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.
There is a relationship between diversity and performance since it brings different perspectives to bare.
More diverse teams will bring different perspectives as long as culture and communication is mand.
Challenges with working in highly diverse team. Highly diverse teams challenges range from
1. Communication Issues
2. Cultural misunderstanding
3. Religious beliefs
4. Discrimination and
5. Inequitable inclusion.
Diverse teams tend to work better in complex situations. An example was when the firm I worked in was assigned a master plan project for a Federal University that was located in a remote area of the country. Before any actual design was done an Environmental and Social Analysis of the site had to be done and vetted by the Government, a team of different expertise and experience was sourced from other firms. Four weeks later and after two site visits an Analysis was drafted, developed and submitted.
The team was disbanded because the next phase had a more Simple situation here an in-house homogeneous team was formed to proceed to that phase.
For me a challenge in working in a diverse team is the stage of forming. This is done faster if the work atmosphere is comfortable without prejudices
Diverse teams do better work
Diverse teams boost innovation, meaning diverse teams do better work. When a company brings together individuals from different walks of life, cultures and experiences, in highly collaborative teams built on trust and respect, team members can share, challenge and elevate contributions. The result: creativity is bolstered, celebrated and harnessed for problem solving and improving work. The difference for business impact is when innovative thinking and ideas are spun into actionable strategies.
As we are all working remotely, physically away from the teams whom we collaborate and communities we serve, through online meeting tools such as Cisco Webex, we have ample opportunity to connect across the day and time zones. Hence building a diverse team should be easy. Let me share some of the benefits of why building a diverse team can help.
1. Working with people whom are different to you challenge you: One of the greatest skills of a leader is the ability to listen to your team. To better understand and meet needs of different individuals, you rise to the challenge – it’s a great way to test and rejuvenate your thinking to elevate more rounded ideas. Intently listening with an open mind can also help keep bias in check and question assumptions.
2. Reduction of groupthink: Not always the most vocal or similar ideas get up. Facts are more likely questioned, while the objectivity versus subjectivity is challenged. As conformity declines, differences in people views can be debated, where the sparks of innovation are often born.
3. Remote working and tools invite ongoing collaboration: You don’t have to be face to face to get things done. The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown is proving the digitality of equipped companies. Ideas can be debated freely over teaming applications. Project teams can be set up in seconds and strawman proposals developed in minutes. Resultantly, your immediate team’s view will be accessed in minutes. Additionally, within a few clicks, invite a wider and diverse audience – whether it is someone from overseas or from another group that can add a different perspective. Virtual engagement is the new normal.
4. Newcomers feel more welcome to contributing early: If your team environment lends itself to openness, trust and debate, newcomers arrive seeing an early transition to free expression. Fresh thinking is praised, not negatively questioned.
5. Engagement and high performance: When everyone feels welcome and valued, the team is empowered to perform at its best. Talent develops, retention is minimised, and both the business and its customers prosper. Competitive advantage and differentiation is realised.
Now that we have exposed ideas to build stronger more diverse teams, benefit immediately from it by making it a priority. Build a new virtual team today!
In a complex project environment, every diverse team member reasoned he or she might not know it all, and so would welcome anyone with insights on how to handle such a project. Also, each diverse team member all have several things in common, their zeal to find solutions, their visions of the outcome, the success of the project in view, and the experience to gain from the entire process or project life cycle.
Fostering diversity amongst team members helps in positive performance. There must be understanding between the team members and the project manager should make sure that it is a health one which gives room for growth and progress of the project
Promoting diversity, fostering inclusion, and harnessing the strengths of your diverse team members are vital for maximizing the benefits of working with such a team as a project manager.
When managing diverse teams, you are likely to encounter a range of experiences associated with diversity
I have not had experience working with adiverse team members in any project.
From what I have learnt so far, diversity allows team members to freely contribute their ideas and perspectives in various areas of their expertise in order to achieve a common goal, especially in complex projects.
Diverse teams are usually focused on the task at hand as it’s goal is not to build relationships (social cohesion) but to deliver on an assigned task in the best way possible and timely.
Diversity in a team promotes strong team bonding, innovation, and creativity which enhances an organization performance and productivity.
Absolutely!
Diversity allows a free range of opinions and perspectives in various areas of expertise. Diverse teams, mostly of people without social cohesion is usually focused as it’s goal is not to build relationships, but to deliver on an assigned task in the best way possible and just go home.
The diversity in a team shows that teams with high diversity and social cohesion do better in complex projects than homogeneous teams who know each other well.
As a project manager embracing diversity, promoting inclusion and levering the strength of your diverse team.
One may encounter a range of experiences related to diversity.
The diversity of a team plays a huge role in its performance. This is because ideas and perspectives regarding several topics are shared from different points of view. It’s no news that the experiences of a person shape the way they see issues, hence bringing colour to the team.