Innovating Through Diverse Minds and Experiences

Via Twitter Valdis Krebs shared his post "Building on Diversity" where he writes:

"Recently, I read an amazing book about Abe Lincoln -- Team of Rivals. In order to deal with a divided nation, Lincoln chose his cabinet from the best minds available. He ended up with a cabinet composed of mostly his rivals to the presidency. He chose these men for their abilities and experience. Lincoln knew the problems he faced were too much for one person. He knew he needed a team of experts -- all more capable than him in their specialities."

and applying an organizational network analysis lens explains:

"Lincoln was a master weaver in not only creating his team, but also managing them. A diverse team is difficult to manage, but usually produces better results than a team of like-thinkers. The key to Lincoln's diverse team was different thinking and different expertise and different styles. Yet, by appearance they were very similar -- all old white men. Same packaging, but different attributes."

Last year investigating InnoCentive as a new model for broadcasting challenges beyond organizational walls to speed innovation, I found research by Harvard's Karhim Lakhani and colleagues supporting Valdis's case for:

"..diverse team was different thinking and different expertise and different styles."

The article is " BROADCAST SEARCH IN PROBLEM SOLVING:ATTRACTING SOLUTIONS FROM THE PERIPHERY" http://www.stern.nyu.edu/ciio/WorkOnline/IS20052006/021506.pdf

It reports analysis of factors in solving challenges broacast through InnoCentive and found:

"Analysis of 166 previously unsolved science problems, originating from the R &D labs of 26 firms, revealed a 29.5% resolution rate via broadcast search. The probability of a problem being solved was significantly correlated with the  heterogeneity in the scientific interests of the solvers submitting solutions and their relative specialization."

While there is comfort in surrounding ourselves with like minds both Valdis' blog post and Lakhani et al's InnoCentive research remind us to go to the edge of our networks and engage diverse talents and perspectives to promote innovation and solve business problems.

 ~ Jenny Ambrozek