Matthew Syed is the author of “Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking”. A plea for diversity. Before that, he wrote “Black Box Thinking”. Which is a cracker of a book. A plea for learning from failure.

A plea for diversity

The book is a plea for trust, diversity and connectivity. Homogeneity is not a good thing. The danger with homogenous groups is that they are more likely to form judgements that combine excessive confidence with grave error. If we are intent upon answering our most serious questions, from climate change to poverty, and curing diseases to designing new products, we need to work with people who think differently, not just accurately.

Homophily

Homophily is pervasive. Our social networks are full of people with similar experiences, views and beliefs. Birds of a feather flock together. We tend to bask in the warm glow of homophily. Nicely agreeing, mirroring, parroting, corroborating, confirming, reflecting together. Entrenching in each other’s blind spots. That is where fads, stock-market bubbles and other bandwagon effects come from.

Nature

It is a lesson from nature. Organisations such as the CIA have learned that at their peril with 911. That is what happened on de disastrous expedition on Mount Everest. It occurs at aeroplane crashes. You need diversity. Diversity not only based on demographics but on cognitive diversity. The need for differences in perspective, insights, experiences and thinking styles.

More important now

Cognitive diversity was not so important a few hundred years ago, because the problems we faced tended to be linear, or simple, or separable, or all three. The critical point is that solutions to complex problems typically rely on multiple layers of insight and therefore require multiple points of view. The more diverse the perspectives, the more extensive the range of potentially viable solutions a collection of problem solvers can find. We need to address cognitive diversity before tackling our toughest challenges. It is only then that team deliberation can lead not to mirroring, but to enlightenment.

Not an option

Diversity is not just about getting answers from focus groups or market research. It is about the questions that are asked in the first place, the data that is…