In short; our convictions:

1. Diversity is an absolute necessity for the decision-making and resilience of companies in a complex and rapidly changing world.

2. To promote diversity, companies need to challenge their thinking and behavioral routines constantly.

3. Methods are available which can be integrated into our daily practices to implement strategic ambitions regarding diversity.

How can companies benefit from diversity?

There are many drivers for companies to become more diverse. One of them is the necessity to improve decision-making and resilience.

Companies must integrate a diversity of viewpoints and (technical) backgrounds to understand many of today’s business matters. Topics such as market development in foreign countries, socio-technological trends, or changing customer needs require different perspectives. After understanding the underlying issue, a wide range of competencies are required, to act successfully within this framework. This encompasses technical background but also demands soft skills and personality.

The diversity of viewpoints and competence profiles arises from people with different disciplines, genders, ages, sexual orientations, ethnicity, personalities, etc. Maintaining a workforce representing people with differing characteristics AND ensuring that these differences are recognized and embraced is crucial for the company’s success.

Why does diversity require us to challenge our thoughts and actions constantly?

As humans, we have inbuilt mechanisms that help us to navigate our complex environment. For example, our brain categorizes everything, including people. Based on previous experiences with persons with a particular characteristic, our brain projects following encounters with comparable persons to terminate similarly. On the positive side, this creates patterns that give orientation and security. On the negative side, inaccurate categories are the basis for erroneous decisions and prejudices.

Another mechanism concerns our behavioral routines. In his book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman showed how we benefit from developing routines for repetitive circumstances. Assuming the categories mentioned in the book, these behavioral patterns facilitate our understanding of life in many aspects. However, there may still be misfits in new or disparate circumstances.

Given the complex and rapidly changing world, we must challenge our thought and behavioral pattern constantly. Otherwise, our understanding and action will not correspond to the reality of the challenges in our job. This constant challenge is the only way out of the habit of creating personal and organizational biases, which lead to inaccurate decision-making and reduces the company’s resilience.

How can we create practices to promote diversity?

Fortunately, there are methods available that we can apply to promote diversity in our decision-making and action. You can read more on our blog: https://cappabilities.de/en/how-to-make-diversity-a-daily-practice/

If you are curious to find out how these methods can be practiced in a self-motivated and systematic manner, contact us! We are happy to learn from you and share our experience.