9 Signs That Your Organization Lacks Diversity Of Thought
All organizations have problems that need to be solved, in addition to the need to evolve to adapt to the new demands, conditions and new scenarios that society demands. In this sense, diversity of thought can help drive innovative and creative problem solving.
The members of any organization recognize that they must act and create strategies for change. So why is it sometimes not achieved? Despite the emergence of good ideas, strategies to implement and methods, most of the time they stay at that. What to do to transform it into actions to apply?
The keys are responsibility and commitment. After all, it is much easier for others to start taking steps to avoid the possibility of being wrong. However, all leaders must develop the ability to take calculated risks. If they do not, it is because they lack diversity of thought. Let’s go deeper.
Diversity of thought: embracing change to evolve
Organizations must embrace diversity of thought to discover new ways of doing things and successfully lead change. In fact, this ability teaches how to embrace change in order to evolve.
Glenn Llopis, author of The Innovation Mentality , believes that diversity of thought should be an important competitive advantage for organizations. The problem is that diversity is often confusing. In this sense, Llopis affirms, there is no doubt that we are a diverse and multicultural society, but when it comes to inclusion in business, talking about diversity generally promotes just the opposite of inclusion : marginalization and victimization.
That is why the issue of diversity has not evolved, both on a general and personal level. It has become more like- minded dialogues than individual contributions.
Does your organization lack diversity of thought?
The wise leader discovers like-mindedness through differences in others. So you can see and seize opportunities faster to drive growth, strengthen competitive advantage, and create market distinction. That is the key.
Based on this, Glenn Llopis proposes nine signs that indicate that diversity of thought is not being accepted in an organization. They are as follows:
- Focus only on the aspects that inspire us and not on those that disturb and create conflict.
- Leaders want control instead of influence, they want authority and obedience instead of inspiration and impulse attitudes to improve.
- The business defines the individual, rather than the individual defining the business.
- The workplace does not reflect cultural demographic change.
- We are too comfortable with the words we use and prefer not to create tension.
- Company values do not reflect the realities of the workplace.
- Old templates and traditional ways of acting are not challenged.
- Vulnerability is seen as a weakness.
- Departments operate in silos.
Allowing diversity of thought to enter an organization will become a competitive advantage. This will stimulate new growth, attract new talent and create new opportunities in the market. Only then can the organization take steps in the right direction to move beyond compliance and commitment. And, finally, it will evolve.
Differences that add value
Leaders and organizations need to go beyond normative variety and embrace diversity of thought. It strengthens business models by enabling differences to add value to the business, driven by relationships in the workplace based on collaboration and trust. In this way, growth is accelerated through the creation of opportunities never seen before.
Additionally, the workplace requires diversity of thought to rebuild businesses, organizations, and institutions based on shared beliefs.
As we see, diversity of thought implies the unification and acceptance of differences that, when further explored, support the values that unite the members of the organization. This characteristic is based on inclusion: everyone listens to each other and values individual differences enough for everyone to contribute and believe that they can achieve success, importance and ultimately, evolution for the better.
