgrounds may not necessarily yield different
perspectives, as physical diversity is not a sufficient proxy for diversity of thought. And once an
individual is hired, organizations will need to adjust their approaches to managing and advancing the
individual’s career.

This report describes the benefits diversity of thought can bring to an organization, and also shows
examples of how organizations can apply diversity of thought to transform the way they recruit and
retain a diverse and inclusive workforce. We discuss:
 Benefits of diversity of thought to organizations

1. Helps guard against groupthink and expert overconfidence

2. Increases the scale of new insights
3. Helps organizations identify the right employees who can best tackle their most pressing
problems

 What you can do today to increase diversity of thought

1. Hire differently
2. Manage differently
3. Promote differently

Benefits of diversity of thought to organizations

Over the last 10 years, cognitive scientists and neurologists have made progress in understanding how
the mind works. For example, many of us—even those who aren’t scientists—are familiar with the
distinction between left- and right-brained thinking and its impact on work performance.5 Although
this taxonomy is overly simplistic, neurological research does show that individuals have differing
cognitive styles. Tests show that most individuals have particular thinking strengths: Some are
inclined to be better at math, others at pattern recognition or creativity.

Experts agree that this research has identified a significant new aspect of diversity that existing
diversity policies do not adequately address. We have long understood that legacy diversity and
experiential diversity (see sidebar, “Three kinds of diversity”) illuminate how people will likely
behave in various circumstances.6 Thought diversity offers a new layer of insight that organizations
can use to maximize the collective potential of their employees. Leaders that explore this new frontier
of diversity can blend the cacophony of ideas in their workplace to spark innovation and creativity.
Even the slightest nuance of one worker’s thinking, if appropriately harnessed, could bring value to the
organization.

The confluence of science, technology, and management theory regarding human thought is opening
up an opportunity for government agencies and other organizations that are willing to embrace
diversity of thought as an organizational priority. Investing in diversity of thought can help
organizations notice three key benefits and a significant competitive advantage.

1. DIVERSE THINKERS HELP GUARD AGAINST GROUPTHINK AND EXPERT

OVERCONFIDENCE
Research demonstrates that thought diversity can help organizations make better decisions because it
triggers more creative information processing, often absent in homogenous groups.7 Moreover, while
homogenous groups are typically more confident in their performance, diverse groups are oftentimes
more successful in completing tasks. This is because diverse team members don’t just introduce new
viewpoints; they also trigger more careful information processing that is typically absent in
homogenous groups.8 Some of the most groundbreaking research in this area is being conducted by
the government, specifically by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).
IARPA’s Aggregative Contingent Estimation (ACE) program aims “to dramatically enhance the
accuracy, precision, and timeliness of forecasts for a broad range of event types, through the
development of advanced techniques that elicit, weight, and combine the judgments of many
intelligence analysts.”
Figure 1. Elevating the diversity discussion

Philip Tetlock, a professor of management and psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, leads an
ACE program research team. Tetlock, whose book Expert Political Judgment examined the frequent
overconfidence of substantive experts, has assembled a group of laypeople with diverse backgrounds
to predict the future likelihood of certain events.9 This eclectic ACE team has replicated the results
Tetlock first published in his book by handily beating the recognized experts in their ability to forecast
future events. Both the studies in ACE and in Tetlock’s original research illustrate the potential that
organizations have to “fully understand the causes of successful collective performance and to
improve their outcomes by assembling teams of more diverse thinkers to complement their more
traditional experts.”10

Robert Epstein, in Psychology Today, further notes that organizations that employ thought diversity
increase the opportunity for innovation and mitigate the risk of groupthink.11 Without a commitment to
thought diversity, employees generally are not willing to share their ideas and solutions. To that
end, Willfully Blind author and CEO Margaret Heffernan writes: “[I]n this context, diversity isn’t a
form of political correctness, but an insurance policy against internally generated blindness that leaves
institutions exposed and out of touch.”12

2. DIVERSE THINKERS HELP INCREASE THE SCALE OF NEW INSIGHTS

When time is of the essence, organizations often resort to gathering a group of experts and specialists,
the premise being that subject-matter knowledge and skills are more likely to quickly generate a
quality solution to whatever issue faces the organization. However, emerging technologies are creating
options rendering the congregation of experts less useful.13 Instead, generating a great idea quickly
requires the ability to connect multiple tasks and ideas together in a new way.14

Crowdsourcing and gamification techniques are unique ways to channel the diversity of human
thinking through their use of diverse online crowds to solve challenging issues. The crowdsourcing
game Foldit, sponsored by the University of Washington’s Departments of Computer Science and
Engineering and Biochemistry, uses the puzzle-solving intuitions of volunteer gamers to help scientists
better understand the function of human protein enzymes.15 In one puzzle, scientists asked the
community to remodel one of four amino acid loops on a particular enzyme. They received over
70,000 design submissions, the top five of which came from players who had not taken any science
beyond high school chemistry. What the players did have in common were spatial reasoning skills,
intuition, agility, collaboration, self-organization, and competition.16 These skills, when multiplied by
the number of players in Foldit, quickly pointed the scientists to a solution that would have taken the
recognized experts much longer to complete. Stephen Lutz, a researcher at Emory University, says:
“Using the Foldit players allows the researchers to use human intuition at a scale that is
unprecedented.”17 Though most organizations cannot give all their problems to the “crowd” to solve,
they can promote a broader range of thinking in the workplace to help them achieve the same benefits
of speed and scale afforded by crowdsourcing techniques.

Temple Grandin, a noted doctor of animal science and autism advocate, argues that Silicon Valley is a
breeding ground for innovative products and ideas, and is powered by different types of thinking. She
has recently, and somewhat notoriously, claimed that half of the innovators in Silicon Valley have
Asperger’s syndrome, citing that the ability to program for long hours of time could be indicative of a
person who is on the autism spectrum. “To create something like Google, people had to sit still for
hundreds of hours to learn how to program . . . It’s ironic that the thing that they text on has to be
made by someone who is not distracted and is looking at information in whole bits for long periods of
time.”18

3. DIVERSE THINKERS HELP ORGANIZATIONS IDENTIFY INDIVIDUALS WHO CAN

BEST TACKLE THEIR MOST PRESSING PROBLEMS
Organizations that can operationalize faster ideation can begin to purposely align individuals to certain
teams and jobs simply because of the way they think. Some of this can already be accomplished with
testing, but advances in neuroscience mean that matching people to specific jobs based on more
rigorous cognitive analysis is within reach. Emotiv Lifesciences, a neurobiology company, has created
a brainwave reading rig designed to measure how well a person can concentrate on a given activity.
Using sensors similar to an EEG machine, Emotiv has found a way to connect cognitive mental
activity and the control of a device like a computer, offering real-time analysis of cognitive
activity.19 These and other techniques being developed reveal not just the symphony of neural activity,
but the notes behind it.

Figure 2. Emotiv Lifesciences’ brainwave reading rig (Photo: Emotiv)

Today, matching cognitive talents to the particular demands of a job or mission is largely done by trial
and error. Until recently, the closest organizations could get to understanding the hardwiring of
people’s thoughts, and predict their success in any given job, was to give them a personality test.
These tests, including Myers-Briggs, Enneagrams, and others, introduced the concept that people may
react differently in a given work environment. As new technologies reveal individual strengths more
quickly and more precisely, organizations will be able to match more people with the tasks they can do
best.

The applications and acceptance of these new technologies can be challenging and will likely take
organizations into uncharted territories. But if properly incorporated into work processes, they can
help identify individuals who can best tackle an organization’s most pressing problems. These new
capabilities will empower organizations not to read minds, but to understand how a mind might react
and how best to match it with others to achieve mission success. Organizations that learn to do this
well will likely have an immediate competitive advantage.

What you can do today to increase diversity of thought

The intersections between neuroscience, psychology, and technology are creating new opportunities
for organizations to better understand how people think and how to translate these cutting-edge
findings into practice. Armed with this additional information, government agencies can better align
different blends of employees to a particular challenge and unleash diversity of thought within their
organization to achieve mission success.

What follows are three steps government agencies can take to begin developing a strategy to foster
diversity of thought.

1. HIRE DIFFERENTLY
Find strategic skill gaps
Governments can realize the benefits of diversity of thought today by evolving their hiring practices.
In The Difference, Scott Page, an economist at the University of Michigan, illustrates a unique way to
hire people with an eye toward maximizing the diversity of thought within an organization. In the
study, three candidates interviewed for two vacant positions on a research team. All candidates were
asked the same 10 questions. Jeff correctly answered 7 of 10, Rose 6 of 10, and Spencer 5 of 10
(figure 3).

Figure 3. Job candidate test results

Many organizations would have hired Jeff and Rose for two reasons. First, these two candidates
garnered the highest cumulative score. Second, HR managers tend to hire candidates like Jeff and
Rose because they “spend a lot of time and money making sure that their people all think the same.
They’re squadrons, flying in tight formations, valuing consistency and efficiency over individual
flair.”20 However, Page reveals an important nuance. If a recruiter spends the time to examine what
questions each candidate answered correctly, he or she will notice that the lowest overall scorer
(Spencer) correctly answered every question that the highest scorer (Jeff) incorrectly answered. As
such, Spencer presumably brings a different way of thinking to the organization.21

Figure 4. Hiring for cognitive diversity

With an eye for diversity of thought, managers and HR representatives can select people who think
differently while still maintaining alignment with the mission and bottom line. To get a diverse pool of
applicants, recruiters will need to examine their practices to ensure not only that a job description
includes the technical competencies necessary for success in the job, but also that the job description
or interview process contains competencies and questions designed to help identify and select a
cognitively diverse organization that can continually evolve.

A German software firm is taking this idea of selecting for cognitive diversity a step further by
actively recruiting for a particular strand of cognitive ability that has historically been branded a
disability. SAP AG recently announced its plans to recruit people with autism to make use of this
population’s ability to process information. People diagnosed with autism have difficulties
communicating and suffer from emotional detachment, yet those with mild autism diagnoses often can
perform complex tasks that require high levels of concentration—typically much better than the
average population. Beyond their advanced mathematical skills, autistic people also frequently exhibit
a particularly potent ability to find patterns and make connections. SAP AG’s willingness to seek out
unique cognitive skill sets where other organizations may see prohibitive deficits injects new
complexity into their talent management, but can be well worth the effort.22 SAP AG noted that “SAP
sees a potential competitive advantage to leveraging the unique talents of people with autism, while
also helping them to secure meaningful employment.”23

Get away from the status quo and hire with debate in mind
One of the most important projects in US history benefited from a similar unorthodox approach to
assembling a team. During World War II, the Manhattan Project was led by Colonel Dick Groves (US
Army) and physicist Dr. Robert Oppenheimer. It was, first and foremost, a military operation, and
would come to represent the beginning of the military-industrial complex—a hybrid of public, private,
and academic brain power.24Groves and Oppenheimer brought together several thousand physicists
and engineers, 20 of whom were Nobel laureates.25 Oppenheimer, in particular, summoned scientists
with contrasting theoretical points of view, knowing that if these men could collectively work through
their differences, they would be able to accomplish one of the greatest scientific feats of the 20th
century.26 Had they not hired with this in mind, the opportunity to generate and take advantage of
innovative ideas may have been squandered. Although Groves and Oppenheimer did not open the
floodgates to all types of diversity (women, for example, were not included), they did hire widely
within the field of science and the military to combine two distinct worlds in a moment of crisis,
creating a weapon of intense power, but setting the precedent for how diverse talents can achieve
difficult tasks in a short period of time.

A key lesson from history is that organizations need to recruit top talent—even if it means shaking up
the status quo with opinionated employees. Oppenheimer intentionally gathered dissenting, great
minds in an effort to harness their conflicts. He knew that the series of solutions they worked toward
would never have sprung forth from a chorus of agreement, no matter how collectively brilliant.
Oppenheimer’s true genius was in his ability to gather and manage talent. These principles could work
for many more organizations whose cognitively diverse workforces need to engage constructively to
test their differences of opinion.

2. MANAGE DIFFERENTLY
Facilitate diversity tension
One of Oppenheimer’s management strengths with the Manhattan Project was being comfortable with
the uncomfortable. In their book Virtuoso Teams, Andrew Boynton and Bill Fischer, professors and
experts in business management, observed: “The endless struggle between idea flow and
organizational complexity is a leitmotif that runs through the Manhattan Project story. Clearly the need
for more ideas was in direct contradiction to the need for project secrecy. In addition, there was the
question of how to generate novel ideas when so many true and opinionated experts were part of the
team.”27 Oppenheimer created an environment where all the scientists could come together and debate
their various ideas during weekly meetings; even the ethical implications of the Manhattan Project
were a topic of discussion.28It was no easy feat leading these differing points of view, which often
resulted in what today is referred to as diversity tension.

One of the challenges associated with diversity is that it introduces greater complexity. The successful
organizations will be the ones that can overcome challenges such as misunderstandings and increased
conflict, which can happen when diversity is not successfully managed.

Even the best-intentioned manager can send off subconscious signals of discomfort when confronted
with diversity tension on their team. A research team in Denmark recently studied city government
officials to identify reasons why their organization experienced high levels of negativity. They
observed the local government officials, using videos to record typical actions and interactions during
the workday. When looking back through the tapes, the researchers noticed that whenever a
government executive was challenged or asked a tough question by his or her employees, he or she
would make a slight variation in their head movement. Working with psychologists, the researchers
determined that this slight head nod was the same tic observed in nature when an individual comes
into contact with a wild animal, namely a tiger.29

The office may not have a pet tiger, but managers and employees still face the instinctual urge to avoid
conflict. It is simply easier for them to agree than to be confrontational. Part of being comfortable with
conflict is abandoning the idea that consensus is an end in and of itself. In a well-run diverse team,
substantive disagreements do not need to become personal—ideas either have merit and points of
connection or they do not. Diversity of thought challenges managers to rethink conflict itself, shifting
their perspective away from mitigating conflict’s negative effects and toward designing conflict that
can push their teams to new levels of creativity and productivity. Leaders and managers who create the
necessary space for disagreements will find richer solutions and the buy-in of naysayers who are at
least able to voice their ideas.

IDEO, an industrial design firm, manages this tension by purposely hiring people from diverse
backgrounds.30 The company hires to inject different perspectives and then fosters a collaborative and
participative culture where people have to advocate for their ideas. IDEO’s approach is born out of
careful hiring practices and ability to facilitate controlled conflict, the subject of IDEO general
manager Tom Kelly’s book The Ten Faces of Innovation. Since these non-traditional teams are formed
with experiential conflict in mind, individuals are required to be advocates for their ideas and respect
the ideas of those around them. Furthermore, IDEO has a resourcing approach that gets people with
great facilitation skills, not years of service, to drive the design process and manage the project to get
the most value of the unique experts. Kelly insists that while there is no formula for who should
contribute when, the key is for all people to be encouraged to bring multiple ideas to a problem set.
They also should not have competing ideologies (like the many scientists and military men of the
Manhattan project); rather, they should have unique subject-matter expertise that, when brought
together, sparks innovation.

Give permission
Government agencies aiming for a more diverse workforce need to adopt specific practices so that
employees believe they have permission to bring their entire selves to the workplace.31 In that sense,
organizations that strive for inclusion attempt to appreciate their employees’ differences and foster an
environment where all feel comfortable sharing their views and their authentic selves. Employees
should feel comfortable disagreeing and holding opinions different from those of management. One of
the hardest things for managers to do is to let employees disagree with them and to allow them to
explore their ideas—even if that exploration leads to failure.

To relieve the pressure on employees, managers can use behavioral nudges to prompt conversation and
depersonalize debate around even the manager’s own personal ideas.32 In a recent interview, a
manager in an intelligence agency described how she often has to write long analyses bringing
together various pieces of literature into a seamless document. The documents contain content that is
of the utmost strategic importance. One way she has found to ensure that her team members provide
honest and necessary insight is to give them the permission to give harsh, constructive feedback.
Instead of asking reviewers, “Does this make sense?” or “Is this OK?,” she instead asks, “What is
wrong with my logic?” or “What points am I missing?” Such questions provoke more contrarian
analysis that ultimately helps her create a better final product.33

Employees often complain that managers today stifle important conversations. Such difficult
discussions will only increase as organizations begin to design work teams to capitalize on diversity of
thought. Organizations need to make it a priority to equip their managers with new techniques to
effectively manage and embrace diversity of thought.

3. ADVANCE DIFFERENTLY
Drive career sponsorship
Once cognitively diverse individuals are hired within a workplace, managers and leaders will want to
retain and advance that talent. One way government organizations can do so is to enact sponsorship
programs directed at individuals who represent different thinking styles. As human beings we are
naturally inclined to associate with “like” people, yet a thought-diverse workforce needs to connect
across thinking styles.34 Aligning sponsors based on shared attributes may not be the best way to help
diverse individuals learn how to communicate their oppositional ideas in the most constructive
fashion. Sponsors could help cognitively diverse thinkers find the appropriate application of their
unique thinking styles, thus helping them to advance in their new career track.

A sponsor trained in the tenets of cognitive diversity would also be able to translate and promote the
otherwise hidden attributes of individuals new to an organization. For example, military veterans
returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have skills, certifications, and cognitive styles that organizations
can use, including the ability to think quickly, manage well under pressure, and improvise. And yet
their careers can be rocky when they are asked to adjust to a culture different from the military tribe
they’re used to.35 Sponsors that can facilitate these types of transitions are key to an organization’s
ability to incorporate cognitive diversity.

Individuals with diverse thinking styles can also act as a mentor to other people within their
organizations. For example, in today’s digital age, many Millennials are reverse mentoring more
senior colleagues in social media and networks.36 Cisco has implemented a reverse mentorship
program designed to “understand where the mentor can provide the executive with a perspective on
how comments and decisions might be interpreted by diverse employees as well as valuable feedback
on how well s/he encourages inclusion and diversity in his/her own team and also in his/her own
business practices.”37 Reverse mentorship programs tell employees that their different ideas are valued
and, in fact, need to be incorporated more often in the more senior levels of the organization. The
confidence individuals gain in reverse mentorship programs can help them achieve more in their
official duties as well.

Shift to team-based evaluation

To the extent that diversity of thought is about identifying and managing potential, it is helpful to
recall what the late Peter Drucker, management consultant, educator, and author said: “You can only
manage what you can measure.”38 Leaders willing to harness the power of thought diversity may want
to measure behaviors such as openness to constructive conflict to push their teams toward more robust
results, however much this practice may challenge existing management norms. It’s time to shift the
conversation from managing individual performance to nurturing the collective, authentic team.

The US Office of Personnel Management has provided team evaluation guidance that highlights that
individual performance can be linked to a team’s cooperative behavior.39 By focusing on the team’s
outputs, public sector organizations can continue to drive toward results while holding the collective
accountable to attributes such as motivation, intellectual breadth, emotional intelligence, and risk
tolerance. Critically, these elements are aligned with the larger goals and values of the organization
and can help create an environment where people can bring their authentic selves. Any evaluation
framework must reflect the complexities that make up the authentic self, and by pivoting evaluations
toward the team, the appraisal becomes about shared performance and how each individual can enable
the larger group to drive toward excellence. By moving to a team evaluation framework, organizations
can create and foster a culture of inclusion that empowers its people, spurs collaboration, and inspires
more innovation.

Harnessing diversity of thought

Throughout the course of history, many great ideas would not have emerged without the right
combination of technology, necessity, and opportunity. Diversity of thought is not a novel or radical
idea, but rather the inevitable result of increased pluralism and connectivity in the 21st century. In
ways that a few decades ago were unimaginable, people and organizations can now optimize the
opportunities found in the intersections among cultures, values, and perspectives. The practices and
regulations of today need to be reimagined and rewritten to allow for the emergence and full
development of a more powerful diversity strategy. As MIT research scientist Andrew McAfee writes,
“Expertise—for problem solving, innovation, etc.—is emergent. It’s out there in large quantities, and
in hard-to-predict places. A problem-solving approach that lets pockets of enthusiasm and expertise
manifest themselves and find each other can yield surprisingly large rewards, even in the unlikeliest
places.”40Diversity policies designed to hire, facilitate, and encourage diversity of thought can help
organizations find that expertise.

But not all will rest on management. As tools and techniques emerge to allow individuals to explore
their own personal cognitive makeup, job seekers could very well begin judging potential employers in
the public and private sectors based on their ability to provide a good cognitive fit. Employees may
develop the self-awareness to understand their own unique ability to contribute to an organization’s
mission and to maximize the expression of their own talents and passions. Government agencies that
fail to manage for cognitive diversity eventually may find themselves at a competitive disadvantage in
the future as the best talent will seek situations that can fully leverage their cognitive capabilities.

Why Diversity Counts: The Business Case

Sondra Thiederman, Monster Contributing Writer

There was a time when corporations in the US could get away with ignoring diversity issues
and hire employees who all looked and thought alike, catering only to one type of consumer.
Those days are gone. Also gone is the myth that diversity has little to do with business.

Providing opportunities for people of all backgrounds is the right thing to do from an ethical
standpoint. But it is also great for business.

Why? Because companies can benefit from a multicultural workforce's expertise. For
instance, if your company does business in Asia, having Asian Americans on your
negotiating team will greatly improve your chances of success.

A Competitive Advantage

Allied Signal discovered this when it successfully negotiated to sell wheels to China Eastern
Airlines. Much of its success was due to the presence of Chinese Americans on the sales
team. Allied Signal and dozens of organizations like it have learned that diversity is a
wonderful asset when competing in a world marketplace. In fact, with as much as 25 percent
of US sales originating overseas, few companies can afford not to take advantage of
America's diversity in creating workforces filled with cultures that reflect this international
marketplace.

Turning to the domestic consumer, if your goal is to get a share of the $560 billion that Latino
buyers have to spend, then hiring employees of Hispanic background can be a competitive
advantage. This also applies to African American and Asian American consumers who are in
the position to spend $825 billion combined. Businesses could learn from companies like
Avon Products and Sears Roebuck & Co., which have found that qualified people of all
backgrounds are an asset to businesses reaching out to nontraditional markets.
All this may seem obvious -- diverse consumers require diverse staff -- but it gets more
interesting.

Even if your organization has no interest in conducting international business and couldn't
care less about consumer marketing, you still need diversity on your staff. Diversity matters
to both clients and consumers. A commercial real estate company I worked with learned this
in the most painful way possible.

Diversity Makes Dollars and Sense

This organization was bidding on a contract that would have meant millions in badly needed
revenues. After weeks of expensive and time-consuming competition against another firm,
the company lost the business. When asked why, the client said the decision was not based
on dollars, service or reputation -- both competitors were largely equal in those dimensions.
The difference, the client said, was that the firm had no diversity on its sales team, every
member was a middle-aged white male. The winning firm, by contrast, had white males,
women and minorities at every negotiating session.

At this point, you may be thinking the lost customer must have been a minority or female-
owned firm or maybe one owned by an overseas company. But it was a US company run
primarily by white males. Those white males, however, valued equal opportunity.

Realizing the real estate company had made little effort to create or sustain diversity on its
staff, the client became suspicious the organization did not share its values and decided not
to do business with the company. And that's what it all boils down to -- business. Diversity
may be the right thing to do, but it's also a key component of business success.

The New Diversity in the Workplace? Diversity of

Thought

By Steve Pemberton

There was a time when organizations believed that if they looked diverse, many of the issues
they faced around this topic would simply dissolve. Corporate commitment to diversity and
inclusion often went no further than being attentive to historical issues of underrepresentation
and applying corrective action where needed. Diversity in the workplace, in essence, had a
natural end state.

But this strategy has had limited success. Organizations can't simply move on by virtue of
their standard diversity practices. Matters of diversity and inclusion, like many other
 organizational objectives, are ongoing processes. They require constant refinement to create
a more effective and competitive organization. And similarly, you as a job candidate need to
think about and potentially change how you present and talk about diversity to employers
during your job search.

Diversity Jobs and Recruitment Practices Are Changing

Organizations are getting the message, and they're redefining their commitment and
approach to diversity recruitment. In order to attract the best talent (this means you),
employers are making diversity a part of all their processes. Fueled by shifting demographics
and attitudes, increased global interactions and advancing technologies, companies are
looking beyond appearances, conventional qualifications and traditional categories of race
and gender.

Today's world of diversity and inclusion is increasingly about how you think, not how you
look. Forward-leaning companies are interested in your ability to bring diversity of thought
and informed perspectives to their organizations. These companies also want to harness
your ability to help them connect with the increasingly diverse constituencies they serve.

Turn Your Diverse Background into a Marketable Asset

Unfortunately, many job seekers are still reluctant to share their diversity with employers,
believing it somehow constitutes a disadvantage to their candidacy. Still others believe that
indicating their background means they will be recruited on that basis alone and not for their
skills, talents and abilities. Neither premise is true.

So it's time to rethink how you approach the job search. Consider all written and in-person
communications opportunities to convey your diversity of thought, ideas and world view. Here
are a few examples:

 Numbers can underscore your experience. Rather than homogenize your achievement of
increasing market share, for instance, paint the larger picture: "Expanded market reach by 18% to
include untapped Asian audience in key metropolitan segments."

 It is one thing to indicate that you speak Spanish in your cover letter. It is something else entirely to
write: "As part of my exploration into your company, I learned that you recently expanded
operations in Latin America. I believe my bilingual background and experiences in the culture of
that region could be advantageous to the organization."
 Parlay your interview preparation into a chance to demonstrate your strategic thinking. You may
learn, for example, that an organization has not yet identified diverse markets as new growth
opportunities. In the course of your interview, mention that this is something that interests you.
Inquire about the company's community outreach programs, thought leadership in the marketplace
and where these experiences have led the company. Discuss how you would leverage your
experiences to approach and build relationships with potential customers.

The Mutual Benefits of Diversity in the Workplace

If you can expand the creative power of an organization or help it better connect to an
emerging market, then you will have an advantage over someone who does not provide that
perspective.

Consider a national consumer brand that launched a new product but neglected to test-
market it among its very diverse customer base. It turned out that the product actually
offended a segment of the population it was targeting, prompting cries of active
discrimination. Of course, the company never sought to offend its customers, suffer the threat
of boycotts or damage the brand. How could this have played out differently?

Had there been a diverse perspective in the room before production had started, this may
never have happened. A simple solution, true. But one that smart organizations are
embracing more and more.

To Achieve Workplace Diversity, Go Beyond

Good Intentions
Dan Woog, Monster Contributing Writer
It's taken awhile, but these days most companies understand that employing a diverse
workforce is not only the right thing to do, it's also good business.

But good intentions are one thing. Actually hiring and promoting men and women with varied
racial and ethnic backgrounds, religions and sexual orientations is another. Here's how
companies and workers can do what they say.

Show Diverse Faces

The process begins even before recruitment and employment interviews, says Anna Morales
Riojas, chairwoman of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility. A company
truly committed to inclusion should run ads that show a diverse group of people. That
positions the organization in customers' minds as one that values diversity -- and customers
often become job applicants, Riojas notes.

Recruitment teams traveling to job fairs and college campuses must also be diverse, says
Riojas. "It's not necessary to communicate in Spanish," she says. "But showing faces that
people in our community can relate to really helps."

Put the Mission Statement into Practice

Companies should include references to diversity in their mission or values statements to

signal an explicit commitment to all employees, suggests Matt Hirschland, director of
communications for Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a San Francisco organization.
Even more crucial to attracting a diverse pool of applicants are actions that reflect diversity
from the top down. According to BSR, simply having black, brown, yellow and female faces in
high positions is not enough. All staff, including top management, must receive regular,
ongoing diversity training.

Make Diversity Goals Part of Company Plans

A diverse workforce is more likely when diversity goals are included in strategic-planning
processes and managers are held responsible for specific objectives, says Hirschland.
Diversity questions should be incorporated into employee surveys to determine whether
current policies and programs are effective. And milestones and achievements involving
diversity groups and individuals should be communicated and celebrated.

Show Diversity, and Take a Stand

Companies hoping to attain and retain diverse workforces should also encourage the
formation of affinity groups, such as African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian American and
gay/lesbian networks. BSR also recommends company-wide diversity councils and task
forces. To communicate company values, Hirschland suggests all Web sites and promotional
materials should show diversity and, when possible, include the firm's diversity policy. A
commitment to diversity should be discussed often, in meetings large and small.
Companies should also consider taking a proactive approach to diversity-related public-policy
issues, says Hirschland. He cites as one example Microsoft's support of a Washington state
gay-rights bill, which sent a positive message to the gay/lesbian community.

Peter Bye, president of MDB Group, a Livingston, New Jersey, consulting firm focusing on
diversity and inclusion, advocates doing more than putting policies and programs into
practice. "Ultimately, it's about getting in the heads of hiring and promotion managers and
talking in terms of difference," he says. "It's asking people in positions of power, ‘How do you
think of difference? Is it negative or something to be valued? Do you want to select someone
like you -- a low-risk choice -- or do you seek out someone with a different set of perspectives
and values?'"

Use Assessment Tools

Bye says that assessment instruments can help people understand their current degree of
"intracultural sensitivity." Subsequent coaching can develop greater "cultural competence."
He knows this may turn some people off. "If you've got a large white-male executive team,
they probably won't think positively of it," Bye admits. "But if you show them an instrument
that can help, that can make a real difference."

Still, many successful diversity efforts begin with human resources. Hirschland says good HR
departments post positions in many places (including minority-oriented Web sites) and
participate in job fairs hosted by diverse communities.

Although diversity and inclusion may be driven from the top down, its success may be felt
from the bottom up. That's why it's so important today to plant the seeds for tomorrow. "Bring
in a diverse group of interns," Riojas says. "Provide scholarships, fellowships and
cooperative programs to help minorities when they're in college. Investing in minority
communities will pay off big time in loyalty."

Leaders in Diversity and Inclusion

5 Lessons from 5 Global Companies
David is in charge of workplace diversity management at a global manufacturing company.
He was recently assigned a seemingly basic task. “Focus on minorities,” the executive
sponsor of the initiative told him. “I’d like to see our numbers climb from 25 to 45 percent,” he
said.

Minorities are largely underrepresented at the company, but David knew that was only a
small part of a larger problem. Women are also grossly underrepresented, especially among
senior employees. Additionally, there are no current initiatives to hire people with disabilities,
nor is there a policy in place that promotes diverse ways of thinking.
Frustrated at the narrowed focus of his duty, David immediately felt discouraged. Through his
experiences, he has learned that to achieve greater diversity and inclusion (D&I),
organizational efforts will need to focus beyond just the numbers. To effect positive and
measurable change within an organization, David knows it is imperative to focus efforts on a
collective and multidimensional solution.

Later that day, David chatted with a team of his coworkers in different countries during a
conference call. Some of them echoed something he has heard plenty of times in the past.
Jason, a colleague in Singapore, stated, “Simply focusing on hiring minorities isn’t enough.
The offices here, for example, employ a huge number of minorities, but they aren’t included
as key decision makers, and they’re rarely promoted to executive positions.”

David and Jason both agree that their company should continue to hire more people from
underrepresented groups, but that a single focus will not do much to solve any of the larger
problems. They understand that companies with gender, ethnic and racial diversity are at
least 15 percent more likely to experience above-average financial returns. They also know
that companies within the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely
to do the same.

These statistics imply a significant relationship between competitive profit gains and diversity,
so why, exactly, is focusing on minorities not enough for a global company?

Why are members of the global workforce — such as David and Jason — frustrated with
one-way initiatives that do nothing more than single out certain groups of people?

And most importantly: what can we learn from top companies successfully globalizing
workplace diversity and inclusion?

Managing diversity and inclusion in the global workplace is, in many ways, an unmapped
territory. As such, we share five lessons from the following top global companies:

 BASF. Earning a spot on DiversityInc’s Top 50 in 2015, 2014 and 2013, BASF is a global
force properly leveraging D&I.
 Ford Motor Company. Ford made DiversityInc’s Top 50 an impressive 11 times.
 Sodexo. Sodexo was the recipient of the Catalyst Award in 2012 and earned a spot on
DiversityInc’s Top 50 on eight different occasions.
 AIG. In 2015, AIG earned a spot on DiversityInc’s 25 Noteworthy Companies list for the
second year in a row. The company’s talent pipeline, equitable talent development, CEO
and senior leadership commitment and supplier diversity were assessed.
 L’Oréal. In 2006, the World Diversity Leadership Council presented L’Oréal USA with the
Corporate Diversity Innovation Award, as well as the DANDI Award in 2012.
 Deutsche Bank. Named as one of the Top 50 Employers for Women, Deutsche Bank
also won an award for its global sponsorship program ATLAS, which helps women
progress to senior positions.
 Bayer. Known for years for its effective eLearning modules and other non-traditional
strategies for D&I, Bayer was named a Top 10 Company for Asian Americans, as well as
a Top Global Company by DiversityInc.
 Johnson & Johnson. The global healthcare company was listed on DiversityInc’s Top 50
eleven times.

These leading organizations are paving the way for the future of diversity and inclusion.
Between fostering innovation and learning to properly monitor — and model — their efforts,
we have gleaned from these leading global companies five important lessons for
organizations to successfully implement diversity and inclusion efforts that will have global
relevance.

Lesson 1: Recognize the Shift in Global Understanding of

D&I
As David and Jason realize in the above scenario, diversity today means more than race and
gender. There’s growing significance placed on creating environments where a variety of
different voices are encouraged and heard. These voices come from people who may or may
not be of the same gender, race, or ethnicity. Diversity in the workplace today can include
some of the following:

 Race
 Ethnicity
 Gender
 Sexual orientation
 Religious affiliation
 Generation
 Disability
 Personality type
 Thinking style

This new way of thinking about D&I focuses on meeting the needs of the individual and not
so much on an HR-centered initiative. Today, it is not only about having diversity within a
company but leveraging that diversity to produce better products and services.

It is crucial to hire and maintain a diverse workforce, so gender and racial/ethnic initiatives
will be launched and maintained into the foreseeable future. There is much to learn from
leaders in diversity and inclusion, but it is important to remember that every company’s D&I
initiatives will look different. You should tailor your initiatives to address your specific industry
and your company’s areas of weakness. Furthermore, global strategies should be able to be
adopted locally.
It is wise to remember that diversity means different things to different people, and
organizations will apply those definitions to their companies respectively. For example, the
percentage of workers of European ancestry in the UK decreased by almost 10 percentage
points over the last ten years. This presents an area of focus unique to the UK workforce.

Another example is the focus on people with disabilities in India, where many people suffer
from polio or other diseases because medicine was not available to treat them. Because of
this, Deutsche Bank works with a non-governmental organization to train people with
disabilities to work at the company.

It’s clear that the shift in D&I still includes, but stretches beyond, race and gender. We are in
need of a collective push toward recognizing the need for diverse thinkers coming from a
variety of different backgrounds, but companies are only slowly moving in this direction.

Take the story of Todd Sears as an example. He began his career as a Wall Street
investment banker in an environment that was not accepting of homosexuality. He eventually
found a position in a more welcoming environment, where he flourished and eventually went
on to pursue his own firm in a new market: private banking focusing on LGBT clients.

Sears’ statement is a testament to the changing forecast of D&I: “For me, it’s business first,
and business as a vehicle to achieve social justice and civil rights.”

His statement provokes further thoughts about for-profit organizations and their dedication to
advancing society on a global level. We all know intuitively that D&I initiatives are morally
right, but realistically speaking, businesses are going to do what is best for the bottom line.
This fact rouses sentiments about social responsibility, and part of this view naturally
considers supplier diversity.

Few companies are as successful as Ford when it comes to supplier diversity. In November
of 2014, The National Minority Supplier Development Council named Carla Preston of Ford
Motor Company a Minority Supplier Development Leader. In 2013, Preston’s efforts led to
Ford adding 16 new Tier 1 diverse suppliers to its network, accounting for $4.8 million in
spend. That year, Ford granted $1.08 billion of new business to diverse suppliers.

This example proves that a global entity can indeed leverage diversity in many ways and see
extremely positive results. This is proof that what is morally right can also be the best
business decision.

There are aspects of running a global business that are the same across the board, such as
making a profit and putting forth efforts into D&I. There are also unique concerns that come
with operating through different cultures and regions.
Lesson 2: Build an Inclusive Environment

Studies show that diversity and inclusion efforts are worthwhile, especially on a global level.
In the United Kingdom, senior executive teams proved a 3.5 percent increase in earnings
before interest and taxes with every 10 percent increase in gender diversity.

This implies that global business leaders should strive to create an atmosphere where
multiple voices are heard, and their opinions are valued and considered. This fact should be
engrained in the company culture. In the example scenario, David and Jason realized the
importance of an inclusive global workplace, but were frustrated with the focus on a single
group of workers – and frustrated that the company culture lacked a focus on global talent.

Few senior executives have realized the importance of a diverse workforce powered with
voices of people from different backgrounds, personalities and thinking styles across the
global workplace. It has become important to create environments where all people are
encouraged to draw upon their unique experiences, perspectives and backgrounds to
advance business goals. To achieve this in a global work setting, it’s crucial to employ
effective global communication and training efforts.

Healthcare provider Johnson & Johnson, for example, realized that to be successful in global
diversity, it needed culturally appropriate efforts launched for every region. The company was
struggling to combine its diversity efforts in the United States and Europe, so it conducted its
first-ever live video conference on mutual perceptions, diversity and respect. Clients and
employees reported increased productivity, and over 100 survey participants reported the
conference was the most valuable training they had ever experienced.

Another example of a global company realizing the depth and scope of inclusive
environments is Deutsche Bank, a signatory and founding member of diversity charters in
Germany, Spain and Luxembourg. About 42 percent of its employees are female. Eileen
Taylor of Deutsche explained, “We are in 75 countries and we hire the best talent in each
locale. Diverse teams and companies make better decisions.”

Considering these examples, it’s clear that some of the top organizations around the world
have set an example for diverse and inclusive global work environments. As these
organizations continue their efforts and others follow, how do they continuously improve?
And, more importantly, what areas of D&I are companies still falling short?
Sixty-five percent of 321 executives of large global companies surveyed by Forbes Insights
claimed to have a plan in place to recruit a diverse workforce — but only 44 percent employ
retention programs. This signifies a gap in collective progress when it comes to retaining
diversity and inclusion in the workplace. In other words, you cannot simply have diversity;
you must learn to leverage and nurture it so that it can thrive.

Lesson 3: Use Multiple Practices and Measures

Diversity and inclusion should not be treated as a ‘one-off’ initiative. Many leaders struggle
with how to manage workplace diversity. Promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace
is a constant work in progress, and it should be maintained and nurtured to be effective.

According to a 2014 HUDSON Research & Consulting study that interviewed interviewed six
D&I leaders from leading non-U.S.-based companies, there is a need for multiple initiatives
and many sources of feedback.

Instead of looking at turnover rates and other numbers, there is a need for measuring ROI
based on different indicators and granular information, such as employee responses and
consistent feedback about policies.

Chemistry giant BASF employs a talent dashboard that allows leaders to gauge D&I progress
by asking comprehensive questions about their thoughts on the hiring process and retention
trends. This ensures that multiple voices are heard and encourages employees to voice their
opinions. Strategies like this give a voice to employees who might not otherwise express their
opinions.

Another example of a successful global company utilizing multiple practices and measures is
the German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer. It uses eLearning modules as a
way of providing ongoing education to employees. This type of resource provides employees
with consistent reminders of the company’s values and expectations.

David and Jason at the global manufacturing company would likely appreciate such efforts. A
talent dashboard would allow them to voice their concerns in a safe atmosphere, as well as
show them that leadership cares about their concerns. The eLearning modules would serve
as a way to educate employees across the globe, placing emphasis on things that matter
beyond racial and gender diversity.
The takeaway is that your global company should have solutions in place to monitor and
retain a talented and diverse workforce, such as any of the following:

 Global mentoring programs

 Employee resource groups
 Multicultural talent management
 Strategic partnership development
 e-Learning modules

Lesson 4: Ensure Leaders Model Diversity and Inclusion

It is critical that senior leadership model diversity and inclusion. When senior leaders own
D&I and make themselves a part of the diversity and inclusion management process, it sets
the tone for the rest of the organization to follow suit. “I have to be the champion of diversity
and inclusion,” said L’Oréal USA CEO Frédéric Rozé. “It is my job to be a role model and
show how important this is to our company.”

BASF is an excellent example of a global company that introduces D&I training programs to
senior executives to promote diversity throughout the organization. BASF’s Ambassador
Network includes over 500 employees worldwideand encourages the creation of an “open
corporate culture that values every individual.”

Is there a secret formula to learning how to manage workplace diversity, especially

considering the breadth of differences between global companies? Here are three steps
imperative to obtaining inclusive leadership.

1. Seek diversity

Companies must pull applicants from a diverse pool using the best techniques. Most global
companies understand this fact, but it is not enough. Best practices include training hiring
managers to ensure the hiring criteria and process is inclusive.

2. Create inclusion

It is not enough to only hire a diverse workforce. It is crucial to leverage diverse perspectives
for the benefit of the business as a whole. It is important to bring awareness to unconscious
bias and discuss it in terms of the organization. In doing so, multiple perspectives are shared
and considered.

3. Drive accountability

Leaders in diversity and inclusion should make it clear that your global environment promotes
free speaking. Encourage employees to speak out against biases. If necessary, launch a
culture change in which every employee is involved.

This process can be slow and intimidating, but your efforts will pay off when employees feel
empowered to take individual accountability and let you know when they notice a bias.
Diversity and inclusion activities in the workplace are not always a simple process. In fact,
sometimes they can be quite messy. But it is often in these situations — in which employees
step outside of their comfort zones and are faced with new situations and ideas — that
tremendous growth occurs.

A global organization catching on to this need for inclusive leadership is Ford Motor
Company, which recognizes the need for leveraging different skills and perspectives, and for
“respecting each other, and, in doing so, achieving profitable growth for all.”

Kiersten Robinson, Vice President of Human Resources, Asia Pacific and Africa at Ford, was
born in Ireland and immigrated to Australia as a child. She experienced cultural differences
and was always well aware of her own as an immigrant. She learned at a young age the
positive outcomes born from leveraging diversity and integrated that knowledge into her
career. Robinson believes that organizations should use varying insights and perspectives as
opportunities to increase customer satisfaction.

Lesson 5: Recognize the Connection Between Innovation

and D&I
Perhaps the most significant lesson is that diversity and inclusion spark innovation. In AIG’s
2014 corporate citizen report, for example, it included leveraging cognitive diversity to drive
innovation as a D&I principle. According to the global enterprise, diversity and inclusion
increase innovation and reduce business risk.

The enterprise focused its efforts on three areas in 2014:

 Nomination programs. It hosted training for 350 employees in nine countries

representing the enterprise’s every region. The efforts focused on women and under-
represented groups.
 Training programs. A global initiative was launched in over 20 countries to address
general diversity and also train managers in cultural competence, generation diversity and
unconscious bias.
 Employee resource groups. The enterprise’s employee resource groups experienced a
growth rate of 76 percent in one year. It expanded to 10 different dimensions of diversity,
added to 36 existing chapters and launched 37 new groups.

This new trend among top global companies fostering innovation in the workplace
encourages other global businesses to do the same.
If you want to begin exploring the concept of cognitive diversity in the workplace, know that it
focuses on diversity of thinking and is composed of four dimensions:

 Perspectives. People represent situations in different ways. In the global workplace, it will
help to have multiple perspectives when it comes to representing a problem, as they will
see different possible solutions.
 Interpretations. Employees interpret situations, problems and other people in different
ways, classifying them accordingly. Through diverse interpretations, teams can discover
multiple resolutions.
 Heuristics. People resolve issues in different ways, proving there are multiple ways to
arrive at a conclusion.
 Predictive models. To make predictions, some people analyze, and others look for a
story. Both are useful to discovering workplace solutions.

Cognitive diversity breeds high performance while completing complex tasks. Global
workforces powered with diverse thinkers hold the ability to foster innovation. It is important
to note that there are two possible roadblocks to this innovation:

 Unconscious bias
 A corporate culture that doesn’t promote sharing any and all opinions

Unconscious bias is difficult to overcome, but there are steps you can take to overcome it in
the global workplace:

 Realize your tendencies and natural reactions to people different from you in some way.
 Expand your support network and go to different people for advice.
 Invite more people to make important decisions.

World leader in quality-of-life services Sodexo is well known for its forward thinking and
ability to recognize bias. The company was recognized with one of Canada’s Best Diversity
Employers awards for two years in a row. President of Sodexo Canada Barry Telford
explained, “Diversity is not just about each group getting their moment. We must all work
together to identify bias and make a commitment at all levels of the organization not to
overlook our most talented and resilient team members.”

Leaders in diversity and inclusion should reward employees who are not afraid to voice an
unpopular opinion or suggest something different than what’s expected. Dr. Rohini Anand of
Sodexo USA said, “Inclusive leadership starts with self-awareness, being introspective,
knowing your blind spots and possessing the ability to listen and learn.”

The ability to listen and learn can only be valuable if employees are encouraged to speak
their minds, even when they are expressing an unpopular opinion or suggesting a new idea.
Smart, successful global teams understand that differing opinions spark innovation — and
that it is a crucial part of high performance. Without recognizing bias and considering
different viewpoints, growth will likely be slow moving.

David and Jason’s global manufacturing company would likely benefit from an amended
corporate culture that promotes diverse thinkers and promotes recognizing unconscious bias.
They would likely experience fewer workplace frustrations as employees are encouraged to
voice their opinions and multiple solutions are considered.

With so many considerations, it can be difficult to know where to start or where to focus your
efforts. Learning to leverage global workplace diversity is far from simple, and learning to
manage, maintain and measure your efforts will take time. Leaders in diversity and inclusion
have taught us that it is an ongoing process, and it might require the help of an outside
source — one that specializes in global diversity and inclusion in the workplace