Driven by Difference
How Great Companies Fuel Innovation Through Diversity
Editorial Review
There’s no question that culture diversity provides one of the greatest opportunities for global innovation. The potential is enormous. But it’s a correlation, not causation. An organization that learns how to utilize the diverse perspectives from multicultural teams has a tremendous opportunity to come up with better solutions. In fact, when used strategically, diversity is one of the greatest resources for coming up with innovative solutions, which in turn leads to economic benefits. Learning the managerial steps for translating diversity into innovation is the primary objective herein. Diversity by itself does not ensure innovation. Diversity combined with high cultural intelligence (CQ) does. Cultural intelligent is the capability to function effectively in culturally diverse situations. Getting diverse teams to function at the highest levels of productivity requires a leader and team members with high CQ and a plan for culturally intelligent innovation. I don’t view diversity primarily as a problem to be solved. Instead, I see it as a treasure trove, rich with innovation solution waiting to be mined.
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Wisdom to Share
An organization that learns how to utilize the diverse perspectives from multicultural teams has a tremendous opportunity to come up with better solutions.
Diversity by itself does not ensure innovation. Diversity combined with high cultural intelligence (CQ) does.
For a group to truly have a “culture” of its own, it requires a shared pattern of beliefs, values, behaviors, customers, and attitudes.
Diversity is a way of describing any group that includes two or more cultures working and/or relating together.
Cultural intelligence allows individuals to adapt their motivations, work ethic, and communication styles while learning from the different value perspectives to create better solutions.
Whenever you have multiple layers of cultural differences in one individual, there’s all the more potential for value collisions.
Innovation begins by looking at a problem from as many perspectives as possible. And diversity is the best way to do that.
By consciously paying attention to innovation and the diverse perspectives around you, you’re primed to come up with more innovative solutions.
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