How (and why) to unlock cognitive diversity at work

Lauren Peacock, Scottish Widows’ responsible investment manager, discusses the importance of cognitive diversity in business, and how it can help us reach our potential

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on Management Today

“We need to do things differently and, therefore, need different voices and different people to help deliver that,” says Lauren Peacock. This, she advises, will help us tackle the world’s most important issues.

Open mindedness 

A colleague of Lauren Peacock, Dr. Johanne Grosvold, professor of corporate governance at the University of Bath, highlights ‘groupthink’ as one of problems which needs to be addressed. He defines groupthink as when “a set of people are all trained to think alike…and those with opposing views might get a bit lost”.

In order to prevent this, and breed more productivity, the group (or business) should widen their perspective. Managers should look for more diversity in ideas, abilities, knowledge, attitudes, information styles and demographic characteristics. 

The role of the chair is absolutely essential

The Scottish Widows advise companies to work hard to identify ‘blind spots’ in their cognitive diversity. This is especially the case within the ‘chairpeople’ who are instrumental in building and leading the team. 

”The role of the chair is absolutely essential” says Dr Grosvold. It’s the chair who gets to know all the other workers in the company and works to improve relations and trust in the team. To ensure diversity of ideas, the chair is encouraged to hold regular one-to-ones and to truly understand – and even challenge – an individual’s characteristics. 

Amanda Mackenzie, chief executive for Business in the Community, warned leaders “Don’t embark on this lightly; I think there will be moments when it will be uncomfortable, because you’re putting together a group of slightly different people. You should all be bound by the same values, otherwise you’re never going to agree, but assuming that there will definitely be moments of tension and you have to be comfortable with that. “You have to embrace it, because you will get a better outcome.”