I’m not a ‘navel gazer‘, in fact I would probably get my back up against the wall if anyone accused me of being one. For many people, spending time doing various assessments to learn more about oneself falls into this category; I get that. We can get so fixated on taking self discovery assessment after assessment, after assessment in pursuit of self discovery…but to what end?
So where am I going with this, especially with a blog title of ‘Thinking about thinking’? In my lifetime I have completed many assessments: True Colours, What Color is Your Parachute?, Anchors, StrengthsFinder, MBTI, Values-Based-Indicators, DISC to name a few. Each one of them have contributed to my self-understanding, but to what end? In college, we use various assessments to help students learn who they are, how they perform, what matters to them, what they should do with their lives…again, to what end?

Ok, so this is sounding like a gloom and doom reflection…bear with me, that’s not where I’m going.

Lately I have been passionately curious about the whole idea of diversity, and loving every moment of it. In fact, in my previous few blogs I focused on diversity in the classroom, which really served as the impetus to keep digging into this intriguing area of thought. The intent of my attention to this matter was for the purpose of bringing students from multiple cultural backgrounds together, and through appreciating each one’s unique contribution, greatly enhance their own learning and that of their classmates. I left the semester feeling enriched, as did many of the students.

However, through conversations with my son, Nathan, we began considering the fact that the practice of many organizations is to design diverse teams based on such things as culture, gender, religion, ability, or age. The theory is that bringing individuals from diverse people groups together will result in heightened creativity which would then lead to greater innovation, which would lead to greater productivity and profit. Logical, and supported by research. But…is it accurate? Not necessarily…in fact, other research is showing that while much good can be generated from such diversity, there are challenges that can block the desired results. In an article entitled Diversity in Teams: a Two Edged Sword the authors remind us that there is more to receiving creative and innovative outcomes than simply putting together a diverse team.

The question then arises…If diversity truly is the key element in creating diversity of thought, how do we harness and grow it? And…how do we define diversity?

Here’s where I’m going with this. When most of us think of diversity, we think about the visible…the things we see that make us different: race, color, age, ability/disability, gender… But what about “Invisible diversity”? Bersin by Deloitte  defines this as… ‘the traits or characteristics of a person that may not be obvious, such as diversity of thought, perspectives, and life experiences (which may include education, family status, values and beliefs, working-style preferences, and socioeconomic status).’

Is it possible that the best path to creativity and innovation doesn’t lie in visibly diverse teams, but in teams that also strive for invisibly diverse teams?

Closing the loop…if I want to successfully work with an invisibly diverse team, one that embraces differenct ways of thinking based on such things as values, beliefs, experiences, perspectives…I need to understand where I’m coming from; I need to first be a student of myself before I can understand those unique individuals I will be privileged to work with.

Thus starts the journey into re-learning about, and appreciating, my own uniqueness, FOR THE PURPOSE of learning about, and appreciating others, so that together we can innovate and create amazing things.