“One size never fits all, so throw out your checklist.”
Jeff DeGraff
Innovation is a form of positive deviance. It’s the opposite of standard operating procedures. Most processes are designed to align your organization. Especially, your hiring and staffing practices. That’s great if you want efficiency and quality, but if you want innovation you have to introduce the variety necessary to produce valuable growth. Why? Because innovation is generated through the creative power of constructive conflict. When people have diverse views, skills, and experiences, they take different approaches to creating value. These points of departure, when properly and respectfully engaged, challenge the status quo by producing new and hybrid ideas that lead to breakthrough products and services.
Diversity is more than just your ethnic heritage or cultural background. It’s also your mindset and worldview. It includes the skills you bring to work. Getting these diverse abilities to interact successfully is the key to creating high performing teams. This session will introduce a new way of thinking about diversity: how to identify the strategic situation, appropriate culture and competencies, and specific leadership practices necessary to produce growth. It will provide sound evidence that diversity pays.
This energetic and compelling session will demonstrate how to make diversity work where you work.