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 strong proportional relationship between a team’s performance and their diversity. From my experience leading different project groups and working in and with different associations in the university, we did better when we had different people with different cognitive ability, experience, interests, social standing, and identities. Exciting ideas were generated and different ways of approaching a problem were explored. Finding solutions to unexpected situations also had an uptick. So yes, I do see a connection between performance and diversity, and yes, they produce superior work. Though, I do say this can, sometimes, be situational.
In terms of the challenges, these can arise due poor communication, different in personalities, and values. I have found it necessary to ensure that during the early stages we try to understand each other, what we value and how we communicate, and also set values that we all agree and align with during the course of working together. This reduces arguments, clashes, and the risk of fallout.
A team that consist of people from different fields will have different opinions on an issue which can be quite difficult to manage or deal with, if the team is well managed and opinion is gathered, the end result will be good.
There is connection between diversity and performance and most times tends to yield higher productivity because team members focuses on the task at hand and how to build a successful outcome,situations are effectively managed, and there is less distraction.
The challenges attached to diversity and performance are little to no knowledge about team members, the strength and expertise of members are not well known until later.
Yes, there is is a connection between diversity and performance
In my experience teams with high diversity are the most productive ones
Diversity allows every team member to focus primarily on the task at hand – in fact I have many seen how their different perspectives and cognitive reasoning has been a key factor to helping a team lead make timely and tactical decisions
In my experience and opinion, working in a team of diversity is highly productive because of varieties of experience,view points,profession etc.We call it Committee system in tertiary institution of learning,which is the best way to run such system.Although,it could create more bottleneck and slow down progress,if not properly harnessed by a good team leader.
From my experience, diverse teams often perform better because each person brings different skills, perspectives, and problem-solving approaches. This mix usually sparks more creativity and helps avoid blind spots that a homogenous team might miss. I’ve seen how diversity can lead to stronger outcomes and greater client satisfaction. At the same time, working in highly diverse teams isn’t without challenges, differences in communication styles, cultural backgrounds, or even work habits can sometimes slow things down. However, when managed well with respect and openness, those differences become strengths that push the whole team to higher performance.
– Winifred Onyembi
From what I’ve seen, there really is a strong connection between diversity and team performance. Anytime I’ve worked in a group where people came from different backgrounds, skill sets, or even ways of thinking, the quality of our work was usually better. The discussions were richer, and we often ended up with solutions none of us could have come up with individually.
When I compare this to more uniform teams I’ve been part of, I notice the difference. Diverse teams tend to challenge ideas more, bring fresh perspectives, and avoid getting stuck in one way of thinking. That often translates into stronger results and higher performance overall.
Of course, it’s not always smooth sailing. I’ve also experienced situations where diversity led to communication gaps, misunderstandings, or even clashes in working styles. It takes effort, patience, and good leadership to make sure everyone feels heard and valued.
But in the end, I would say the benefits far outweigh the challenges. When a diverse team learns to work together, the output is not just superior, it’s more innovative and sustainable.
Diversity in teams can be quite difficult to manage and could also be a strong resource point due to vast and various wealth of knowledge it brings to the team if well managed.
In my experience there is a connection between diversity and performance. While serving as a president in school and leading the student association I had to work with team members that had different opinion and cognitive ability. It made it more easy to understand and have a representation of every students idea on my team, from that we were able to give out the best.
In my opinion, there is a connection between diversity and performance. Teams with greater diversity tends to be more focused with little to no distractions (no preferential treatment to any of the team members or favouritism) as compared to homogeneous teams. Also, everyone on the team have different perspectives on situations, have gone through varieties of experiences and also have diverse skills, which when put together and to use, intelligently, will lead to high performance.
However, working in highly diverse teams can be challenging, as people have different personalities, different perspectives to the way they see things and also different experiences. There is a tendency for team members in a diverse team to clash, especially when situations are not managed smartly. There are also people who are not so outspoken, but have great ideas to contribute to the team, getting people like this to speak in a diverse team can be quite difficult, as they are not familiar with the team members.