Experts have a clear understanding of the potential advantages that diversity brings to teams and organizations.
APM acknowledges that diverse teams generally outperform homogeneous ones. This correlation is increasingly evident in the performance and financial outcomes of organizations.
Does this align with your personal experience?
In a previous section, you explored exceptional and high-performing teams. Based on your own observations, do you see a connection between diversity and performance? Do teams with greater diversity produce superior work? Additionally, what challenges arise when working in highly diverse teams?
We are genuinely interested in hearing about your experiences and thoughts regarding these questions in the discussion section.
Yes, there is a connection between diversity and performance. when people from diverse groups come together to build a team there is this strength because each person wants to put in their very best to the project and team.
Oh yes teams with greater diversity produce superior work.
Challenges of working with diverse teams is different ideas and perspective towards things on the project.
Cultural differences too
There’s strength in diversity of a team.it takes different skills to successfully implement an intervention. For example, I have implemented projects successful in areas that the Beneficiaries understood only the local language but having a team member that understood the local language made it very easy for us to implement.
There are also challenges with working with diverse teams. Differences in culture, education, level of experience on the job, religion etc can cause storming in a team. But a team manager with good management skills like leading, good communication, directing, controlling and coordinating will take the once a storming team to a performing team.
Project professionals and team members from diverse and different backgrounds and cultures are likely to have different experiences and perspectives they can bring to the team and project.
Working with diversity team lead to better performance, in diversity they will definitely be storming due to diversity, then the norming process prompts the high performance of the team. Homogeneous team creat room for social moment which will be detrimental to the project to some extent, for the boat crew to work with diversity team in responding to emergency is a smart move by the PM. As a PM in whichever team you are leading, communicate and carry the team along for better performance.
Working with diversity of people will increase the team performance because there wouldn’t be any form of little talks or social interactions and just people coming together to make the project work.
from my experience as a Business Analyst, working with diverse team leads to better performance if the Project Manager patiently takes the team through the forming, storming and norming process.
The High performing teams collaborates to attain better performance which high productivity.
However cultural difference posses a greater risk if not well managed by the PM.
Diversity has it advantages and with people from diverse world tends to get down to business rather than have some social moment. social factor can either be a negative force or a positive force that bring about harmonious attitude. If I’m to make reference to the boat crew, I’d say that the PM hadn’t much choice than to work with who was available and bringing in diversity was a smart move, its like having 3 web designers in one team when you can actually give room for other key players to step in.
Diversity and performance.
As I observe is quite true that these teams perform higher and I think this way; less time to figure out others weakness all that matters is achieving goals of coming together, the reason of team formation is urgent and have less time to achieve goal. But the other side of it is that the adjourning part is not painful. It’s also involved expert because time of training is very small. So both approach have advantages and disadvantages.
Phenomenally a PM should understand the mix in projects and use the peculiarities to set up required teams. Using a diverse team is like using a multipurpose tool to solve a problem. Any way the dynamics of the problem comes forth, the team responds to it using the strength of a suitable member of the team. Diverse team certainly gives an edge in solving a project problem but however requires the PM to lead in norming possible storms stemming from varying or diverse backgrounds. Fro my experience, I have to deliver an order ten times the capacity of my team and I had to form a larger one to deliver this order. The original members always like to show that they are in house and know how they deliver but not minding that those brought in are also lords in their own rights. All I do is to assign, regularly withdraw for updates and possibly reassign as the need is established. Also, the fact that I had the role of looking over the shoulder of the project, I am quick to see where a member needs help and second support without bruising the ego of the other.
Working with a team with diverse individuals can be challenging, but that does not mean that such team cannot be productive. It is the duty of the PM to know the strengths and weaknesses of each individual and assign roles to them each according to his strength. The PM should know the different ways to communicate to each member of the team. As the saying goes, you don’t need to have the perfect team, but you can make the perfect team.