#30 – Diversity and Innovation

Why is a diverse workforce so important?

There are plenty of ways to explore the topic, but I’ll start with innovation.

Harvard Business Review has found that more diverse companies are more innovative.

As a cross-section of workers bring their own cultures and upbringings to the table, creative ideas sprout from the various backgrounds. In short, the company is more adaptable.

Charles Darwin once said, ‘it’s not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent, it’s the one that is most adaptable to change.’ He was talking about animals, but the business world is a jungle too. Anyway I digress.

Over 40% of Australians have at least one parent born overseas, so it makes sense for your decision-makers and think-tanks to reflect this. This is where products like the Nike Pro Hijab are created to cater for our increasingly globalised and multicultural society.

And if your business openly values diversity, then the two-thirds of job-seekers who consider diversity to be important when deciding on their next role are going to take a closer look at you so you can get more out of the talent pool.

Various studies have also linked higher rates of diversity with increased profits, employee mental health, faster and better decision making. But I’d like to take it a step further.

Deep down I’m an optimist. It’s not about cynically justifying diversity to generate profit, it’s about the higher meaning of work.

A few blogs ago, I asked why we ask people What Do You Do for work. I said it was because work is a higher calling – it’s what we do to leave the world a little better than we found it.

Google wants to make information accessible and useful. Nike wants to bring inspiration to every athlete in the world. Ikea wants to create better everyday life (and somehow do that by making desks impossible to build).

If we come to a workplace which aligns to a common vision or value and we find people of different genders, ethnicities, cultures with us going toward that same goal; then that workplace is also a bridge between those cultures.

I know last week I took time off for Jewish New Year and in doing so, got to talk about it to a colleague. Work is where I learnt about Holi, an Indian festival of colours which also signals the end of winter.

Diversity in workplaces is invaluable. But not just to the company.

Next week: Ode to Jones