WHO doesn’t want constant unity in decision-making and implementation?
Conformity may, in the beginning, feel stress-free. When a whole assembly of people go the same way, there is the general feeling of comfort and security.
However, this can eventually discourage creativity and innovative thinking.
This is where diversity can be a critical business success factor.
Diversity, whether in the mix of gender, ethnicity, education, or culture, has been the subject of many studies in the past decades, with results yielding the fact that diversity is now an essential ingredient to a productive and effective people management.
In a journal study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) titled “Ethnic Diversity Deflates Price Bubbles”, findings suggest that diversity facilitates friction that enhances deliberation and upends conformity.
This means that with diverse teams, there seems to be more focus on finding out facts rather than relying on mere opinions.
It fosters a more accurate investigatory process in light of differing points of view.
Team members become more careful with data, in-depth discussions become a natural part of the program, and if errors do occur, people are more inclined to make further deliberations.
As stated by David Rock and Heidi Grant in their Harvard Business Review article:
“Diverse teams are more likely to constantly reexamine facts and remain objective. They may also encourage greater scrutiny of each member’s actions, keeping their joint cognitive resources sharp and vigilant. By breaking up workplace homogeneity, you can allow your employees to become more aware of their own potential biases—entrenched ways of thinking that can otherwise blind them to key information and even lead them to make errors in decision-making processes.”
Innovation is another major benefit of diversity.
There’s nothing like a fresh perspective to keep people on their feet.
New projects get made, new tools are used, and faster results bring a more competitive advantage.
In the Journal of Economic Geography, Max Nathan and Neil Lee published a study that supports the direct relationship between diversity and innovation.
Companies with diverse members in management teams were found to be more likely to introduce new product innovations, could reach and serve more markets, and has more entrepreneurial practices.
Overall, the study provides supporting claims that indeed diversity is both an economic and a social asset.
Diversity, therefore, is not something to fear but a phenomenon to celebrate and encourage.
When people from different cultural or educational backgrounds work together in an authentic relationship-building manner, biases and assumptions are broken down and everyone can move towards the actual goals in making the business successful.