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.
*1. Communication Misreads*
*Challenge*: Same words ≠ same meaning. “Direct” in Lagos ≠ “direct” in Tokyo. Silence can mean “agree” or “I’m offended”.
*Fix*: Over-communicate context. Ask: “What did you hear me say?” Use visuals, examples, not just words.
*2. Different Work Norms + Expectations*
*Challenge*: Some cultures = hierarchy, wait for boss to decide. Others = challenge everything in the room. Deadlines, “on time”, feedback style all shift.
*Fix*: Make norms explicit week 1. “Here, we debate in meetings + commit after. Late = ping in chat before deadline.”
Yes, this matches my experience a lot.
I believe that there is a relationship between diversity and performance, but it’s not automatic. Diverse teams do better work on complex unpredictable problems. They’re messy at first, but they solve real problems better. In cancer care, doctors, social workers, volunteers, survivors see what a “same-same” team would miss. That means fewer mistakes, better results, and stronger finances. Cancer navigation is complex – patients need medical, financial, emotional needs. A team with clinicians miss the transport/funding barrier. Add a social worker, a survivor volunteer and a finance person, and solutions get more practical.
Some of the challenges of a highly diverse team:
1. Language barrier – “Cytopenic precautions” ≠ “build a hospital”. We had to learn to speak plain.
2. Slow start – More voices = more debate before trust builds.
3. Conflict risk – Speed vs safety. Needs a strong leader to settle it.
In conclusion, diversity gives potential, but inclusion and good leadership turns that into results.
From my real-life experience, I believe diversity can improve team performance because people bring different ideas, skills, and perspectives to the table. I’ve noticed that diverse teams often come up with more creative solutions and make better decisions than teams where everyone thinks alike.
However, working in a diverse team can also be challenging. Differences in communication styles, opinions, and ways of working can sometimes lead to misunderstandings or slow decision-making. Despite these challenges, I feel that when team members respect one another and work toward a common goal, diversity becomes a major strength that improves overall performance.
Based on my experience, I believe diversity can improve team performance because people bring different ideas, skills, and perspectives to the table. I’ve noticed that diverse teams often come up with more creative solutions and make better decisions than teams where everyone thinks alike.
However, working in a diverse team can also be challenging. Differences in communication styles, opinions, and ways of working can sometimes lead to misunderstandings or slow decision-making. Despite these challenges, I feel that when team members respect one another and work toward a common goal, diversity becomes a major strength that improves overall performance.
Working in a diverse team makes you better in a sense where you learn patience and quietness to listen to other people’s ideas. Which may not be perfect most times but it may be a key trigger that help you to bringing a better idea that everyone listens to and go with. You also get to know about how people think and how to walk along with them.
Diversity helps team to perform better when there’s good communication, collaboration, understanding etc because it creates an avenue for everyone to bring his or her initiative, expertise, experience prompt response etc that makes problems to be solved easily. They can face challenges also, because of different culture, ideas, believe, skills etc and it can be handled when there’s a good structure for communication, adoption and adaptation.
In my contribution diverse team functions better in complex situations than familiar ones because everyone just wants to get the job done and leave but the familiar ones storming might come in
From my experience during training under Agrisiti in partnershipwithMastercardFoundation and RUFORUM, we were seven women from different states and local government, different ages and experience, I realised that everyone was focused on pushing our team to the top which we eventually made it to the top, I believe this is because was no familiarity, less engagement in groupthink and we were focused on identifying risks, opportunities and solutions that a less diverse team may overlook.
But we experience
Communication barriers
misunderstanding from different values and expectations
longer decision making process due to many perspectives.
Yes, my experience aligns with the view that diversity improves team performance. Diverse teams bring different perspectives, skills, and experiences, which often leads to better problem-solving, creativity, and decision-making. They are more likely to identify risks and develop innovative solutions.
However, diverse teams can also face challenges such as communication difficulties, cultural differences, and conflicting work styles. These issues can be managed through effective leadership, open communication, and an inclusive team environment.
Overall, I believe diversity contributes positively to team performance when team members are respected and encouraged to collaborate.
From my experience, diverse teams perform better because everyone brings different ideas and ways of thinking. In group work, I have noticed that when people have different strengths and experiences, the team is able to come up with better solutions and learn from one another.
However, working in a diverse team is not always easy. Sometimes people have different opinions, communication styles, or ways of doing things, which can lead to misunderstandings. If these differences are not managed properly, they can affect the team’s performance.
Despite these challenges, I believe diversity is a good thing because it encourages learning, creativity, and better decision-making. When team members respect each other and work towards the same goal, the team is usually more successful.