Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, a professor of organizational psychology at University College London and the CEO of Hogan Assessment Systems, recently focused on these questions in an interesting article on the Harvard Business Review website.
He summarized the scientific evidence on team diversity in the following seven points.
1. Having ideas doesn't mean being able to implement them
Diverse teams generate a wide range of original and useful ideas. However, they lack the ability to select the best ideas and then implement them together. As a result, most companies have lots of creative ideas that will never be put in practice. Increasing team diversity won't help.
2. Leadership can help
Conflicts arising from team diversity can be handled by good leaders who are able to lead their teams to cooperate better and prioritize team interests over individual ones.
3. Too much diversity is bad
The most recent research shows that a moderate level of team diversity is more beneficial than a high level. Too many cooks spoil the broth, and even the best things have a dark side.
4. Deeper diversity is more important
Team diversity is mostly perceived from a demographic perspective, i.e. the gender, age or race of team members. However, aspects of so-called deep diversity, such as personality, values or abilities, play a more important role.
5. Knowledge sharing is a must
Diversity itself can't increase team creativity unless a knowledge sharing culture works in the team. The contact points in social networks should be staffed with business thinking employees, called intrapreneurs.
6. Skeptics can be persuaded
Diversity training has more impact on employees who are skeptical about diversity. Training can persuade them to actively support this concept much better compared those with a neutral view, or those who can see a potential in diversity.
7. Other factors influence creativity more
The structure and composition of teams has less influence on the development of creativity and innovations than factors such as support for innovation, vision, focus on tasks and external communication. Furthermore, it is important to develop the expertise and skills of the team members, assign tasks to the right people, and strengthen their ability in creative thinking.
"A better way to promote both creativity and diversity is to select employees on the basis of their creativity, as opposed to their cognitive ability or educational credentials, for that alone would enhance the typical diversity level of organizations. In that sense, creativity may lead to diversity more than vice versa," concludes Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic.
-kk-