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.
I have not really worked as s project manager but as a business woman I have worked as a team leader and I came to understand with the previous lesson taught that diversity and performance help so much in teamwork. Diversity in the sense that there may people from different backgrounds ( ranging from social, religious, economic, ethnic etc) to individual performances in carrying out task. So I allow everyone to put in their different idea from their different perspective and it then turnout that it helps to quicken the process of a project and bring it to an end with a good result.
Thoughts on “My experiences of diversity in teams (PM Course discussion)
As a project manager my experience of diversity in teams has made me to understand that i am working with a group of people in a working environment who have different backgrounds (racial, ethnic, social, physical, cognitive, among others), skills, perspectives, and preferences to achieve organizational goals. With this understanding i have developed an effective leadership and communication skill as this enable me to get positive feedback from my team. Also to ensure team actualize organizational set goal as a project manager i will continue engaging and motivating my team this will encourage them to perform effectively.
Team 7, cohort 16.
Teams with greater diversity produce superior work, because there will also be social diversity which can be religion, ethnicity, believes, etc. These would make the working environment a more professional place thereby attaining desired results.
I believe the challenges that arise when working in highly diverse team are language difference, working with someone you have not seen before, etc.
I see a connection between diversity and performance
Blessing Olusakin Team 3 cohort 16
Yes there is a positive relationship between diversity and performance. More diverse teams tend to:
1. Bring unique perspectives and ideas, leading to better problem-solving and decision-making.
2. Encourage creativity, innovation, and thinking out of the box.
3.reducing group- thinking and improving critical thinking.
4. Foster a more inclusive and empathetic work environment, leading to higher employee engagement and satisfaction.
5. Better represent and understand diverse customer bases, leading to more effective solutions and services. This is not to say there are no challenges, some problems faced are
1. Communication barriers and language differences.
2. Cultural and social differences leading to misunderstandings and conflicts.
3. Different work styles, values, and beliefs.
4.tendencies may arise for bias and discrimination.
5. extra effort to build trust and rapport.
To overcome this challenges, we had to
establish clear communication channels and active listening practices.
2. Provide trainings that cut across cultures
3. Encourage open dialogue and feedback.
4. Foster a culture of inclusivity, respect, and empathy.
5. Emphasize shared goals and values.
In my experience, diverse teams that navigate these challenges effectively tend to outperform homogeneous teams and deliver exceptional results.
Diverse teams bring together individuals with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, which can lead to more innovative solutions and better decision-making.
Challenges of Diverse Teams
1. Communication barriers: Differences in language, culture, and communication styles can lead to misunderstandings and conflicts.
2. Resistance to change: Some team members may be resistant to new ideas and ways of working, especially if they differ from their own cultural norms.
3. Increased complexity: Managing a diverse team requires more effort and skill from the team leader, as they need to navigate different personalities, communication styles, and work preferences.
4. Potential for stereotyping and bias: Diverse teams may be more susceptible to stereotyping and bias, which can undermine team dynamics and performance.
Yusuf Kamaldeen Team 10
In my experience, diversity has its pros and cons in performance. For instance, in my company, whenever we want to start project, we do invite our subcontractors to submit list of their teams and location nationwide. We form teams with these submissions with our internal team members assign roles to individuals to accomplished the project. This diversity in team do bring forth; expertise, experienced and well trained team members that aid in timely, smooth and quality project delivery. However, some teams do seem weak, it’s role of project manager to identify this loophole on time and be proactive about it in-terms of action before it impact the project delivery. This we have been doing for decades and it leads to successful project delivery.
Victor Adebayo Kolawole Team 6
Diversity bring about creativity and innovation in a team, having such a team will bring about quick solution and growth, in investment diversity allows an investor to spread risk.
In this Case diversity will be an avenue of different ideas and they are always superior to other teams.
Challenges: Resistance to change and integration difficulties.
In my experience, there is a positive relationship between diversity and performance. More diverse teams bring varied perspectives and solutions, leading to innovative and well-rounded outcomes. However, challenges include potential communication barriers, cultural misunderstandings, and differing work styles. Overcoming these requires fostering an inclusive environment, promoting open dialogue, and encouraging mutual respect. When managed well, diverse teams can harness their strengths to perform exceptionally and drive success.
Having a diverse team helps to see projects from different perspective that helped solving different challenges as they come. The major challenge from working with diverse teams are; sterotype, language barriers, difficulty in accepting change
Okeke Uchenna Ifeyinwa Team 7.
Do you see a connection between diversity and performance?
There is a connection between diversity and performance because individuals actively participate and share their ideas and skills to achieve a quicker result.
They tends to perform better, have greater creativity and innovation. Diverse teams easily responds to complex situations because there’s increase in engagement and performance which strengthen the team and the satisfaction rate is higher.
Challenges:
– Communication: different languages can result in communication barriers which may reduce the overall effectiveness of a team.
– Cultural differences: this can affect workflow of the team and the relationship between team.
Also differences in opinion can create conflict which may prevent team from discovering solutions to the situation at hand.
The rating of a project team, wether diverse or homogeneous to perform better, can be said, to be relative in some cases . In a sense, they both have their pro’s and con’s.
In my experience, project with diverse team tends to have experienced persons involved. And oftentimes we see these persons having more sense of value and urgency for the task at hand, ensuring that the best is achieved. However, in all obviousity there could sometimes be limitations in the aspect of effective communication, although that might not necessarily be much of a threat to the project when all team members have the purpose at heart.
Cohort 16,
Team 5