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Diverse Teams Perform Better

Institutions in the 21st century need to master skills for managing diversity if they will survive the changing dynamics of our times.  Teams are made up of persons from diverse backgrounds, systems of education, nationalities, ideologies, and so on. Skills for managing such teams effectively can open up opportunities to institutions.  Though Horwitz and Horwitz in an article in 2007 observed mixed outcomes from team diversity, in this era, having people from only one particular background in a team can limit team effectiveness and productivity.  Remaining objective leads to higher returns and diversity promotes objectivity in organisations.

It is healthy to have people who think differently, use different methodologies, and who tend to have different points of view on your team.  Extensive research in leadership excellence show that you need people with different personalities to build your organisation.  Despite the challenges in managing diverse teams, today’s leaders need to learn how to be comfortable with managing different forms of diversity like differences in gender, tribe, race, status, and education.  David Rock and Heidi Grant, in an article published in the Harvard Business Review in 2016, affirmed that it is good business decision to strive to increase workplace diversity. According to them, non-homogenous teams are simply smarter. Collective creativity is stronger as it incorporates divergent views.

At national levels, diversity increases the achievement of inclusive agenda in development.  In developing countries where large numbers of the population are not well educated, strategies that engage and integrate the local people into the development agenda has many benefits. It leads to reduction of poverty, increase in peaceful co-existence, and overall well-being of the people of the land.  Development efforts must benefit majority of the poor and vulnerable.    

In an organization, when a leader fails to develop the right skills in managing diversity, it affects productivity, reduces competitiveness, lowers profit levels, and reduces the ability of the institution to attract and retain highly competent staff.  When a particular group of people feel marginalized in a team, they do not put in their best performance and the institution loses in many ways.  Diversity is a key requirement for growth and profitability.

In Africa, several tribes come together to form one country.  This rich diversity needs to be reflected in our policies, recruitment processes, and school enrollment, to promote equal opportunity for all.  Institutions with the right culture will survive in our fast-moving world. Institutions with only a certain group of people in top management positions can lose sight of diverse perspectives, which enrich decision-making processes.  Whenever you are at a high-level meeting, look around the room to see who is there. The people you see will give you an idea whether all the people groups you serve are well represented. Otherwise, your decisions, policies, and programmes may be missing certain perspectives.

The people we lead are different in their make-up and in the way they look at things.  They have different preferences, belief systems, and values.  When we manage diverse teams well, we can arrive at shared values which strengthen our interactions and mutual support and increase our mutual benefit.

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