Your people make you
Innovation is the key to staying relevant, differentiating your brand and gaining competitive advantage but who is consistently driving innovation in the corporate world?
Entering the new state of affairs with unfamiliar rules and values can be daunting. I don’t envy the work of talent acquisition teams. Stakeholders and business partners struggle to define the skill sets required and even when there is a clear mandate and job description, it can be so hard to find talented innovators that create real value and impact amidst all the hype, fluff and buzzwords. The driving forces of innovation are human behaviour, advancements in technology and economic viability but for real, tangible innovation that creates and captures new value in new ways, diversity is crucial.
Diversity is two dimensional, inherent and acquired. Inherent diversity is associated with ‘who we are’ i.e. the personality type we are born with, our gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Acquired diversity however is not about who we are but ‘how we behave’ as a result of what we’ve learned and experienced. It consists of our mental models and mindsets developed over time through various experiences. For example, I’m a Persian Hebrew, straight, woman with a commanding personality. Being a third culture child and having lived around the world, I am home everywhere and nowhere at all. My natural desire to grow, expand and explore leads me to travel, taking on eclectic responsibilities and experiences. I embrace the differences in people and connect the dots among those differences to achieve exciting outcomes, that continue to build trust and value in the digital age and expand the realm of the possible. But I am a rare breed.
Two dimensional diversity creates a powerful dynamic at work between diverse leaders and teams who know how to unlock each others contributions. Inherently diverse people bring to the team an understanding of unmet needs in underleveraged markets. People with acquired diversity bring fresh perspectives, mindsets and notions that are globally relevant and connect to a wider consumer base. It takes leaders with inherent and acquired diversity to establish a ‘speak-up culture’ which is essential in unleashing the innovative capacity of the team to its fullest. By giving equal airtime to diverse voices, they are more likely than non-inclusive leaders to derive value creating insights. They ensure all members of the team get constructive feedback and support to extract breakthrough ideas. Listening to contrarian input and taking corrective actions that alter the course, they are more likely to arrive at effective solutions.
Creating a culture of innovation is important for great ideas to translate to market share. Like any form of change, transformation of culture requires catalysts. In my experience, a vertically diverse workforce with strategic leadership that creates alignment to the vision, drives market growth through serial innovation. Research is displaying evidence and findings that should intensify efforts to ensure that executives both embrace and embody the power of differences. After all, innovation stems from the collective genius of diverse teams managed by leaders who value perspectives and approaches outside their own experience or expertise.
I am dedicating this article to one such leader Mr Derek Low, Executive Vice President, Liberty Mutual. A humble and passionate leader that I respect, look up to, learn from and admire professionally.
