Moe and David Livermore talk about how great companies fuel innovation through diversity
Why Diversity is Foremost a Mindset
Over the past decade, the TED conference has become synonymous with financial wealth, powerful influence, and elite status. Each year, more than a thousand people pay $8,500 to attend a five-day program that showcases brilliant minds articulating ‘ideas worth spreading.‘ The big irony at TED, however; isn’t its exclusivity, but rather it’s the diversity – “if ever there were proof that tech’s diversity problem is not, in fact, the result of an inadequate supply of diverse talent, TED would be it,” Wired staff writer, Issie Lapowsky shared after day one of TED 2016.
‘The TED Fellows…’ she said, ‘…come from an array of countries – from Ghana to Kyrgyzstan – and an array of cultural backgrounds – from American Muslim to Mohegan. This year, 50 percent of TED Fellows are women and 50 percent are men, all representing a broad spectrum of human experiences. Taken together, they are a snapshot of the best of what the world has to offer.’ So, if the world’s most talked about conference can do that, what are the rest of us missing?
David Livermore has made it his life’s work to study why diversity matters. He’s an award winning author – having written 10 books on the topic, and has traveled the world not only to understand, first hand how others work, but more importantly to help the companies for which they work, design workplace environments where greatness can flourish. In his latest book Driven By Difference: How Great Companies Fuel Innovation Through Diversity, he introduces us to his cultural intelligence assessment (CQ), which is a first of its kind resource that measures a leader’s diversity quotient. As you listen to our conversation, pay particular attention to the four key components of CQ – here’s a sample of the questions we discuss:
- How the diversity conversation has changed
- How our individual diversity blind spots emerge
- Why diversity itself does not ensure innovation
- The keys to designing a workplace culture with less interpersonal conflict
- The trust barometer in a culturally intelligence organization
- Why aligning corporate expectations and goals start with individual objectives
- What you shouldn’t devote mental energy to when designing a culturally intelligent organization