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.
With the increase in globalization and competition in industrial market, it is important to state that the different aspect of diversity has different relationship with performance. Some of these diversities are cultural diversity, gender diversity, age diversity etc.
These diversities can have a positive impact on performance, such as innovation, problem-solving, market understanding, talent attraction etc.
However, diversity also has its own challenges, such as communication barriers or conflicts. Nevertheless, effective management and inclusivity are key to leveraging diversity for improved performance.
Diversity in teams brings the level of excitement through the ideas, skills, methods, experiences and techniques in other for them to achieve a successful project. With the aid of the diversity, teams can solve problems encountered in the project. To carry out this diversity in teams, there should a proper communication and transparency in information.
Diversity in teams helps work productivity to increase, it also helps each team member to learn a new way of doing things sometimes.
APM highlights that diverse teams perform better, leading to stronger organizational success. Having worked with clients in the UK, US, and UAE while being from Kenya, I’ve seen how differences in culture, language, and work styles shape teamwork.
Diversity brings innovation and adaptability, but challenges like communication barriers and differing expectations require strong leadership and clear collaboration. Structured teamwork like the RNLI lifeboat crew’s fast formation shows that even teams with low social cohesion can perform well in unpredictable situations.
Overall, diversity boosts creativity and resilience, but success depends on how well teams manage differences and work together.
Diversity in teams brings some level of excitement. Bringing different levels of ideas, culture, experiences and methods for the advancement of a project. It’s not necessarily going to start smoothly but the teammates can learn to welcome such diversities and make things work for the success of the project at hand. I think when everyone is onboard with the morals and values behind the project, and understands why the project has to be achievable then, team diversity can be a good thing. People from different walks of life bringing fresh perspectives to the project.
Diverse teams increase productivity because people come with different levels of ideas, understanding, values, and approaches, which increases productivity output. However, to achieve this, a Project Charter is important so that every person knows the purpose and the ‘why’ of the project, so that they don’t collide with each other.
Teams with greater diversity produce superior work performance due to the high different perspective such as; values, knowledge gained, way of thinking, cultural norms and , ways of mitigating risk prone to occur.
Diversity has a significant impact on the teams. Teams that are diverse in terms of skills, experiences, languages, and handling complex situations tend to perform well when mix. This variety often leads to better decision-making and more innovative outcomes, hence diverse teams often outperform homogenous ones.
When working on complex projects and a challenging environment tends to have low social cohesion, high level of social or identity diversity and a high level of cognitive diversity.
While a team with different cultural and professional backgrounds can approach problems from multiple angles, making it easier to identify risks and opportunities that others might miss which often leads to higher-quality results, it can also come with challenges.
Communication between highly diverse teams can pose a challenge as well, hence it is essential to create inclusiveness, trust, mutual respect, and open communication as this will strengthen the team and improve performance.
When diversity is combined with a supportive culture, teams will thrive well, and the experience will transcend to the project which will lead to a better outcome for all involved
I belief a diverse team will do better especially in tackling a complex situation because with these kind of team you can view the situation from different perspective. And also, you do not have to deal with the problems that come with overfamiliarity which some times slow down operations.
I agree with the fact that a diverse team has a better performance in several ways which stems from bringing in ideas from different people and experiences, but I have personally experienced more success in diverse teams because they no over familiarity, my team tend to focus on work and getting to the output more when there’s no over familiarity amongst the team.