Our thinking

Rebel Ideas

20 March, 2020

Without the commute this week and to inspire you to get reading, the Good Business Book Club is back! Cara has been reading Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed, which makes the case for diversity and tackling homogeneity within organisations. 

The typically known correlation between diversity and increased innovation and profit is not dismissed, but Syed’s focus is on that of an organisation’s ‘collective intelligence’. He points to many historically significant examples, which evidence suggests could have been avoided if not for teams’ ‘blind spots’.

We are not fully equipped as organisations to solve complex problems, because we cannot see the full picture when we all think in the same way. For example, he suggests that Americans are more focused on individualism as a society, so are more likely to notice objects in a given context, whereas the Japanese are more interdependent and thus are more observant of wider context.

Beyond culture, he argues that demographic diversity (i.e. that of gender, race and sexual orientation to name a few) is not enough to avoid such blind spots and see the whole problem. What we should strive for as a team is ‘cognitive diversity’. For example, if two economists of different genders approach economic modelling in the same way, they will come to the same outcomes; whereas, if two economists have different models and approaches, they are likely to reach a more accurate conclusion, regardless of gender, as they have considered more ways of solving the problem.

Fundamentally, he tells of the importance of fostering ‘psychological safety’ as leaders. Diversity of thought cannot thrive if people fear being judged or feel it is not their place to input due to a dominance hierarchy. As such, organisations need to be encouraging of communication and knowledge-sharing, with a culture that is welcoming of all thoughts and ideas.