Diversity in Digital
Digital transformation needs fresh perspectives and unique ideas more than anything else. The more diverse the ways of thinking are the more likely it is that something game changing will happen.
That’s why any group of 90 percent white, male, well educated, young and ambitious extroverts cannot develop an appropriate ‘mindset’ and foster a ‘culture’ to drive digital transformation.
It’s like a bunch of alpha wolves trying to form a pack.
You can find “Diversity” as an official value in almost every company’s mission statement today, yet the real world still looks different. Organisations have a hard time to get towards that desired culture. Because they’re doing it upside down.
Mindset is NOT a result of embracing diversity. It’s the other way round.
This is what I believe in.
I am a highly energetic, extrovert person. I get easily excited. I talk too much. When I start to work with a new client, I need someone on their side, who is different. Someone who tells me to shut up from time to time.
When we build up a team, this is what we do: We analyze our skill, traits and abilities. The way we think. We try to find out what we don’t know and why.
And we’ll be looking for a person to join us which brings to the team what we miss. It is only natural that this person is different from us. Different in every possible way.
When we are a team of three, we do as we did when there were only two of us. We ask ourselves: What is it that we do not see? Even if we don’t know because we might be blind for that, we know that it helps to talk to people who are just not like us.
We keep on doing this exercise of being conscious about our blind spots. That’s the way we build great teams in digital transformation. And that’s the way we should build our organisations.
Diversity is a result of building great teams, organisations and communities the right way. This means taking everything into account. Gender, age, ethnicity, personality. Not just education and experience.
Dialog-Architektin & Corporate Culture Development bei deep white.analytics
6 年And it is not just the team or the organization itself, that needs to be more diverse when it comes to digitalisation or the 'digital transformation'. If we think e.g. of dialogue technology in general and of the Microsoft bot in particular: within a few hours the bot turned into a sexist and a racist. The conclusion: If it is always the "white, old man" that teaches bots how to speak, they will turn into white, old men as well. Especially when it comes to technique an AI, we have to turn diversity into normality...
Customer Experience Management
6 年Thanks Roland. Fully agree, diversity brings a different perspective which is necessary.
Retired
6 年As you point out, diversity is not limited to gender, cultures or age.? People think differently and that is a huge asset waiting to be exploited.? Here is a small challenge to you in diverse thinking.?? Most designs are either top-down or bottom-up depending on how robust the architecture is.? If we start with a weak architecture we tend to go top-down deriving the tenets of the new architecture.? If we do have a robust architecture, then We go reverse and extend designs for new business needs.? Here is my challenge.? I propose that all designs should start in the middle and spread to top and bottom layers.? This is because of the notion that there simply are no robust architectures.? Our World of system thinking is moving at a warp speed for any johnny to get comfortable and think they have a solid architecture foundation.? Everything is constantly becoming obsolete and the middle ground will always give you the best outcomes. What say you, Oh Roland.. :)?
SAFe? 6 Practice Consultant (SPC) || SAFe? 6 Lean Portfolio Manager (LPM) || Agile Coach || Business Transformation || PSM || PMP || OpenExO Global Ambassador
6 年There are so many factors that contribute to innovation, fresh perspectives or unique ideas.? First and most important is a culture that embraces experimentation and celebrates failure.? Every organization I have ever worked for has built a culture of fear and punishment for failure.? You can have the most diverse team in the universe and in that environment they will wither and die. Next I believe that a open concept workplace must be setup that optimizes every chance for communication and collaboration.? Many times the best ideas I have ever come up with has been a result of bouncing ideas off of colleagues usually when I had hit the wall trying to solve a problem. Additionally, I believe companies need to provide 4 hours a week for staff to research/self educate/work on personal projects.? A lot of times, the art of possible becomes obvious after reading about someone else's story or trying to modify someone else experiment. Finally, I believe that regardless of race, age, gender, or personality, some people are just more skilled at problem solving that leads to innovation.? I don't know how you identify these people, but when you find this elusive unicorn, do everything possible to keep that talent within the organization. So I agree with you Roland, but I believe diversity is just one of many factors necessary for digital transformation.? Unfortunately, corporations rarely embrace every element necessary to innovate when every element is necessary to create that perfect culture.?
Senior Consultant — Tech, Design & Strategy — AI Experience Designer — Culture, Bots & People — UX Management — Blueprint Innovations — Marvelous Migrants Arts (MMA)
6 年Roland, thank you for the article and your open approach. That is the main goal of diversity programmes: open up minds! It makes things change.