Diversity and innovation in the Workplace

Diversity is more than hiring a few people of a different gender or ethnic backgrounds or allowing a few diverse opinions to surface from time to time in an organization. It is actively searching out and embracing the uniqueness, strengths, talents and thoughts of all people so that the organization can have a collective impact on the greater good of the individual, organization, customer and the community.
We do not eat just one type of food all our life; we change it for the various nutrients and benefits of those nutrients are healthy for our body, it helps us grow, that is similar to the interests of diversity. Diversity is an advantage, different perspective and opportunity.

What is a diverse workplace and why does it matter?

A diverse workplace brings together strengths to accomplish more together. It provides a robust decision-making team. Companies with higher workplace diversity solve problems faster. Diverse teams are able to solve problems faster than cognitively similar people. Employees from diverse backgrounds have different experiences and views, which is why they are able to will bring diverse solutions to the table. Thus, the best solution can be chosen sooner, which leads to faster problem-solving.
Just like an orchestra needs many different players to make music, every company success depends upon the diversity of its team. Diversity fosters an entrepreneurial culture and helps generate new ideas that deliver innovative solutions.
In short, diversity brings any company a healthy dose of inspiration from various combinations of different mindsets and talents. It is fit for the company. We must invite deeper connections and together create organizational alternatives that drive action and change toward inclusiveness of both present and future stakeholders.

Fostering diversity in a business should not be done simply for the sake of being inclusive, but rather for the need to invite diverse, innovative thinking which can better serve the organization and those customers it helps. You can think of it as an advantage to understand and serve better your customers, in fact, you can increase your understanding about your client up to 152% just for having a truly diverse workforce.

A better decision-making process powered by diversity

The value of diversity in business is enormous. It can improve the level of teamwork, performance and customer service through a broadened base of knowledge and experience. A culturally diverse workforce is creative and flexible. It exposes you to new ideas, different ways of working and reaching decisions. Learning from people from other backgrounds also broadens your horizons and expands your knowledge base, making you more efficient and tolerant as individuals.

When employees with different backgrounds, talents and experiences come together, they invariably contribute to an organization’s overall growth. Embracing employees with different skills and cultural viewpoints helps in understanding the needs and requirements of the customers, on a global scale. Diversity in an organization leads to a wide variety of views and ideas. It helps an organization to formulate the best business strategy, with its large pool of different designs and solutions. Besides improving the ideation process, companies with diverse teams make better business decisions up to 87% of the time and twice as faster with half of the meetings.

When people with different ways of solving severe problems work together towards a standard solution, they get the best result. There is no one best answer to any question–the more ideas you can obtain from different people, the more likely you are to develop a workable solution. Others can offer insightful alternatives you might not have considered. It is an advantage of diversity to innovation and productivity in an organization.
If diversity is powerful to bring innovation out in a system, then you should create the right work environment to take full advantage of the variety that brings about change. You can make the difference.

Magali Toussaint. Global Leadership and career solution provider at U Diverse – Supporting international executives to get their dream career, develop global leadership skills, and lead diverse teams