You may need to change the way you manage diversity, equity and inclusion

You May Need to Change How You Manage Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The business case for diversity and inclusion promises that organizations can achieve better performance by taking advantage of their diversity.

Differences among people in their backgrounds, work experiences and life experiences are associated with diversity of knowledge, insights and perspectives. By sharing, discussing and integrating these diverse sources of information, teams and organizations can:

• Create synergy from diversity to be more creative and innovative.
• Make higher quality decisions.
• Develop better solutions to challenging problems.

Therefore, especially in knowledge work, diversity can be an important asset.

However, the day-to-day DEI practices of organizations are often suboptimal. Indeed, they often do contribute well to promoting equal employment opportunity. But usually they are not geared to harnessing the synergistic potential of diversity.

This contribution outlines the rationale for this conclusion. It then discusses along what lines companies can develop DEI practices that do realize the synergistic benefits of diversity.