Did you hear about the other ‘D’ in “DEI”?
When you hear the word “diversity”, it may conjure up a company-wide initiative relating to demographic diversity of race, gender and ethnicity. In fact, diversity is defined in one way as: the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc. Efforts around diversity have been growing for years and are helping to shape our current businesses and society for the better.
Let’s review another type of diversity - experiential diversity – where the range of skills and talents of team members are leveraged to improve team and business performance. Imagine a team where everyone thinks the same way because they have similar experiences, skills, and talents. Would they be able to anticipate the needs of a wide range of customers? Would they be able to overcome obstacles creatively? Or would the team members be hampered by having the same assumption set?
Consider a simple example: you need to remodel your kitchen. Would you prefer to have three carpenters do the job, or have one carpenter, an electrician, and a plumber updating your kitchen together? I guess it depends on how good the carpenters are at electrical work and plumbing! But you get the point: each individual brings a unique set of skills, perspectives, history, and experiences - diversity! Businesses need to leverage this diversity to accelerate progress and achieve results.
Now imagine a team of people from diverse educational backgrounds, diverse methods of thought, and diverse skills gained from previous experiences. Some of the team members might be good at organization, others at individual technical work, and still others at leadership. Combining the experiential diversity of team members to optimize the team’s performance requires an awareness of each person’s skills, background, likes and dislikes, strengths, and previous project experiences. In other words, it is not always obvious how to organize your team for success. Don’t assume that people’s current assignments are optimal.
Scan your current team, what experiential diversity do you see? Did you ever take note of it before? Do you know the skills, strengths, and likes/dislikes of your team members? Are you assigning projects based on their skills and where they could make the biggest impact? Or are you assigning projects to whoever’s available (even if their skills do not align well with the project needs)? Have you talked to each team member to assess their desired focus areas? Hiring the best employees into your team is critical, but if you do not recognize and utilize their experiential diversity, you may be sacrificing business results. Always work to leverage and support diversity, whether demographic diversity or experiential diversity. The outcomes will be incredible.
For more guidance on setting up your team for success, reach out to CAEDENCE. Our team development program, emerging leaders coaching, and “hands-on” work with client teams are all options to help accelerate your results.
If you want your message to land, it's essential to select the correct mode of communication. What's the correct mode? It depends.
Juran realized that all defects can be classified as "operator-controllable" or “management-controllable". Management (and engineering) plays an absolutely essential in quality outcomes.
Networking and communication build and sustain the relationships that make business work. Avoid these bad habits immediately or people will dislike you immediately.
Mastering these 5 missing skills quickly maximizes your productivity and influence, which in turn enhances both job security and advancement potential.
I explained the goal in designing any component. Overly tight specifications would make it harder to find suppliers and would drive up costs. The engineer's entire approach changed.
Preparing for a presentation is vital in enabling team members to convey critical points, and influence outcomes with customers. Here are the steps involved.
When customer tensions rise, the right approach can turn friction into collaboration. At CAEDENCE, we call it the 3C’s: Calm, Clarify, Control. Here's more detail.
Will AI Replace Direct Customer Communication? Absolutely Not! In an age of chatbots and algorithms, the highest-impact discussions still happen person-to-person.
B2B customer relationships are not a breeze. We’ve navigated hundreds of challenging accounts and distilled five secrets that consistently turn friction into forward progress.
Ever notice how a quick fix from the top can feel like a shortcut, but it ends up stunting your team’s growth? When managers rush to answers, they inadvertently affect team development.
