17.10.2021
This weekend we return with a focus on the one area that we don't pay nearly enough attention to in efforts to expand our worlds and the value we create – our minds.
In the last Weekender, we highlighted the lessons of Wall Street's Last Honest Analyst, Sallie Krawcheck, to make room for cognitive diversity just as much we as work to make room for demographic diversity. Why bother? A team of one type of thinking, learning and doing (i.e. cognitive monoculture) unwittingly limits its problem-solving capacity. It also handicaps its own innovation ability, by not paying attention to the needs of those who may not fit the over-represented thinking inside the team. Such teams also limit their own ability to cultivate a real sense of belonging for those who may simply be wired differently – despite what their company mission statement says.
Exhibit A 👇🏽
To avoid these pitfalls takes proactive management as we build and nurture our teams, but it also takes internal work for everyone to catch themselves before falling into the cosy, comfortable trap of group-think.
For all the org chart management we may do to build a cognitively diverse and open team, it won't be nearly as effective if we're not also doing the private work of making our own minds flexible enough to value different ways of thinking and doing.
In short: let's be Bettr 😎 In the spirit of this still being Global Diversity Awareness Month, this Weekender offers 3 ideas, 2 concepts and 1 question on building our minds and our teams for a wealth of constructive perspectives.
Happy reading!
The key then to maximizing our talents is for us all to put ourselves in the zone of stimulation that is right for us.
– Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in A World That Can't Stop Talking
Almost 10 years ago, Susan Cain broke through the noise of rockstar entrepreneurs and all things How To Win Friends And Influence People to tell us that it's more than okay to be quiet – if quiet is our optimum state of being.