Factoring in inclusion

- The fits and starts of trying to get better at diversity in whatever ways are not working and we think we know why, which is that if you look at the performance and I'll just take the smallest group I can think of which is if you have a small team of people and they are largely similar to one another, what they are contributing is also largely similar to one another and it's reinforcing and I think that's confidence inducing. The trick about diversity is that when we have people that have some things in common and some difference; that the human nature draws us to find the common ground. It's in the psychology literature called the Common Information Effect, but it's like we seek the common ground. We thin when there's difference, let's find what's in common and that's what's comfortable and there's actually discomfort in what's unique. Well, here is the challenge of diversity. If we just have diversity and we don't manage it specifically for the presence of the diversity. If we don't manage the diversity for inclusion, the contribution of a diversity is what's in common and that just becomes a smaller and smaller circle. Becomes a smaller and smaller amount, so the tragedy is once you put in diverse team, it could underperform a homogenous team and then, that can lead cynics to think, you see, diversity is not a good thing after all, but it's just such a small, small (mumbles) it away which is that if instead of our looking for what's common, we look for what's different about us. Oh my Gosh, then the contribution, the more diversity, the better and so instead of looking for common ground, we want to celebrate difference. If we communicate to you that the most interesting thing about you is what you bring uniquely to the table; it's what's unique about you, not what's common. - If you are competing in an industry and on a strategy that's well understood, fine, hire a whole bunch of people (laughs) who think. - Just like you. - Who think just like you to execute on this well-understood actuation of how to succeed, but most companies today don't have that luxury, right, and so if you want to win, you have to figure out how to pull the best out of - Yeah. - A diverse team and bring that together in a way that is coherent strategically, but it's harder and you have to be deliberate about it. - And which is why any time we see the word diversity, it's like the sentence was cut short and we want diversity and inclusion, like we need it's the inclusive diversity that wins and diversity for the sake of diversity is sort of maybe feel good or feel like I was obligated to do; it's putting that burden of the diversity on the diverse; oh, that's what (mumbles), but if we can do it within inclusive diversity, Holy cal. So, I mean Silicon Valley and so diversity is a topic and your diversity numbers are a topic like so everyone is reporting the numbers and so, if you were looking for a shortcut, you would hire a bunch of diverse folks and they would make your numbers look better and what we would argue is if you do that in a cynical or short-term way, it's not going to lead to long-term excellence and you're not doing a favor for the people that you're hiring nor for the teams that you're hiring them into, so if you want the benefits of diversity of which we think there are so many, you actually need the management challenge of diversity which is managing difference is harder and messier than managing similarity and so, you want the benefits, you got to do the work. That's the coach for the leader. We also have a message for those that are the diverse and that is that there's going to be loneliness and fear, because you're lonely by diverse like you're underrepresented and there will be fear of bringing your full self and it might be tempting to say what others are going to say, but the chance we have to make the world the better place is if we have the courage to bring our unique self. If I had magic dust, it would be to remove the loneliness and fear; haven't figured out how to do that, so now I guess the plea is do it anyway and let us know how we can help. - Yeah, but when you are in a protective crouch in a world that is not giving you the benefit of the doubt (mumbles) competence. - It's super tempting to get; to go into that - Yeah, yeah. Here's what we know. It's almost impossible to lead from that kind of a defensive position, so in our work, part of our mission is to open you up regardless of who you are, but the challenge and listen, you and I check a couple of non traditional boxes. We're women. We're married to each other. I won't continue unless for you. - It's further (laughs). - But, I can't tell you how much time I have wasted in my career worrying about what other people think of me and my background and who I am and who I'm married to and whether my voice shakes sometimes when I care about a particular subject and what I realized in doing this work is it's the wrong question. - That's the tragic waste of effort. - First of all, like news flash, those people are not thinking about me. (laughs) so, that's lesson number one. - (mumbles); they're not. - They're not. Yes. But, number two. It's the wrong question, right? The right question if you're telling about leadership is not what do these other people think of me, but what can I do to enable the success of these other people and that is a radically different orientation. - Yeah.