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Bonding with a group of like-minded people is a thrilling experience. Clubs and fraternities, communities of faith, and reunions often have this quality. We understand each other, we\u2019ve had a lot of shared experiences, we can almost finish one another\u2019s sentences. Our tribal impulse has deep roots in our ancestral past and has a powerful survival benefit, so it\u2019s no surprise that this experience of intense bonding is so attractive.<\/p>\n
But like-mindedness has a huge cost. Hiring for \u201ccultural fit<\/a>\u201d means that teams end up in an echo chamber, without new ideas to challenge the groupthink. The value of diversity is that it opens up new lines of inquiry and perspective, helping the whole team \u201cthink different\u201d. If your job is to crank out the same thing you cranked out yesterday, then maybe thinking different isn\u2019t so important. But if you need to innovate, then your greatest enemy is your conventional habits of thinking, and diversity can be a great ally.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a reason why it feels so comfortable to have a conversation with someone who thinks just like you. The familiarity lulls you into believing you can drift away from present-moment awareness. You gladly stay in the familiar territory of your own thoughts and nod happily when all your assumptions are confirmed.\u00a0 The fundamental diversity skill is learning to deliberately step away from that comfortable place.\u00a0 Staying in the present moment with curiosity\u2014no matter how uncomfortable it is\u2014you can truly take in what a team member is saying, regardless of accent or gender or communication style or ways of thinking. Working on diverse teams helps you develop this ability, since these differences mean you can\u2019t afford to go on auto-pilot.<\/p>\n Getting uncomfortable is also the key to creativity. Teams whose diversity requires them to work regularly with their discomfort have more fluidity. When presented with an unfamiliar problem, they can say \u201cwe\u2019re used to that.\u201d When a conventional solution doesn\u2019t work, they can say \u201cwe are letting go of our expectations every day\u2014so let\u2019s break the convention.\u201d When they find they\u2019ve chased down a blind alley, they can say \u201cwe\u2019ve fumbled and bumbled plenty of times as we\u2019ve learned to work with each other\u2014let\u2019s back up and try again.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not to say that diverse teams guarantee creativity. If teams don\u2019t break their habits of lazy half-listening, making assumptions, and jumping to conclusions, diversity may just lead to a chaotic snarl. It\u2019s when teams start to lean in to the uncomfortable places\u2014really listening, really letting go of their expectations\u2014that diversity can manifest its creative benefits.<\/p>\n Try It:<\/em> How diverse is your team? Is that diversity teaching you to explore what it means to be uncomfortable? How are you taking advantage of your diversity to learn to stretch your thinking in new ways and find new solutions? In your next team meeting, make a commitment to listen to each other more carefully, with curiosity, to see what new creative possibilities emerge.<\/p>\n Image:\u00a0https:\/\/pxhere.com\/en\/photo\/ Bonding with a group of like-minded people is a thrilling experience. Clubs and fraternities, communities of faith, and reunions often have this quality. We understand each other, we\u2019ve had a lot of shared experiences, we can almost finish one another\u2019s sentences. Our tribal impulse has deep roots in our ancestral past and has a powerful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creativity","category-tips-for-your-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1326"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1530,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions\/1530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jhanderson.biz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}