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.
As a good project manager, ability to manage a team is a prerequisite. Diversity in teams is what makes the team unique. Diversity in a team brings about innovation and creativity opening up channels for doing things in a more effective and new way.
Teams with greater diversity produce superior work because there’s more creativity and great input from everyone.
Barrier encountered are:
Slow decision making
Communication barriers
Trust issues
Personally, diversity brings about creativity, different ideas and skills are being brought to the table, problems are solved faster and in a more unique way.
In a project context, a team is defined as a determined group of individuals brought together to achieve more than what would be achieved individually in both quality and quantity. They bring together diverse experience, skills, and expertise. When ideas are brought together, there are new solutions and improved performance
Of course, they face challenges aligned to achieve success. First, creating synergy is the first milestone to make, which is not easy, especially during the storming stage, but not all the behavioral flaws are unhealthy in the team’s context. The duration of becoming homogeneous is not a precondition, especially in emergency team formation and performance.
Second, resources are sometimes also an area that creates conflicts when they are scarce. However, thanks to the reason of being (mission), proper and effective management of people, “teamwork,” an organizational healthy culture, and other resources, a project manager can fruitfully run planned and emergently unplanned operations and face unpredicted circumstances for the overall success of the outputs and outcomes.
In a few words, there is a lot to benefit from a well-managed team on a project (performance), and a project team promisingly endeavors to succeed thanks to effective leadership.
As a good project manager, ability to manage a team is a prerequisite. Diversity in teams is what makes the team unique. Diversity in a team brings about innovation and creativity opening up channels for doing things in a more effective and new way.
Diversity brings range of skills and experience to solve VUCA situations, enabling objectives of the project to be met
As per my experience in Administration and as per the lesson
Diverse team often results to creativity and brainstorming because they are a team different skills and experience which enables them make decision faster and perform exceptionally.
• Challenges are;
1. Communication styles may differ
2. Different profession with different values and behaviors which could cause conflict.
3. Collaboration becomes difficult due to different professional ideas which affects team performance.
My example is My current work when I worked with a diverse team on a supervising. Standard gauge railway in My country Tanzania with everyone had so much opinions and wanted it to be included in the plan, there were conflicts and resolutions but at the end of day we all agreed that the project was a priority and of course everyone had wonderful ideas, so we worked as a team, set our differences aside and the result was spectacular.
It requires that project managers should quickly learn and integrate the diverse range of skills, culture and attitudes brought by diverse team members.
A diverse team are able to see things from various perspectives based on their background, experiences (both life and professional) and their interests. The experiences always give the project depth that a homogeneous group are unable to give.
A quick one ,a diverse team often results to creativity, ideas from different individuals with various skills and experiences that will enable decisions to be made faster to achieve an excellent performance. An example cited is where i worked with a diverse team to design a project, there was a problem in professional etiquette and communication style ,everyone had so much views and opinions to be included and there was conflict and resolution ,an agreement was made to complete the most priority project that made us come together as a team. The task was carried out as a team and the project was exceptional, everyone was pleased with their wonderful ideas put together and differences were set aside.
• A diverse team often results to creativity and brainstorming because they are a team different skills and experience which enables them make decision faster and perform exceptionally.
• some challenges are;
*communication styles may differ
* different profession with different values and behaviors which could cause conflict.
*collaboration becomes difficult due to different professional ideas which affects team performance.
• A quick example was when I worked with a diverse team on a design project. communication style and professional etiquette was a problem, everyone had so much opinions and wanted it to be included in the plan, there were conflicts and resolutions but at the end of day we all agreed that the project was a priority and of course everyone had wonderful ideas, so we worked as a team, set our differences aside and the result was spectacular.
Diversity makes it better. Working with a team that barely know each other they all will want to give their best to see they create a niche since it’s always a short term team so that the next time something comes up the team lead will know who to call. Just like the case of Nigeria our diversity is what helps the country. The moment regional, tribal difference set in you realize there will be a fight. But we stand better in our difference
Diverse teams can outperform homogenous ones due to a variety of perspectives and skills, fostering creativity and problem solving. However, effective collaboration and communication are crucial for realizing these benefits.
Challenges in diverse teams can include communication barriers, differing cultural norms, and potential misunderstandings. Balancing various perspectives and ensuring everyone feels heard requires proactive effort. Additionally, addressing unconscious biases and fostering inclusivity are ongoing tasks.
Fortunately, I have been a member of both a homogeneous and diverse team at various times. Looking at what is being thought now and juxtaposing it on my experience, both teams performed well within their scope because the environments were suited to the teams selected. The environment for the homogeneous team was simple and so we could function easily and quickly, whereas for the diverse team, the complexity of the environment and situation was helped by the diverse makeup of the team, bringing top experiences to sort out various emergencies.
Yes
Yes, Teams with greater diversity produce superior work because there’s more creativity and great input from everyone.
Barrier encountered are:
Slow decision making
Communication barriers
Trust issues
As a project manager you need to have the ability that can provide to build your concrete team which is that compit with other project in order to have a potential undefeatable goals