Why You Should Stop Surrounding Yourself With (Only) Likeminded People In the corporate world, it's all too easy to surround yourself with people who think just like you. One CEO offers strategies for fostering more cognitive diversity.
By Aytekin Tank Edited by Kara McIntyre
Key Takeaways
- Companies that reflect diverse thought are more likely to realize financial success and foster deeper idea exploration — so branch out when it comes to who you keep in your inner circle.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
One of my sons has a colossal book of bedtime stories. Each night, we try to tackle a couple of them. I'm always amazed at how the takeaways of those children's tales remain relevant for grown-ups, including entrepreneurs.
Take The Emperor's New Clothes — the classic cautionary tale about the perils of groupthink. The adults are so eager to please the emperor that they stifle their opinions, even when the plain truth is as clear as day. It falls to an innocent child to offer a different, honest perspective.
I've seen similar situations in boardrooms, between colleagues and leaders. That's why with my company, Jotform, one of my goals is to continually foster diverse ways of thinking. Working with people who have different cognitive styles is key to boosting performance. But, as research shows, we tend to do the opposite. Instead, we team up with likeminded professionals.
Here's why it pays to foster cognitive diversity at the office.
Related: The Importance of Surrounding Yourself With the Right People
The benefits of diverse thinking styles
When we talk about diversity, we're often referring to ethnic, racial or gender diversity. But there's another type of diversity: different ways of thinking. For example, if you're an innovator versus an adaptor. According to Harvard Business Review, innovators excel at generating new ideas but struggle to execute them. Adaptors, on the other hand, are skilled at implementing ideas but may lack the creative drive. Needless to say, the different styles complement one another, and building a professional network of complementary cognitive styles boosts various aspects of performance.
I should note that there is some overlap between the various types of diversity. Having a specific background — cultural, educational, etc. — will impact the way you process information. It makes sense to consider the benefits of both.
For starters, research shows that companies with more diverse employees perform better financially. A McKinsey report on 366 public companies found that those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean. Studies have also shown that diverse companies are more innovative. In one study, researchers looked at a sample of 7,600 London-based firms. Companies with diverse management teams were more likely to introduce new product innovations than those with more homogenous leadership.
Experts think the benefits of diversity have to do with cognitive elaboration. Basically, it's the way that we share, challenge and expand each other's way of thinking. Diverse teams examine facts more objectively and process information more carefully — I've seen it firsthand. New product launches, for example, are always more successful when team members from different disciplines are working on them. We spot more potential issues. We are better at anticipating future challenges, and we look more objectively at trial outcomes.
With an eye toward fostering divergent thinking styles within your company, here are a few strategies that may help.
Related: How Successful Leaders Prevent Groupthink and Create a Culture of Diverse Thinking
How to cultivate cognitive diversity
Uncle Nearest is an award-winning whisky company founded by Fawn Weaver. Today, they're the bestselling African American-owned spirit brand of all time. As Weaver told Harvard Business Review, when she launched Uncle Nearest, diversity of thought was a priority — for her, that meant hiring a workforce that reflected the population. "[I]f you look at my team it is almost identical to the demographics of America. We are 50% women. If anything, we try to over-index on Black, Latinx and LGBTQ populations, but the goal is to mirror America."
Too many companies lack diversity from the outset and try to play catch up later — with no real sustainable progress. Making it a priority to build a team from various backgrounds should be a priority from day one.
Leaders can play an active role in creating diverse professional networks within their organizations by thoughtfully grouping employees with complementary cognitive styles. At Jotform, for example, we group employees into small cross-functional teams — usually a senior developer, front-end developer, back-end developer, designer and CSS developer. Having perspectives from multiple disciplines leads to better, stronger ideas. It also helps us to spot issues once they inevitably arise.
Leaders can also encourage different ways of thinking by being zealously receptive to all ideas — for example, by emulating a concept borrowed from improv comedy, "Yes, and." It's essentially training yourself to have a positive reaction to every idea or contribution. All too often, leaders have a knee-jerk reaction to dispute new ideas — to focus on the problems, rather than the merits. Don't get me wrong; I'm all about fostering healthy conflict. But if we lead from a place of acknowledging the value in each other's ideas, people will be more eager to share them.
Related: 7 Steps for Keeping Conflict Healthy
Final thoughts
As CEO of Jotform, one of my priorities is hiring great people with various backgrounds. But if the work stops there, we risk losing out on the real benefits of diverse cognitive styles. By building teams with different backgrounds and building a culture where employees are motivated to share, we can safeguard our companies against "Emperor's New Clothes" syndrome. Nobody will say that they love the clothes just for the sake of avoiding conflict.
