Diversity

Diversity beats skill

Scott E. Page, Professor of Complex Systems and Economics at the University of Michigan, who in his book The Diversity Bonus explains how in a world facing increasingly complex challenges, "Diversity beats skill" that is, a team made up of the best in each field will obtain worse results than another with members who think differently.

The discussion about benefits of diversity in working groups had a first stage, where the approach came from the point of view of inclusion and justice. Then the empirical evidence began to appear: hundreds of studies showing that heterogeneous teams (in gender, age, culture) obtained best results.

Within the framework of Cultural Diversity Day, we would like to invite you to reflect on the general diversity of your team:

Throughout your career, what characteristics did the most successful teams have? What openness do you have when working in diverse teams? If you could number, from 1 to 10, how diverse do you think you are? Without spoiling the answer, I would ask each member of your team to write on a piece of paper the score they would give you: you may be surprised by the answer, it can be a nice trigger for open and honest conversations about diversity in your team.