In my last article, I covered the value of diversity in children’s media. This got me thinking about my time at Carnegie Mellon University and the diverse teams I worked with. For a kid who grew up in the largely homogenous white middle class suburbs, the diverse people, experiences and ideas I was exposed to at Carnegie Mellon was a seismic shift in thinking. Those experiences shaped not only my approach to design, but my view of the world. This lead me to ask: Why is a diverse team a “good” thing?
My first answer was a moral one: striving for diversity on a team is just the “right” thing to do. I like to tell people that we live on a great big beautiful interesting world full of amazing people who live and think and experience the world in a myriad of ways. I believe it is a moral imperative to include as many of these people into the design process as possible.
But perhaps my “We Are the World” vibes aren’t convincing you. That’s okay. In addition to my moral beliefs on diversity, I have also experienced significantly better business outcomes with diverse teams. But why would that be the case? Why do diverse teams perform better than homogenous teams?
Why Diverse Teams are Good For Business:
Diverse Teams are Fact-Focused
Diverse teams have been found to have more accuracy and comprehension in group thinking activities than homogenous groups.
The American Psychological Association conducted an experiment in which participants were divided into 6-person juries - some all white, while other juries were made up of four white members and two black members. The juries were then shown video and evidence from a trial with a black defendant and white victims. The juries were charged with determining the guilt or innocence of the defendant.
The study found that diverse juries had a greater command of the facts than homogenous juries. The diverse juries not only made less factual errors during discussions, but they were more likely to self-correct when an error was discovered.
While this study was interesting, it was no particularly surprising. Diverse teams force us to constantly reexamine the facts and check our own biases - including entrenched ways of thinking and behaving. A diverse team is more likely to “think outside the box” than a group who feels comfortable in the box.
Diverse Teams are More Innovative
The diversity of a team also seems to be correlated to how innovative they are. For example: a study published in Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice found that the more women a team or company had, the more likely “radical innovation” would occur.
Another study found diverse teams to be a boon to product innovation and its reception worldwide. Study authors Max Nathan and Neil Lee found a significant “diversity bonus” for groups run by culturally diverse leadership. Not only were these diverse teams more innovative than their homogenous counterparts, but their innovations were more likely to be well-received by a global market.
We tend to be drawn to people like ourselves - people that look, talk, dress and act like we do. But we need to get out of our comfort zone if we want to avoid the conformity trap. Diversity forces us to account for and empathize with other points of view, which leads to new ways of thinking.
Diverse Teams Perform Better
So diverse teams are more accurate with the facts and innovative, but how does this affect business performance? If we look at Cloverpop’s study of 200 business teams over two years we will find a direct link between diverse decision teams and business success.
Here are a few of the highlights Cloverpop found in their study:
Inclusive teams make better business decisions 87% of the time.
Teams that follow an inclusive process make decisions 2X faster with 1/2 the meetings.
Decisions made and executed by diverse teams delivered 60% better results.
“This research highlights the potential value of team diversity as a practical tool for architecting decision-making processes,” said Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino. “That our decisions get sidetracked by biases is now well established. While it is hard to change how our brains are wired, it’s possible to change the context of decisions by architecting the composition of decision-making teams for more diverse perspectives.”
A Recap
Diversity matters. It matters not only for moral reasons, but for business reasons.
Diverse teams are…
Fact-Focused
More Innovative
More Efficient
When considering diversity not only should we think of a person’s race or gender, but their age, where they come from, where they currently live, their educational background and more.
The more diverse the team, the stronger the final product.
We are better when all are welcome at the table and heard.
Picture from Chief Executive Magazine