Laura’s Winning Ideas

I’ve been searching this morning for a cite, and only find references to the “fact” that homogeneous teams can be formed quickly, but diverse teams will accomplish twice as much as homogeneous teams.

While I haven’t found a cite, I can say from experience that diversity improves performance on every team I’ve managed.

First, “Group Think” is a problem for homogeneous teams. When everyone approaches problems the same way, you get blindsided by customer requirements. “Gee, we never thought they meant THAT.”

Second, in order to answer the variety of concerns your customer has, you need a variety of answers. A variety of viewpoints provide the best way to design these answers.

Third, diversity means your team will have a variety of education and experiences which can be the winning edge.

Click here for a demonstration of how I build diverse teams that work.
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Diversity wins contracts

The proposal had a story problem included. We assembled a team from throughout the company, asking a variety of folks to look over the story problem and join a conference call to discuss the solution.

The fellow who knew the client and was familiar with the technology wasn’t going to waste any time, so he started drafting the solution before the call. He wasn’t enthused about having a bunch of “strangers” making suggestions.

The conference call was a hoot.

First, the most senior person (actually one week from retirement) explained that the problem was a tricky one because it led one to believe that the problem involved a gallon of radioactive paint. In fact, we were actually dealing with a bucket used to transport one gram vials of the radioactive product. The one gallon cans were filled with sand and each vial was sunk in sand in case the vial was broken in transit. He’d worked with this product during WWII.

Second, the most junior person (actually a new hire we included in the meeting as a training exercise) explained that the problem was even less threatening. He had just graduated from a school conducting research in this area. One discovery they’d proven was the inability for radioactive particles suspended in paint to travel beyond the suspension medium.

In other words, the paint in the vial could not have left the can to contaminate the building or outside environment.

Humm. The draft answer to the problem had involved technical specialists arriving in HazMat decontamination gear, immediate evacuation of the surrounding area, and a communications plan to deal with the media, the community, US EPA and Congress.

The correct answer was to pick up the empty can, and recycle it.

Only diversity could arrive at the correct answer.