Livermore - Driven by Difference: How Great Companies Fuel Innovation Through Diversity

DRIEN BY DIFFEENCE

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AMACOM

DRIVEN BY

DIFFERENCE

How Great Companies Fuel Innovation
Through Diversity

David Livermore

American Management Association

New York Atlanta Brussels Chicago Mexico City San Francisco
Shanghai Tokyo Toronto Washington, D.C.

For Grace, Emily, and Linda... Discovering the world
together has been among my greatest gifts in life.

CONTENTS

Diversity has become a reality in the 21st century workplace. It offers incredible potential for developing innovative solutions, but its not automatic. Groundbreaking research reveals that when cultural intelligence levels are low, diverse teams are unlikely to innovate as effectively as homogenous teams. But when cultural intelligence levels are high, diverse teams far outperform homogenous teams in coming up with innovative solutions.

Bringing together the seminal research on innovation, cultural intelligence, and social psychology, Part I explores the essential elements for creating a climate that promotes culturally intelligent innovation.

Your mind is your most powerful asset for innovation. See how consciously paying attention to innovation and the diverse perspectives around you primes you to come up with better, innovative solutions.

Learn how seeing from another point of view is a fascinating, critical part of developing innovative solutions that truly address the pain points of potential users.

Distraction and multitasking are the enemies of creativity. Discipline yourself to focus amidst the many possible distractions and challenges of pursuing innovation on a diverse team.

Discover how to take control of your space to help promote the right climate for innovation to thrive. Your surroundings are the incubator for developing and implementing new ideas with diverse colleagues.

Discover the five factors used to calculate trust and see how to build trust with diverse colleagues and clients as another essential part of creating a climate for culturally intelligent innovation.

Once youve created the ideal climate for culturally intelligent innovation, its time to manage the process. The process for culturally intelligent innovation includes the steps covered in many innovation books, but Part II describes how to adjust those steps for a diversity of participants and users.

Learn the importance of creating a shared mental model for using diversity to create better, innovative outcomes. And gain leading practices for aligning diverse expectations on a team.

Discover the challenges and opportunities for generating ideas from a diverse team. And gain leading practices for generating ideas on a diverse team.

Understand the influence of cultural differences for how you select and pitch an idea. And gain leading practices for selecting and selling your idea to diverse users.

See how cultural differences influence perceptions about design and utility. And gain leading practices for designing and testing for diverse users.

Prepare for implementation by minimizing potential conflict and maximizing the strengths of a diverse team. And gain leading practices for managing implementation of your innovative solution.

by David Livermore

INTRODUCTION

Diversity leads to innovation! Thats the mantra repeated by many diversity proponents. I just heard it again a couple of weeks ago from a diversity guru who spoke before me at an international leadership conference in New York. It makes sense. Looking at a problem from a diversity of perspectives is likely to yield better solutions than viewing it solely from one myopic view. But this rose-colored view of diversity doesnt jive with reality. Just as two newlyweds quickly discover that vastly different perspectives on how to set up house dont necessarily lead to better results, the same is true for multicultural teams that are coalescing on a project.

I recently talked with a senior vice president from one of the largest global banks who told me his bank cut its diversity and inclusion budget by 90 percent because its leaders couldnt see any return on investment from their diversity efforts. A couple of months ago, a group of South African executives told me, Were two decades post-apartheid and weve made very little progress in seeing better results from our incredibly diverse workforce. And many universities and governments around the world have abandoned affirmative actiontype programs, suggesting its time to move on.

Meanwhile, theres very limited diversity in many of the Silicon Valley companies lauded as examples of innovation. Jeffrey Sonnefeld of Yale University believes tech firms place a premium on young white males. He says, Its sort of a throwback to an era we should be long past, which is the macho world of the giggling boys, with the hackers sensibility that somehow we are living in a pure meritocratic world.

Should tech firms, banks, and universities recruit a more diverse workforce simply because of pressure from stakeholders that its the right thing to do? Or can a more compelling case be made for how a diverse workforce leads to greater innovation and success? Are there economic advantages to having a more diverse team, or is it simply a straw man argument?

Theres no question that cultural diversity provides one of the greatest opportunities for global innovation. The potential is enormous. But its a correlation, not causation. An organization that learns how to utilize the diverse perspectives from multicultural teams has a tremendous opportunity to come up with better solutions. In fact, when used strategically, diversity is one of the greatest resources for coming up with innovative solutions, which in turn leads to economic benefits. Learning the managerial steps for translating diversity into innovation is the primary objective of this book.

How can you utilize diverse perspectives to come up with better solutions? And what part of the innovation process needs to be adjusted to leverage diversity for better innovation?

Those are the two primary questions this book will address.

Diversity by itself does not ensure innovation. Diversity combined with high cultural intelligence (CQ) does. Cultural intelligence is the capability to function effectively in culturally diverse situations. Its rooted in rigorous academic research conducted by scholars around the world. Ive written much about the four capabilities required to work and lead with cultural intelligence.of productivity requires a leader and team members with high CQ and a plan for culturally intelligent innovation.

intentionally foster a climate that is conducive to generating and implementing better solutions for diverse groups. And each chapter ends with a brief Climate Assessment, giving you a chance to evaluate your current climate for culturally intelligent innovation.

Figure X: Culturally Intelligent Innovation

describes the process for culturally intelligent innovation. My bookshelves are overflowing with books on innovation, and nearly every magazine I read has articles on the topic. Do we really need one more book on the subject? Yes, because many of the current resources overlook the issues and opportunities that are relevant for innovation in a more global, diverse context. The innovation process described in Part II specifically addresses how the innovation process used by many leading companies needs to be adapted for culturally diverse situations. The material throughout this section combines our work in cultural intelligence with the world-renowned work of people like Clayton Christensen at Harvard Business School and the ideas and methods used at places like the d.school at Stanford University.