Diverse Thinking Synergy

Diverse thinking synergy: A key element for competitive advantage - by Dipti Batta

People are different, and the way each person views a particular scenario, challenge or opportunity is based on their unique mental models and experience. When a team is composed of similar people, there is more alignment; however, there is huge opportunity lost. Decisions are likely to be one sided, and alternative perspectives are unlikely to be considered. The result is a loss in creativity and innovation, weak problem solving, less than optimum decisions and lower employee engagement.

Homogenous teams are a risk in today’s world, where we need to embrace and succeed despite uncertainty and ambiguity. In fact, the more uncertain and ambiguous the business environment, the greater the need for diversity in our thinking and our teams.

However, encouraging diverse thinking in the team and synergising a vast array of ideas for richer outcomes is easier said than done!

Without the right enablers, diverse thinking simply results in conflict, wasted time and effort, and frustration. ‘He who shouts the loudest’ generally rules the day, leading to one-dimensional solutions that fail to take account of a host of factors.

Achieving diverse thinking synergy (as opposed to conflict), requires a focussed approach, supported by key enablers. These are:

The right foundation

• Culture: Diversity thrives in a culture of ‘we’ rather than ‘I’, where collaboration is encouraged and actively nurtured by team leaders.
• Team anchors: Teams need a clear team vision, a definition of success for the task at hand, and clear measures of that success. All of these ‘anchors’ help channel diverse thoughts and related efforts in the right direction.

A clear structure for your discussions. A structure gives you a tool for evaluating ideas, the decision-making process, and commitments.

BIRTSS is a fit-for-purpose evaluation tool for assessing the value quotient of ideas/ diverse thoughts that come up in discussions. It uses the following extremely useful set of parameters to do so

B: Benefit. How benefit-driven is this idea?

I: Investment. How investment-optimal is it?

R: Risk. How risk-managed is it?

T: Time. To what extent does it ensure timely delivery?

S: Sustainability. How sustainable will the value be?

S: Scalability. How scalable is the idea?

Note: Additional parameters can be added according to your specific context.

To make the evaluation a simple, fit-for-purpose exercise, feel free to use a relative scale or weight (based on a range) for each parameter based on the collective wisdom/ experience of the team.

The BIRTSS tool helps to filter out options and narrow them down to key ideas where a more detailed/ narrow range evaluation may be required.

The idea is to:

• Keep the scale fit for purpose. You do not want to end up in ‘analysis paralysis’. It should be good enough and risk-managed to guide the team.
• Enable teams to evaluate and then flesh out a few options. The questions help team members to ‘connect the dots’ between an idea and its ultimate value. This results in final decisions that are well considered and deeply informed.

Team members should be encouraged to speak freely and learn to give critical feedback in ways that are generous and sensitive, so that no one clams up. At all costs, you want to preserve a diversity of voices, with all members actively seeking group synergy, not individual victory!

BIRTSS – trademark issued to Dipti Batta