Want to achieve greatness? Force everyone out of their comfort zones.

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2. SCALE SCALE
40 ENTREPRENEURMAG.CO.ZA OCTOBER 2018
DIVERSE TEAMS are smarter
teams. They have higher rates
of innovation, error detection
and creative problem solving.
In environments that possess
diverse stakeholders, being able
to have different perspectives
in the room may even enable
more alignment with varied
customer needs.
Being able to think from
different perspectives actually
lights up areas of the brain, such
as the emotional centres needed
for perspective taking that would
previously not be activated in
similar or non-diverse groups.
In a nutshell, you use more of
your brain when you encourage
different perspectives by
including different views in the
room. However, work done at the
NeuroLeadership Institute has
proven that this only works when
diverse teams are inclusive, and
this still remains a key challenge
in business today.
When we consider the
amount of diversity present in
the modern workplace and the
addition of more diverse thinking
as a result of globalisation and
the use of virtual work teams, it’s
clear that the ability to unlock
the power of diversity is just
waiting to be unleashed.
Here’s how you can unlock
this powerful performance
driver.
The Social Brain
Despite the rich sources of
diversity present in most
workplaces, companies are still
often unable to leverage the
different perspectives available
to them in driving business
goals. Recent breakthroughs in
neuroscience have enabled us
to understand why. The major
breakthrough has centred
around the basic needs of the
social brain.
We have an instinctual need
to continually define whether
we are within an in-group
are therefore hypersensitive
to feelings of exclusion as it
affected our survival.
The brain is further hardwired
for threat and unconsciously
scans our environments for
threats five times a second. This
means, coupled with our life or
death need for group affiliation,
we are hypersensitive to finding
sameness and a need for in-
group inclusion.
When we heard a rustle in a
bush it was safer to assume that
it may be a lion than a gust of
wind. It is this threat detection
network that has kept us alive
until today. The challenge is
that society has developed
faster than our brains. In times
of uncertainty we often jump to
what is more threatening.
Some of the ways that this
plays out is when we leave
someone out of an email and
they begin to wonder why they
were left out. The problem is
that it’s easy to unconsciously
or an out-group. This is an
evolutionary remnant of the
brain that enabled us to strive
to remain within a herd or group
where we had access to social
support structures, food and
potential mates. If we were part
of the out-group it could literally
have meant life or death. We
exclude someone if we are not
actively including. The trouble
occurs when we incorrectly
use physical proxies to define
in-group and out-group, as this
is the most readily available
evidence used unconsciously
by the brain.
Barriers to Inclusion
A study done between a diverse
group and non-diverse group
demonstrates how this plays out
in the work place. Both groups
completed a challenging task
and were asked how they felt
they did as a team after the
exercise.
The effectiveness of the
team and how they perceived
effectiveness were both
measured in the study. It’s no
surprise that the diverse team
did better in the completion of
the problem-solving task, but
what is surprising is that they
felt they did not do well. In
contrast, the non-diverse team
did worse, but felt that they had
done well.
Working in a diverse team
feels uncomfortable and
that’s why we perform better.
Discomfort arouses our
brain, which leads to better
performance. It feels easier to
work in a team where we feel at
ease in sameness, but in that
environment we are more prone
to groupthink and are
less effective.
Creating Inclusion
We can’t assume that when
we place diverse teams
together we will automatically
reap the rewards of higher
team performance. As
discussed, we’re hardwired
for sameness and if we’re not
actively including, we may be
unconsciously excluding.
If we want diversity to
become a silver bullet, we need
to actively make efforts to
find common ground amongst
disparate team members.
This in turn will build team
cohesion and create a sense
of unity, including reminders
of a shared purpose and
shared goals. Many global
businesses put an emphasis
on a shared corporate culture
that supersedes individual
difference.
It’s the same mechanism that
is used in science fiction films
that bond individuals together
against a common alien
invasion. It can also be used
to describe why we felt such a
great sense of accomplishment
during the 2010 World Cup as we
banded together as a nation.
We must also make sure
we uplift all team members
by sharing credit widely
when available and recognising
performance. The last thing
we can do to further inclusion
is to create clarity for teams.
By removing ambiguity, we
allow individuals to not jump
to conclusions about their
membership within groups and
calm their minds so they can use
their mental capacity to focus on
the task at hand. EM
ROB JARDINE is the
Head of Research
and Solutions at the
NeuroLeadership
Institute South Africa.
The NeuroLeadership Institute is a
research-driven leadership institute
based out of New York City that brings
together some of the world’s best PhD
Neuroscientists and organisational
leaders to co-create solutions to
leadership challenges. Locally, they
offer consulting, education and
solution services from offices in
Johannesburg and Cape Town.
www.neuroleadershipinstitute.org
DIVERSITY DIVERSITY
WANT TO ACHIEVE
GREATNESS? FORCE EVERYONE
OUT OF THEIR COMFORT ZONESDiverse teams are better performing teams, but only when they
are inclusive. BY ROB JARDINE
SUCCESS SCIENCE
PEAK
PERFORMANCE
Working in a
diverse team feels
uncomfortable
and that’s why we
perform better.
Discomfort arouses
our brain, which
leads to better
performance.