Beyond the Diversity Agenda – Diversity and Inclusion as Innovation Drivers

Why should companies put diversity on the agenda? In short: Diversity and inclusion in the workforce lead to increased innovative strength in companies, this has even been scientifically proven. Forming teams from a diverse group of employees, brings different perspectives, experiences, soft and hard skills to the table. As a result, companies can look at customer problems with foresight and develop more creative, individual, and innovative solutions. Thereby a broader customer base can be served, which will then be just as diverse as the company’s workforce.

Stefanie K Johnson, Professor of Management at Colorado University, and author of the bestselling book ‘Inclusify’, writes about this topic in the CXO Magazine by NTT DATA. In the article ‘How Diversity & Inclusion Drive Innovation’ Johnson substantiates the positive interdependencies of diversity and inclusion in the context of increased corporate innovativeness with relevant scientific studies.

Diverse teams indeed make better decisions, but diverse teams with high inclusion make the best decisions. According to a study, decision-making with diverse, high-inclusion teams can improve by as much as 60% – Stefanie K Johnson

As stated by Johnson it is not enough to focus on diversity. After all, a company must take the responsibility for the inclusion of every employee, through appropriate actions and cultural norms. This is the only way to ensure that employees feel comfortable enough to express their own individual opinions.

Learn how NTT DATA Business Solutions defines diversity, inclusion and belonging and what we do to create an equal, inclusive workplace for our employees.

Read full NTT Data article here

About the Author: DrStefanieKJohnson

Dr. Stefanie K. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Management at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder. She holds a Ph.D. from Rice University and is particularly interested in the effects of unconscious biases in the evaluation of women and minorities, with the goal of finding ways to mitigate those biases. Dr. Johnson brings bias to light with an engaging and humorous approach to advanced scientific research, which has earned her numerous accolades and invitations to present her work at meetings around the world, including the White House for a 2016 summit on diversity in corporate America on National Equal Pay Day, and the 2016 Harvard Negotiation and Leadership Conference. She has published over 70 journal articles and book chapters in outlets such as Harvard Business Review, Journal of Applied Psychology and The Academy of Management Journal. She has extensive consulting experience and has created and delivered leadership-development training with an emphasis on evidence-based practice. In recognition of her unique research, Dr. Johnson has been awarded nearly three million dollars in external funding to study leadership and create leadership development programs aimed at increasing safety. Media outlets featuring her work include: The Economist, Newsweek, Time, and CNN. Stefanie lives in the Boulder Bubble in Colorado with her Biology Professor husband, two young kiddos, and two old kitties.