Diversity

Diversity is quite the buzzword. In budget season 2025, meaningful business plans will require attention to the topic.

But if you have ever felt that diversity is just another box to tick, I beg to differ.

In my everyday work in culture transformation, I see value in diversity beyond ensuring that gender, ethnicity, different ability, or even sexual orientation quotas feature in the Human Resource strategy. There is a clear business justification that makes diversity and inclusion of different opinions essential. Two justifications, in fact.

Firstly, the biggest challenge any business faces is turning strategy into action. Just Google the level of inability worldwide, and you will be amazed … but not surprised. Diversity and inclusion can improve this situation.

Secondly, the capability every business aspires to but very few achieve, is innovation. The ability to take a genuinely new idea and make it work. Or to fundamentally reinvent a process. Without diversity and inclusion, this poor performance will not change.

When I talk of diversity (and practise it in culture transformation) I mean the gathering of a range of talents and perspectives to work on a defined problem.

This is because people who work in the same business area, in the same way, every day are usually unable to reimagine their processes and identify any new behaviours that would improve execution. A Marketing team finds it very difficult to re-imagine the way they build brands. A factory Production Department struggles to innovate a completely new product because their understanding of what machinery can do limits their imagination.

When Boeing decided to use the 787 Dreamliner project to radically change how airliners work, it intentionally assembled a diverse team. By integrating perspectives from fields as diverse as materials science, aerodynamics, human physiognomy, and even supply chain management, Boeing was able to push the boundaries of conventional aircraft design.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries from Japan helped them to create a composite wing that reduced weight and improved fuel efficiency. Thales from France used their expertise from combat aircraft to enhance cockpit technology. Hamilton Sundstrand from the US revolutionised the air conditioning to transform passenger oxygenation levels. Boeing's supply chain blended over 50 Tier 1 partners worldwide to collaborate on the ideas the project produced.

I’m sure many people involved were women … and of different skin tones, from different generations and national cultures.  But that wasn’t central to the approach. Diversity of thought was.

The 787 Dreamliner project began in 2004. The aircraft entered service in 2011, transforming many aspects of commercial aviation after just seven years of diverse thinking and inclusive collaboration.