How diverse are the stories we watch?

My father’s dream was to be a
professional pilot

Yet, it never occurred to me to
be one until I saw this picture
First full female crew flying on Ethiopian airlines

Brunei crew landing in Saudi Arabia where women are not allowed to drive
Or this one

You can’t be what you can’t
see

We live in a diverse world
• In terms of gender, race, religion, sexual
orientation…

If the World were 100 people
• 50 would be female
50 would be male
• 26 would be children
74 adults,
8 of whom would be 65 and
older
• 60 Asians
15 Africans
14 people from the Americas
11 Europeans
• 49 in rural and 51 in urban
• 33 Christians
22 Muslims
14 Hindus
7 Buddhists
12 people who practice other
religions
12 people who would not be
aligned with a religion
• 83 would be able to read and
write; 17 would not
• 7 would have a college degree
• 22 would own or share a
computer

African countries are actually the
most diverse

And UK is one of the most
diverse countries in Europe

London is among the 10 most
diverse cities in the world

And yet this diversity is not to be
found in the media

Who makes TV?
Who is allowed on TV?
“Diversity in the modern world is more than just skin colour. It’s gender,
age, disability, sexual orientation, social background, and – most
important of all, as far as I’m concerned – diversity of thought.”

Spike Lee: it is easier to become a black
president of the US than a black studio head

14
Table 18
Television & Digital Distributor Inclusion Index
be celebrated for increasing the overall inclusion scores at these companies. However, true inclusion not only
involves films about a specific racial/ethnic group. Inclusion also requires integrating characters from multiple
underrepresented backgrounds across an entire slate of films.
Note: The networks included per company are as follows: 21st Century Fox (Fox, FX, FXX); CBS (CBS, Showtime); NBC Universal (NBC,
USA, Bravo, Syfy, E!); The CW; The Walt Disney Company (ABC, Freeform, Disney, Disney Jr.); Time Warner (HBO, Cinemax, TBS, TNT,
Adult Swim); Viacom (BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, Teen Nick, TV Land, Spike, VH-1), Amazon, Hulu, and Net-
flix. Across these channels and platforms, 305 prime time and digital shows were evaluated.
COMPANIES
ON SCREEN PORTRAYAL BEHIND THE CAMERA
21st Century Fox
% OF
FEMALE
CHARACTER
INCLUSION
% OF UR
CHARACTER
INCLUSION
% OF
FEMALE
CREATORS
% OF
FEMALE
WRITERS
% OF
FEMALE
DIRECTORS NORM
NBC Universal
The Walt Disney
Company
36%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
26%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
7%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
25%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
39%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
14%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
29%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
19%
BARELY
INCLUSIVE (1)
70%
13%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
25%
13%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
20%
33%
BARELY
INCLUSIVE (1)
25%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
6%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
17%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
13%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
15%Time Warner
Viacom
Amazon
Hulu
Netflix
37%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
27%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
32%
BARELY
INCLUSIVE (1)
39%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
17%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
31%
BARELY
INCLUSIVE (1)
32%
BARELY
INCLUSIVE (1)
18%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
38%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
18%
BARELY
INCLUSIVE (1)
5%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
10%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
26%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
21%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
70%
65%
50%
25%
65%
CBS / Showtime
38%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
25%
PARTIALLY
INCLUSIVE (2)
22%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
26%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
15%
NOT INCLUSIVE
(0)
20%
The CW
28%
LARGELY
INCLUSIVE (3)
47%
FULLY INCLUSIVE
(4)
30%
LARGELY
INCLUSIVE (3)
40%
LARGELY
INCLUSIVE (3)
40%
LARGELY
INCLUSIVE (3)
50%
FULLY INCLUSIVE
(4)
47%
FULLY INCLUSIVE
(4)
35%
FULLY INCLUSIVE
(4)
34%
FULLY INCLUSIVE
(4)
40%
LARGELY
INCLUSIVE (3)
40%
LARGELY
INCLUSIVE (3)
28%
LARGELY
INCLUSIVE (3)
44%
LARGELY
INCLUSIVE (3)
28%
FULLY INCLUSIVE
(4)
43%
LARGELY
INCLUSIVE (3)
45%
FULLY INCLUSIVE
(4)

“On TV, men speak, women
listen.”

Every Single Word blog
• The premise is simple: to illustrate the paucity of screen time and speaking
roles for people of color in film, Marron picks a film, and then splices all of
those scenes together in a YouTube supercut.

2015 Where We Are On TV
DIVERSITY OF
REGULAR CHARACTERS
ON PRIMETIME
SCRIPTED TELEVISION
Straight 96% (846 characters)
LGBT 4% (35 characters)
GLAAD’s annual Where We Are on to change based on programming
METHODOLOGY
LGBTQ representation in US TV

5
GLAAD found that 16% (145) of regular
characters on broadcast programming
will be Black, the highest percentage
since GLAAD began compiling
comprehensive racial data 11
years ago. However, Black women remain
significantly underrepresented with only 59
of those characters being female.
This year, 43% of regular characters
on primetime broadcast
programming are women, which is an
increase of three percentage points from last
year but still greatly underrepresents women
in the population.
For the first time in two years, the percentage
of regular characters depicted as
living with a disability on broadcast
programming has dropped, down to
0.9% from 1.4% reported last year. Between
broadcast and cable, there is only one
recurring character who is depicted as HIV-
positive.
trans characters were counted on cable
(2%). Streaming series boast the highest
percentage of trans characters at 7% (4) with
two notably being series leads. Of the seven
trans characters counted, only one was a
transgender man.
in the number of bisexual men appearing
on cable programs. Unfortunately, many
of these characters still fall into dangerous
stereotypes about bisexual people.
is moving in the right direction with 33%
(287) of 881 regular characters counted on
broadcast programming being people of
color, which is a six-point increase from last
year.

Things are changing but there is
still a long way to go
London mayor
Rome mayor
Paris mayor
POTUS

Source: Unconscious Bias @ Work | Google Ventures

About 75% of people who have
taken the IAT online complete
the test faster when…
• White faces are sorted alongside pleasant
words
• Male words are sorted alongside career
terms
• Women are sorted with liberal arts
studies, not science and tech.

Unconsciously, we tend to hire
people who look like us, think
like us and come from
backgrounds similar to ours.
It is more comfortable.
Less messy.
And less creative.

And victors tell the stories they know.
Stories about them.
From their point of view.
And suppose viewers are not
interested in anything else...

The ones telling the stories are
framing the narrative

White heterosexual males tell stories
about white heterosexual males
In the US

Ever since The 3% Conference came into
in September, 2012, countless reporters,
and ad folks have reached out to ask whe
statistic comes from.
While the figure itself is widespread, its origin is not. The number comes from
by Kasey Windels, then a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin
Representation and Regulatory Focus: The Case for Cohorts among Female C
subsequent conference paper, “An Exploration into the Representation of Fem
Today’s Advertising Agencies,” Ms. Windels painstakingly checked the gender
in the 1984, 1994 and 2004 Advertising Annuals of Communications Arts. She
Creative Directors were female.
ART DIRECTORS
CREATIVE DIRECTORS
3.6%
9.6%
COPYWRITERS
11.6%
PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN
IN THESE ROLES
Same in the advertising industry
Source: 3% Conference

Stories can even be offensive…

Reducing girls self confidence

Political impact: sexist media coverage
results in a drastic decrease of voter
confidence in women candidates.
The Women’s Media Center’s
Media Guide to Gender Neutral Coverage
of Women Candidates + Politicians
By Rachel Joy Larris and Rosalie Maggio

What’s the risk?
For the audience?
• Feeling misrepresented
or invisible
• Excluded
• Feeds hatred,
misunderstandings,
stereotypes
For the broadcasters?
• Offend audience
• Losing audience
• Losing money
• Disconnection from the
public
• Being outsmarted by
more innovative channels
• Losing talent

What’s your role as
broadcasters?
To mirror society or the ones who
own the media?

What’s your role as
broadcasters?
To portray a simplistic image or to
explain the world as it is in all its
complexity?

And why should people watch
your shows if you don’t talk
about them?

Shonda Rhimes:
You should get to turn on the TV
and see your tribe.

Shonda Rhimes: I am
normalizing TV not diversifying it
• “I am making TV look like the world looks."
• it's about making TV something we can all look to for strong
role models.
• “The goal is that everyone should get to turn on the TV and
see someone who looks like them and loves like them,”
• “And just as important, everyone should turn on the TV and
see someone who doesn’t look like them and love like them.
Because, perhaps then, they will learn from them. Perhaps
then, they will not isolate them.”
• I really hate the word “diversity”. It suggests
something…other. As if it is something…special. Or rare.

“You Are Not Alone”
Shonda Rhimes at The Human Rights Campaign Gala in
Los Angeles, 2015
• The images you see on television matter. They tell you about the world.
They tell you who you are. What the world is like. They shape you. We all
know this. There have been studies.
– So if you never see a Cyrus Beene on TV, ever? An older, bad ass, take no prisoners,
Republican, conservative, Rumsfeld-ian gay man who loved his husband James so
deeply and tried desperately not to kill him…
– If you never see James dragging Cyrus into the 21st century…
– If you never see young Connor Walsh on How To Get Away Murder getting to have the
same kind of slutty dating life we’ve seen straight characters have on TV season after
season after season…
– If you never see Erica Hahn exuberantly give what’s become known as the Leaves on
Trees monologue telling Callie that she’s realized she is a lesbian…
– If you never see openly bisexual Callie Torres stare her father down and holler (my favorite
line ever) “You can’t pray away the gay!!!” at him…
– If you never see a transgender character on TV have family, understanding, a Dr. Bailey to
love and support her…
• If you never see any of those people on TV…What do you learn about your
importance in the fabric of society? What do straight people learn? What
does that tell young people? Where does that leave them? Where does that
leave any of us?

The first network drama with a black
woman as its leadin nearly four decades
The Shonda effect
Viola Davis , the first black
woman to win the Emmy
for Best Lead Actress in a
Drama

To represent the diversity,
you need to BE the diversity

Sciences Po opened to different
socio-economic backgrounds
• Special access without exam.
• Initially rejected and considered
as positive discrimination by the
elite.
• Now, more than 10 years later,
students are proud of it and
parts of the DNA of the school.

Yet, ‘‘ ‘Diversity’ is like, ‘Ugh,
I have to do diversity.’
Selma director Ava DuVernay

Diversity feels like medicine
• “There’s a feeling of obligation, rather than excitement.
• There’s an emotional disconnect with that word.”
• Risk of tokenism: minority talks about minority but not general issues
• ‘‘Diversity has become a code word for ‘all those other folks”: still the norm and the rest
• Diversity is diverse: inherent and acquired.
• Pressure to be “ambassadors”
• Doubting the sincerity of the institution: you have to do it but you don’t REALLY mean it
• Fatigue and even cynicism

Diverse teams have a more
diverse set of skills
• And thus a higher financial performance.

A group of ordinary people who
are diverse can defeat a group of
like-minded experts

Diverse teams help you understand
better diverse audiences
• A team with a member who shares a
client’s ethnicity is 152% likelier than
another team to understand that client.

Women control 73% of consumer
purchasing and $20 trillion of the world’s
annual consumer spending
• And yet…
• 91% of women reported they didn’t think
that advertisers understood them.

“The advertising
“The advertising
“business is a
$33B industry.
Misunderstanding
female consumers,
from a business
perspective, is
sheer lunacy.
Kat Gordon
Founder, The 3% Conference

Even movies about women make
more money…

Ninety-seven of the 133 movies represented in this selection are about men. Only 36 are
about women — the people who are, as it is now proven, the bigger box office draw.
That's not just poor representation,
it's also bad business…

And diversity brings
creativity and innovation

“Diversity doesn’t lower the bar.
Diversity raises the fucking bar.”

The 3% Movement Manifesto
Diversity = Creativity = Profitability
• That’s our drumbeat. 1, 2, 3.
• The more varied the people
who come up with ideas, the
more varied the ideas will
be. And since women
control the majority of
consumer spending and
social sharing, it only makes
sense to involve them in the
creative process.
• Yet, until we came along,
only 3% of Creative
Directors were women.

DIVERSITY IS THE
NEW DARWINISM
FINDINGS AND ACTIONS:
DIVERSITY IS THE
NEW DARWINISM
FINDINGS AND ACTIONS:

• We commonly misinterpret displays of confidence as
a sign of competence.
• Manifestations of hubris — often masked as
charisma or charm — are commonly mistaken
for leadership potential.
• That is why we are fooled into believing that men are
better leaders than women.
• Yet arrogance and overconfidence are inversely
related to leadership talent — the ability to build and
maintain high-performing teams, and to inspire
followers to set aside their selfish agendas in order to
work for the common interest of the group.

We need a greater diversity in
leadership styles as well
• Boards of directors typically believe
that transforming a company from
good to great requires an extreme
personality, an egocentric chief to
lead the corporate charge.
• The essential ingredient for taking a
company to greatness is having a
“Level 5” leader, an executive in
whom extreme personal humility
blends paradoxically with intense
professional will.

Whether in sports, politics or business, the
best leaders are usually humble
Without diverse leadership, women are 20% less likely than straight white men to win
endorsement for their ideas; people of color are 24% less likely; and LGBTs are 21% less likely.

Questions for you
• Is diversity a workshop in your
organization or part of the hiring
managers' bottom lines?
• Do you really have a culture where
employees feel that they can speak up
and their voices are heard?
• Do you partner with organizations to help
you source different talent?
• Which kind of leaders do you have?

Kirsten Dunst believes a lot of the most
interesting work now comes from television
rather than film.
• Dunst “People don’t go
to the cinema unless it’s
an event any more,”
• “So the movie industry is
in a weird place, for sure,
and the creative people
are blossoming on
television.”

Ansari's not only writing and starring in
the first show to star an Indian-American
actor — Mindy Kaling became the first
Indian woman to star in her own series in
2012

The power of webseries: African city

The diverse audience is developing
market power against dominant cultures
• The success of these shows was a surprise to
many:
– “Who knew that they would perform so well?
– Who knew that white viewers would occasionally
watch and enjoy programs with diverse casts?
– Who knew that minority audiences seek out
minority narratives?”
• TV starts to look like the real world with
innovation coming from digital platforms like
Netflix or Amazon.

Transparency is the first step to
changing this situation

Sixty and Me is an online magazine and a global
community of over 200,000 women over 60

Change mindsets and
behaviours around disability

The Guardian Positive action
program
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
TenYears
ofPositiveAction
2006
2007
2008

Sphinx Theatre Company
Brave New Roles

Birds Eye View « She Writes »

Supporting
diversity
throughout
the industry
exhaustive, but if you’ve been inspired to take
action as a result of reading this report, please
take a look through these to see how you could
take part, support and champion.
Creative Equals: helping the industry take steps
towards gender diversity in creative departments.
http://creativeequals.org/
Facebook managing bias training: designed to
help us recognize our biases so we can reduce
their negative effects in the workplace.
https://managingbias.fb.com/
IPA unconscious bias training: designed to support
agencies as we endeavour to build a more diverse
and more inclusive workplace.
www.ipa.co.uk
IPA Make the Leap: IPA initiative to make the leap
towards achieving diversity and equality goals by 2020.
Pride AM: a high proﬁle group which represents
the LGBT community in advertising.
SheSays: the only global creative network for
women – running free mentorship and events
to women in the creative industry.
www.shesays.com
Token Man: an initiative to give men a better
understanding of the challenges women face
in our industry.
http://www.tokenman.org/
Who’s Your Momma: part of She Says, a mentoring
network for women all across the industry.
http://weareshesays.com/tag/whos-your-momma/

HBO Seeks Diverse, Emerging Writers for
HBO Access Writing Fellowship

We are the XX media collective

We do it together is a nonprofit Production Company created to
finance and produce media uniquely dedicated to the
empowerment of women.

Reese Witherspoon Pacific
Standard production company

Global Girl Media launched in London:
teaching young girls to be citizen
journalists

Many viral videos from AJ+, Buzzfeed,
Upworthy or Attn tackle stereotypes

Maslaha is tacking the representation of
the muslim community

And launched the project I can be she

Sister-hood is a digital magazine and a
series of live events spotlighting the
voices of women of Muslim heritage.

Muslim Girl media in the US:
Muslim Women Talk Back

Speak up!
Be vocal when you attend conferences that fall short on diversity,
tweeting and posting your observations.

DuVernay, who made ‘‘Selma,’’ pointed out that
of the 100 top-grossing films last year, only two
were directed by women.
• She urged constant vigilance and proactive
searching within the industry:
• ‘‘We have to ask our agents about that script
by the woman screenwriter.
We have to ask, ‘Hey, are there any women
agents here that I could talk to?’
We have to ask our lawyers about women in
the office.
We have to ask, when we’re thinking about
directors or D.P.s, ‘Will women interview?’ ’’

Broadcast inspiring female roles

Broadcast Miss Representation
in your organization

Portray women social innovators

She Who Tells a Story: Women Photographers
from Iran and the Arab World

Be mindful about how you
conduct interviews
PARALLELISM: WHEN EVERYTHING ISN’T EQUAL
Another type of sexism in media coverage is Parallelism. If a reporter is wondering
whether it’s offensive or inaccurate to say something about a group or person who
may be subject to stereotyping, it’s often helpful to make a parallel with another per-
son or group who is less subject to stereotyping. It changes the context just enough
to see the fairness or unfairness. Some examples of the effect come in word choice.
CHILD CARE
SINGLENESS
EYE COLOR
HAIR CUT
MAKE-UP
LACK OF CHILDREN
GUIDINGRULESFORGENDERNEUTRA
The Women’s Media Center’s
Media Guide to Gender Neutral Coverage
of Women Candidates + Politicians
By Rachel Joy Larris and Rosalie Maggio

WMC Guide to Gender Neutral Coverage of Women Candidates + Politicians 3
Steinem, Journalist and Co-Founder of the Women’s Media Center
Reversibility means abandon-
ing or evaluating terms or story
frames of women candidates
that wouldn’t be written about
men. It means not citing sex
with less seriousness or logical
relation to content than you
would cite race, class, ethnic-
ity, or religion.
At the simplest level, do you
use “Mr. Smith” on first refer-
ence, then “Smith” after that?
Do you cite “Ms.,” “Mrs.,”
or “Miss Smith” throughout?
If you answered yes to both,
you are granting Mr. Smith
autonomy, but continuing to
describe Ms. Smith by her
marital status.
If terms are almost singularly
applied to women but not to
men, you probably shouldn’t
be using them. Sexism can
also refer to the type of cover-
age, often about personality,
appearance, or family, that
is given to women politicians
but not male politicians. See
the chart for some examples.
Please refer to the Glossary of
Terms listed from the Unspin-
ning the Spin: The Women’s
Media Center’s Guide to Fair
& Accurate Language for more
examples.
Said to Women Said to Men
Cunt NONE
Girl / Woman
Whore NONE
Man Whore
Bitch NONE
Slut NONE
Prostitute Player / Pimp
Man-Eater / Aggressive Driven / Motivated
High-Strung / Temperamental Powerful
Too Emotional Sensitive / Caring
Mean Girl / Bully Powerful / Decisive
Ice Queen / Cold Hardworking / Commanding
Nagging / Shrill Determined
Opinionated / Uppity Knowledgeable / Passionate
Hot / Sexy / MILF Handsome / Attractive
Ugly / Mannish / Dyke / Lesbian NO ATTENTION GIVEN
Varicose Veins / Cankles / Wrinkled Distinguished / Seasoned
General Menstruation Jokes:
Moody / PMSing Angry
General Comments on Appearance:
Plunging Neckline / Short Skirt / Oh, look, he’s wearing a red/blue
High Heels / Hairstyle tie “and an American ﬂag pin”
CHART OF REVERSIBILITY
FORGENDERNEUTRALITY

GRULESFORGENDERNEUTRALITY
Write about a woman candidate’s
clothing or physical appearance
(hair, makeup, eyes) … UNLESS
your outlet has published similar
articles about male candidates.
Use gendered terms such as
“feisty,” “spirited,” “opinionated”
… UNLESS your outlet would use
them on a male candidate.
Talk about a female candidate as
a mother … UNLESS the candidate
brings it up first.
Write about clothing (for either sex)
that is symbolically important.
Ask a male candidate about his role
as a father if he touts “fatherhood”
as a job qualifier.
Ask a male candidate about sexist
language he uses.
DON’Ts
DO’sMEDIA PLEDGE OF GENDER NEUTRALITY
SIGN THE PLEDGE!
We invite members of the media to sign the Name It. Change It. Media Pledge of Gender Neu-
trality. By signing it, you pledge to use gender-neutral language (i.e., not sexist) when writing
and/or speaking about women candidates and politicians. We encourage news reporters,
columnists, pundits, bloggers, radio and television hosts, and Twitter users to sign the pledge.
Refraining from sexist language is as important as refraining from racist language, and improves
the media culture for all women.
MEDIAPLEDGEOFGENDER
You can sign the pledge online at
www.nameitchangeit.org/page/s/equality-pledge
Text of Media Pledge of Gender Neutrality
I promise to adhere to fair journalistic standards that

Do you want your audience
to feel that they belong?

Find this presentation online:
www.slideshare.net/asalvaire
@asalvaire

Cindy Gallop, founder and chief executive of
MakeLoveNotPorn and IfWeRantheWorld and
former chair of BBH New York
• My message to the male leaders of the industry is this: would you
like to do less work and make more money? The moment you have
50% or more women on your board, on your leadership team, in
your creative team and at the head of your creative department,
you’ll instantly make more money and do less work, because
innovation, disruption and creativity are the result of diversity.
• Women get shit done. Women don’t self promote. Women don’t
want to take credit, which is why they don’t get it. When you hire
women, and put them in leadership positions, they do all the work
for you.
• Women regularly say to me about positive discrimination, “I don’t
want to be hired just because I am a woman.” I say to them get
over that – all around you are mediocre men who just got hired
because they are men. So get hired as a woman and then prove, in
the role, how bloody brilliant you are as yourself.
• Diversity doesn’t lower the bar. Diversity raises the fucking bar.
Diversity will make our industry more creative and more lucrative.

Diversity and inclusion help the
bottomline
• Venture-backed companies led by a woman actually produce 12%
higher revenues and launch on a third less capital than their male
counterparts, as show studies by the Kauffman Foundation and
leading universities. They have a record of greater capital efficiency
and a lower failure rate than companies only run by men.
• According to DELL study, companies with more women board
directors outperform those with the least by 66% ROI capital, 53%
return on equity and 42% return on sales.

Diversity and inclusion help the
bottomline
• Companies With More Women Board Directors Experience Higher Financial
Performance.
• Investments run by female hedge fund managers do 3 times as well as
those run by male managers over the past 5 years.
• Venturecapital firms that invest in women-led companies outperform those
that don’t, according to research from the Small Business Administration’s
Office of Advocacy.
• And venture-backedcompanies that include more women on their
executive management teams are more likely to succeed than companies
with men-only executivesuites, according to Women at the Wheel: Do
Female Executives Drive Start-up Success, research conducted by Dow
Jones.

DELOITTE
• Average annual turnover rate among female managers was huge : 33%.
• Why ? Male-dominated culture. Not a confortable place to work in.
• Change: accountability of women recruited and retained, networking
events and career-planning programs especially for women. Change in the
requirements for travel. Flexible work arrangements, which wouldn’t hinder
one’s professionaladvancement within the organization. Dramatic increase
of the use of these program by men and women.
• Deloitte number of female partners tripled, from 5 to 14% and saved USD
250 million in hiring and training costs.
• So investing in women, rather than costing money is actually saving
millions of dollars and stopped haemorrhaging talented people.

Sthree
• Identity initially focused on empowering womenwithin the company and creating a
supportive environment inwhich they can succeed. The programme has provided
tools and information, developed a support network, highlighted successful role
models and held forums to share ideas. We have also been engaging with our clients
and candidates on gender diversity and supporting women in the community, for
example, working withfemale students to raise career aspirations.
• Our maternity buddy scheme has played an integral role in 83% of employees
returning to work after maternity leave. For employees expecting a baby our buddy
scheme provides support for the duration of the pregnancy, maternity leave and
return to work.
https://www.sthreecareers.com/en/diversity-
inclusion

American Express
• “You can have as many diverse employees as possible, but if we
don’t have a culture where employees feel that they can speak up
and their voices are heard, you’re not going to really take advantage
of that.”
• The groups provide mentoring, “speed networking,” and other
opportunities to connect with like-minded colleagues.
• Helps with recruitment and retention of talent

Best practices
• Diversity needs to be made a clear priority at
companies. That happens when diversity moves out of
workshops and becomes factored into the hiring
managers' bottom lines.
• Managers at Chevron, for example, are rated in their
performance evaluations on their ability to reach
diversity goals.
• At Procter & Gamble, managers’ stock options are tied
to diversity goal

Workshops to create awareness
Teaching about all formsof discrimination and
implementing lessons into workplacedecisions
can mediate prejudice, both blatant and
subtle.
Judith Williams, the Global Diversity and Talent
Programsmanager at Google, leads the
unconscious bias workshopsdesigned to
informemployees about the science of
subconscious decision-making.

Sthree
• “I think three things need to happen,” she says. “Firstly,
there needs to be an HR policy in place - it has to be
supported at a corporate level. Secondly, it needs to be
top-down with senior level sponsors promoting the
initiatives. And thirdly, tactically, you need a bottom up
approach too, you need local champions.”
https://www.sthreecareers.com/en/sthree-blog/why-workplace-diversity-is-good-for-
the-bottom-line

Increasing attention of tech companies
on diversity challenges
• Industry giants Apple and Twitter have published diversity audits
and pledged to do more to increase diversity in their workforce.
• Janet Van Huysse, Twitter’s Vice President, Diversity and Inclusion
put it simply: “As we look ahead, we see opportunity rather than a
challenge.”
• Companies currently looking to appoint Heads of Diversity include
Airbnb, Asana and Dropbox. Those recognised by Diversity Inc. as
making the most effort to increase diversity this year include
Novartis, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Procter & Gamble.
• This has become a mainstream issue, a competitive business
imperative.

Source: Apple diversity website

APPLE
• we continue hiring talented people from groups that are currently
underrepresented in our industry.
• We’re supporting education with programs like the Thurgood
Marshall College Fund to help students at historically black
colleges and universities find opportunities in technology.
• ConnectED is bringing our technology to some of the most
economically disadvantaged schools and communities in the
United States, so more people have the opportunity to pursue their
dreams.
• We’re also hosting hundreds of students at our annual developer
conference, and we’re setting up new programs to help students
learn to code.

APPLE
• Building a vibrant community to support women in tech.
• We launched our Supplier Diversity Program in 1988
• We’re also working with a variety of STEM (science,
technology, engineering, and math) organizations that
offer scholarships to developers from different
backgrounds.
• We partner with groups like the Human Rights
Campaign (HRC), which is the largest LGBT civil rights
organization in the United States.

APPLE
• To encourage women to be part of the tech industry, we’ve
developed a strong partnership with the National Center for Women
& Information Technology (NCWIT). We’ve been working together
for over a decade. We’re proud to be their first-ever Lifetime
Partner, and we’re dedicated to supporting all aspects of their
organization.
• As part of our partnership, we’re helping NCWIT expand the only
national talent development initiative for women in tech —
Aspirations in Computing. Through this program, NCWIT and its
partners give support, scholarships, and career opportunities to
young women.

How To Build A Brilliantly Creative Team
• Organizational creativity has to be maintained at three levels: the organizational culture, individual creativity, and team dynamics.
Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, being part of a team will increase your own creativity, but only if you have the right team
members, and productive team dynamics are in place. Here is what you need to do to achieve both.
• 1. Assure strong and productive team diversity.
• I am not referring to the politically correct "team diversity," that assures inclusion of members based on their demographic
backgrounds. I'm talking about task-related diversity. Make sure you include members with diverse experiences. Having a team of
employees who worked together in the same business unit for 10 years is easy, but will not provide diversity of ideas. Including
members who worked in different companies, or at least different business units will increase the breadth of perspectives and thus
ideas. Assure that you include members with diverse domain knowledge. Include engineers, customer support personnel, finance
people, marketing people, and everyone who might have knowledge to share that will affect idea quality. Balance specialists (know a lot
about a very narrow field) with generalists (know little about a very broad field), and finally include extroverts with introverts. They bring
different, yet equally valuable input.
• 2. Keep only team members who respect each other.
• Sounds onerous, doesn't it? Team creativity is based on having open debate, and free flow of ideas. For that to happen, trust must exist
within team members. Where trust is lacking--so will creativity. One of the most basic building blocks for trust is mutual respect. The
respect is for two things: the other person's professional competence in what they do, and sharing the same values. Lacking one of
those will prevent the type of respect that will lead to trust and creativity. You can learn this by interviewing individual team members, or
even conduct an anonymous survey, but you need to make sure that each team member respects all other team members on both
dimensions. Let me be clear about something: this respect either exists or it doesn't. It cannot be forced. Telling team members that
they must respect each other is meaningless. It is nothing more than a politically correct statement to make. As team members get to
know each other, this respect may develop, or break down. You will need to continuously monitor whether team members respect each
other, and if they don't--address it. It is better to remove a team member that others don't trust than to keep them in the team, and lose
trust, open debate, and creativity.
• 3. Time together
• Having initial respect to one another does not immediately generate trust. Trust will develop over time. In my creativity in organizations
research, I found that one team lacked respect initially, and gained that respect over 3 years of working together. They reported low
trust and creativity initially, and high trust and creativity after 3 years. I encountered a Fortune 500 company that, in order to increase
team diversity, would shuffle teams every 18 months. This way, they believed, members will bring different perspectives to different
teams. While they did increase team diversity this way, they prevented teams from developing the level of trust needed for them to be
creative. Let the team work together for a long time. Let them develop the needed trust. It will not happen overnight.

How To Build A Brilliantly
Creative Team
• 4. Promote out-of-work friendships.
• What can shorten the time it takes to go from respect to trust is the positivity of relationships. Team members that go to movies together, hang out, drink beer together,
will turn respect into trust faster. Specifically, out-of-work friendships will allow them to explore how much they share the same values. If they are not willing to spend
time together, they either don't share values (which will prevent trust from ever developing), or it will take a long time to develop that trust. You should not force
friendships. You can't. But you should do whatever you can to encourage it.
• 5. Life altering events, or team-building.
• Most companies consider team-building activities as boondoggles. A waste of time and money, that does not yield any performance improvement. They are wrong. Life-
altering events bond people more than anything. They allow them to really get to know each other, and explore the values they may share (or find out they don't) very
quickly. However, life-altering events (being in an accident, tornado, serving side-by-side in battle) are not something you can order. Team-building events, on the other
hand, are. The more intense the team building events are, the more effective they are in learning to respect shared values and build trust. Do them on a regular basis, and
make sure they are effective. You should explore bad feelings out of a team building event. Are those an indication of lack of respect? Lack of shared values? If so--
consider yourself lucky to discover those early, and make personnel changes in the team.
• 6. Pre-existing acceptance.
• Imagine a new member is introduced to your team. However, this member is not introduced by the team leader, but rather by one (or more) of the other team members,
who says "I worked with her before, and she is really great. I'm so happy she joins us!" What do you think at that time? You don't know her, but somehow she got pre-
qualified by someone you trust. This, obviously, will only work after you have already worked with the team member who made the introduction for a while, and you trust
him. However, if someone you trust introduces someone new with a glowing recommendation--it will shorten the time to trust the new person.
• 7. Prevent internal competition.
• Competition for a promotion, pay raise, a bonus, or anything else among team members has catastrophic effect on team creativity. Team members will try to promote
their own ideas, or even not share ideas within the team, and rather share them outside the team with the team leader, or upper management. Whomever controls the
prize. Make sure there is no such competition within the team. This can be tricky when members come from different groups within the company, that are not within your
control. In that case, you will need to speak with the managers of those other groups. No internal competition among team members should exist.
• 8. Establish ground rules.
• I was surprised to see how many times this simple tool of setting ground rules changed the dynamics. Include rules such as "nobody gets to monopolize the
conversation," and "nobody gets to be quiet all the time." Establish what happens when someone is late to a meeting. Will you allow using computers and phones in the
meeting (hint: do you want their full attention or not?) Make sure you keep a "parking lot" list of things so you do not forget any idea. Make sure that whomever the idea
scribe is--he will be truthful to what was said. People don't like their words being twisted in any way. When you capture something--make sure you ask the idea originator
if this is what she meant. If not--modify it. If you had an idea as a result--write hers first, and then yours, but don't replace hers with yours.
•

Diversity programmes are in essence a form of change programme: they seek to alter the composition of
leadership teams or staff and to disrupt old habits and routines. However, research into change management
has found that change programmes have a high failure rate of about 70 percent.21
Most efforts stall because
those involved—management and employees—do not believe in them or make them a priority.
Successful diversity programmes have clear objectives and are led from the top (not just the CEO, but the
entire top team). They foster active involvement from the wider organization and require the infrastructure to
actively manage against targets (not quotas) to hold individuals accountable for outcomes. Exhibit 10 sets
out questions for leaders to ask when planning a change programme and suggestions to help organizations
reach their diversity goals.
Exhibit 10
Aspire
Where do we
want to go?
Assess
How ready are we
to go there?
Architect
What do we need
to do to get there?
Act
How do we man-
age the journey?
Advance
How do we keep
moving forward?
1
2
3
4
5
Key steps for successful diversity programmes
SOURCE: Scott Keller and Colin Price, Beyond Performance: How great organizations build ultimate competitive advantage, Wiley, 2011
Diversity
▪ Create a clear value proposition for having a diverse and
inclusive culture
▪ Set a few clear targets (not quotas) that balance complexity
with cohesiveness
Define a clear
value
proposition
Establish a fact
base
▪ Understand the current situation in terms of statistics and
mindsets and learn from external best practices.
Understand root causes and underlying mindsets
Create targeted
initiatives
▪ Differentiate initiatives by diversity group, for example,
gender initiatives do not always resonate with other
minorities. Lead from the top
Define the
governance
model
▪ Define the rollout strategy for all initiatives. Launch 1-2
highly visible flagship projects at the beginning of the
effort. Monitor rigorously
Build inclusion
▪ Continuously address potential mindset barriers through
systematic change management. Link diversity to other
change management efforts
SOURCE: Scott Keller and Colin Price, Beyond Performance: How great organizations build ultimate competitive
advantage, Wiley, 2011
Which are the best practices in
terms of diversity and inclusion?

2. Techniques for overcoming bias
Behavioural insights can be harnessed to increase diversity in three main ways: by training and educating
people to reduce personal biases, by changing organisational processes to take bias out of decision making;
and by incorporating behavioural principles in the design of programmes and communications to spur action.
Educating and training people to reduce personal biases
Key success factors for raising awareness and building capability include:
ƒ Tailoring delivery to the audience. For example, one engineering company used a computer simulation to
show how a systematic 1 percent bias against women in performance evaluation scores caused women
to be underrepresented in top positions.
ƒ Getting people to experience bias personally. At Google, for instance, staff are encouraged to take a test
that measures biases.
ƒ Reminding people about biases at key moments, such as before reviews.
ƒ Helping people to focus on differences to reduce homogeneity bias and stereotyping. In one experiment,
French students discriminated against potential employers who were Arabs, but stopped doing so if
asked to describe differences between their photos.‡
ƒ Fostering empathy training and taking the side of the target group—a practice proven to reduce prejudice
and discrimination. Simply asking “How would I feel in this situation?” can be enough to have a positive
effect.‡
Changing processes and structures to reduce bias in decision making
Another way to increase diversity is to introduce techniques to minimise the influence of individual biases on
key decisions. These techniques can take several forms:
ƒ Analytical. One approach to reduce bias in recruitment is to define scoring criteria for each candidate and
Source: Diversity matters, Mac Kinsey 2015

ƒ Fostering empathy training and taking the side of the target group—a practice proven to reduce prejudice
and discrimination. Simply asking “How would I feel in this situation?” can be enough to have a positive
effect.‡
Changing processes and structures to reduce bias in decision making
Another way to increase diversity is to introduce techniques to minimise the influence of individual biases on
key decisions. These techniques can take several forms:
ƒ Analytical. One approach to reduce bias in recruitment is to define scoring criteria for each candidate and
use an algorithm rather than human judgement to make decisions based on the criteria. Daniel Kahneman
has applied this technique to improve the assessment of candidates for the Israeli army.* Modified
versions of the technique have been used by a variety of companies, including McKinsey.
ƒ Debate. One effective way to identify bias in decision making is to institute a “pre-mortem” by asking
people to imagine what could go wrong if a particular decision is taken.§
Another technique is to nominate
an individual to act as devil’s advocate and challenge assumptions behind decisions, such as implicit
stereotypes. A number of studies have shown that this approach leads to better decisions.
ƒ Organisational. Companies can, for example, create a decision challenge team.
Applying behavioural economics principles to diversity efforts
McKinsey has identified seven ways to apply behavioural principles: use information about peers, use
people’s natural reflexes, make sure information comes from a credible origin, provide strategic context,
trigger an emotional response, make information salient, and appeal to an individual’s self-image. Many of
these techniques can be used to enhance the effectiveness of diversity programmes; for instance:

ƒ Peers: highlight the positive achievements of peers. This has been shown to be one of the most
effective ways to influence people. For example, informing taxpayers that others pay their tax significantly
increased tax contributions, whereas reminders of prosecution or how tax is used did not.¶
A company
could use internal statistics from other departments or business units that are more advanced in achieving
diversity, as well as external data on highly regarded competitors. Telling employees about their peers’
contributions to diversity is another effective technique.
ƒ Reflexes: prime people with images and words that discourage biases. A striking example of the
effects of priming—or introducing subliminal clues—was provided by research that showed that when
Asian women were reminded about their gender, they performed significantly worse in a maths test than
when they were reminded about their ethnicity.** Companies can use priming techniques strategically to
reduce bias, for example by displaying pictures of well-known powerful women.
ƒ Origin: make sure that diversity messages come from trusted opinion leaders within the
organization, whether they are line workers or managers, rather than from a diversity group that may be
seen as an outsider.††
* Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Allen Lane, 2011.
† Brian A. Nosek, Mahzarin R. Banaji, and Antony G. Greenwald, “Math = male, me = female, therefore math ≠ me”,
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2002, volume 83, number 1, pp. 44-59.
‡ Scott Plous, editor, Understanding prejudice and discrimination, McGraw-Hill, 2003.
§ Gary Klein, “Performing a project pre-mortem”, Harvard Business Review, September 2007.
Ryan T. Hartwig, “Facilitating problem solving: A case study using the devil’s advocacy technique”, Group
Facilitation, number 10, 2010.
¶ Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness, Yale
University Press, 2008.
** Clayton M. Christensen, Stephen P. Kaufman, and Willy C. Shih, “Innovation killers: How financial tools destroy

The good news is: we can rewire
our brains!
So what can YOU do to shift your biases?

Mc Kinsey: there is a direct, linear relationship
between increased ethnic diversity in senior-
exec positions and financial performance
1. Diversity leads to people being their
authentic self at work and thus contribute more
creatively and be much happier in their job.
2. It dramatically increases the possibility of new
connections between experiences,
perspectives, and insights that lead to
distinctive, powerful and new creative ideas.
3. Diversity means ideas develop via meritocracy,
and not quick buy-in from the dominant cultural
voice. It forces us to be truthful about creative
merit.

1. Better work experience
• Diversity is about being people being
themselves, which is fundamental to ful
lling creative potential and attaining true
job satisfaction.
• hiding the parts of their personality that
don’t t the status quo in order to t in
themselves.
• Liberate from the representation

2. Diversity leads to better ideas
• network philosopher, Gilles Deleuze (1998), to contemporary
innovation theorists like Steven Johnson (2010) the power of
network and connections are well-documented creative
forces. In short, diversity is the lifeblood of creativity, and we
ignore at our peril.
• a diverse team challenges ideas more, pushing them in new
directions and different ways.
• By putting the same people in the room together, you’re
going to get creative solutions you can predict, and ones
your clients will probably anticipate. Not only that, but it’s
likely it’s not far off what your competitors are coming up with
too. In the age of the internet, a lack of diversity is a huge
danger to our industry’s position within wider creative
industries. Diversity will give you that broader, richer, more
vibrant role within creative networks.

3. Ideas win by meritocracy
• Better creative execution
• the status quo is too often that the quickest to be agreed upon by
the most people
is the one developed. Consensus often happens quickly in teams
where everyone has a similar background and experience. In a
diverse team, however, there are more opinions. Because when
you’ve got a range of different starting points, the things that seem
obviously right to you can seem completely alien to someone with a
contradictory stance on the world.
• Diversity means the process of idea development might be tougher:
there’ll be more time spent on selecting ideas and more debate
about what works best. You will need to accommodate that, but the
output will be better, stronger, more robust creative solutions.

Fears: tougher time agreeing on
things and arguments
• 1. Consensus is elusive – without dominant culture, group progression can be a dif cult
thing to negotiate.
• consensus finding within diverse groups requires more energy.
• 2. Tokenism does not work – people close up and the power of diversity is lost.
• If people feel tokenistic gestures, they end up playing to a type or closing up and the
power of having them there is gone.
• Getting a few faces is not enough, but you also need to de-politicise diversity, people are
there to do the job they love. By doing the minimum, by paying lip-service, chances are
you’re going to fall into this trap. The key is thinking about diversity holistically and not in
boxes on a recruitment drive.
• 3. The leadership challenge – certain styles and management can really inhibit the
positive impact of diversity.
• Harnessing the power of diversity demands a certain kind of creative leader, and the
revered iconoclastic, alpha-male, creative genius, is often the didactic leader who will stop
a diverse groups’ creativity.
• do we have those kinds of leaders currently? Are we rewarding and listening to those
leaders? Are we training those leaders? If not, we are maintaining a dated status quo that
blocks the creative bene ts of diverse teams.

Way forward
• Embrace messiness
• it’s more dif cult to recruit diversely.
• There’s more disagreement and debate.
• Complicated when you fetishisespeed and ef ciency
• Creativity is messy…
• developing empathy and listening skills, getting comfortable with being
uncomfortable, accepting that ideas don’t always emerge quickly
• We need a new breed of leader: one who is able to hire and guide people
very different from themselves and, most importantly of all, to create an
environment where others can thrive.
• investment in mentoring diverse talents: and an understanding that
teams of people with diverse understanding and approaches to the world
will need guiding in different ways.
• In essence, we need fewer Don Drapers and more careful facilitators and
this diversity of leadership has to go right through agencies and networks.

STEPS TO TAKE TODAY
1 2
3
Change your creative process
Don’t fixate on speed and ease, embrace
messiness and accept that to get diversity to
deliver an advantage, you need to accept that
cultural consensus can damage the creative
process. Instead, let divergence, difference
and merit win through.
What everyone’s probably asking is – where do
we start? What can we do today to change the
industry for good?
Retrain your leaders
This is a leadership issue. If they cannot provide
‘clear enablement’ they will not get the benefit of
diversity. We need action at the upper echelons of
our industry to demonstrate clear intent.
Implement the Rooney Rule
Bringing in diverse talent is not a CSR thing, it is
critical to business success. Go 10x further than
1 2
3
Change your creative process
Don’t fixate on speed and ease, embrace
messiness and accept that to get diversity to
deliver an advantage, you need to accept that
cultural consensus can damage the creative
process. Instead, let divergence, difference
and merit win through.
Retrain your leaders
This is a leadership issue. If they cannot provide
‘clear enablement’ they will not get the benefit of
diversity. We need action at the upper echelons of
our industry to demonstrate clear intent.
Implement the Rooney Rule
Bringing in diverse talent is not a CSR thing, it is
critical to business success. Go 10x further than
you are now and demand every new role has a
diverse short list – the Rooney Rule. Look harder,
further and accept that often a round peg in a
square hole is a good thing. And then implement
the Rooney Rule for those people who are actually
doing the interviewing too.
52

4 5Build an open network and access new tribes
You need teams of super heroes in order to
compete. It is not about tokenism. Diversity is
one of the things that makes Britain Great. If you
hire new people you will have access into new
communities and networks which will mean the
Rooney Rule won’t even be needed.
Make your attitudes as accessible as your buildings
More than 10 million people in the UK identify
as having limitations in their daily activities for
physical and mental health reasons, yet how many
people in your company are from this community?
Even worse how often have you talked about how
you can encourage more people with a disability
into your company? This is an issue that isn’t
receiving the attention it deserves and our
industry is falling behind because of it. Let’s
start the debate and inspire change.
53

Diversity is diverse
• the notion of diversity feels more fraught, positioning one group (white,
male Americans) as the default, and everyone else as the Other. Multiple
studies suggest that white Americans understand“diversity” much
differently than black Americans.
• When Reynolds Farley, a demographer at the University of Michigan,
researched the attitudes of people in Detroit about the racial composition
of residential neighborhoods in 1976, 1992 and 2004,most African-
Americans considered ‘‘integrated’’ to be a 50/50 mix of white and black,
while a majority of whites considered such a ratio much too high for their
comfort each time the study was conducted.
• Two kinds of diversity: inherent and acquired. Inherent diversity involves
traits you are born with, such as gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.
Acquired diversity involves traits you gain from experience: Working in
another country can help you appreciate cultural differences,

9 Diversity Factors That Will
Increase Team Creativity
• 1. Demographic
• Demographic diversity is what we typically refer to when we use the word. It includes gender, ethnical / cultural and age diversity. While
its initial focus is on fair employment, this diversity does increase the understanding that a company has of a broad and diverse
customer base, but also does increase creativity through different perspectives due to those different backgrounds. Men may not be
able to understand women clothing (for the most part), and baby boomer employees may not be able to create products that millennials
will consume.
• The next 8 factors are not considered the "classic" diversity, will not be monitored by the human resources department for fair
employment practices, and will have marginal impact on understanding customers, but will significantly increase creativity due to the
different points of view brought to the team.
• 2. Multi-disciplinary and cross-functional
• If the team is involved in an engineering project, the participants will typically be engineers, mainly of the specific discipline required for
the project. However, going beyond "tier 1" of disciplines will enhance creativity. The hardware design team of a product typically
includes only hardware engineers. Including software engineers ("tier 2") will allow developing products that make software design
easier. Including mechanical engineers (also "tier 2") will help assuring a compelling form factor for the product. Including finance,
human resources, and others ("tier 3") will provide insights from other disciplines that will overall increase the quantity and quality of
ideas considered.
• 3. Knowledge & Education
• Even if different team members are from the same discipline, they may know (or have studied) different aspects of the project at hand.
Having different knowledge can give yet again different perspective on similar things.
• 4. Experience
• Much like different knowledge and education, diversified experiences increase team creativity. When you walk into a room to see a
team of 5 who worked together in the same company and same business units for more than 20 years--you will not get diversity. All
team members will think alike. When your team is made of members who worked in very different business units and possibly different
companies--you are assured to increase team creativity.
• 5. Generalists & Specialists (Breadth vs. Depth)
• Some know little about a lot (generalists), while others know a lot about little (specialists). There is a limit to how much we know and
have experience with, and throughout our careers we balance breadth with depth. No doubt that you need matter experts to completely
solve a problem, but it is the generalists who bring solutions from remote disciplines and allow the solutions to be disruptive and novel.

• 6. Extra-curricular interests
• Whether we like it or not, we bring our extra-curricular activities to the workplace. Be it surfing, cooking, shooting, riding
motorcycles--we are the sum of our experiences, and those experiences, even if not directly related to the problem at hand,
can help formulate different solutions to problems.
• 7. Cognitive Preferences
• Different people think differently. Some are introverts and need time alone to produce ideas they can later bring to the
team, while others (myself included) need the other team members to bounce ideas off of, and to be sounding boards.
Some prefer the "shotgun" approach of producing many ideas in many different directions, while others prefer the "rifle"
approach of finding a very specific solution to a very specific and well-defined problem.
• 8. Risk taking
• Some are willing to take more risk than others. Those are the ones who push the team to try new things, to experiment, and
not rule out anything until it blew up in their hands. Others are very careful and assure that the final product is safe for the
company's health.
• 9. Visionaries vs. Pragmatists
• Finally, some are optimistic visionaries who can only see what can be done, while others balance them with more
pragmatic attitudes. Both are needed. However, you need to be cautious with "devil's advocates," people who only see
faults in everything. Your team need to see upsides and downsides, but to be productive and creative avoid having
members that only see the negative, and what cannot be done.
•
• The ability for a team to see a problem (as well as the solution) from different sides dramatically grows as diversity
increases. To increase this diversity, select team members that are as "orthogonal" and complementary to each another on
as many dimension as possible.
• Having said that, diversity can also delay team bonding and the development of trust, which is so desperately required for
the ability to argue freely and built on each other's ideas. As hard as it may be--it is still worth it.

Six behaviors, we have found,
unlock innovation across the board
• Ensuring that everyone is heard;
• Making it safe to propose novel ideas;
• Giving team members decision-making authority;
• Sharing credit for success;
• Giving actionable feedback;
• Implementing feedback from the team.
Leaders who give diverse voices equal airtime are nearly
twice as likely as others to unleash value-driving
insights, and employees in a “speak up” culture are 3.5
times as likely to contribute their full innovative potential.

Why is diversity vital for
innovation?
• Greater impact on complex tasks requiring creativity and
innovation.
• When a collection of people work together, and one person
makes an improvement, the others can often improve on this
new solution even further: improvements build on
improvements.
• Outsiders don’t stay outsiders for long.
• New plays, new conversations, new voices and new
audiences
• Being around people who are different from us makes us
more creative, more diligent and harder-working.
• Tests have shown that the one sure-fire way of improving
your creativity is to move abroad.
• Makes us smarter

THE ADVANTAGE IN TALENT RECRUITMENT
In the decade before the financial crisis, it became apparent that demographic pressures and economic
Exhibit 9
Diversity has a positive impact on many key aspects of organisational
performance
Rationale
Diversity manage-
ment helps to…
…enhance the
company's image
▪ Social responsibility is becoming increasingly important
▪ Many countries have legal requirements for diversity (e.g., UK Equality Act 2010)
…improve
decision making
▪ Diversity fosters innovation and creativity through a greater variety of problem-solving
approaches, perspectives, and ideas. Academic research has shown that diverse groups
often outperform experts.
…increase
employee
satisfaction
▪ Diversity increases employee satisfaction and reduces conflicts between groups,
improving collaboration and loyalty
…strengthen
customer
orientation
▪ Women and minority groups are key consumer decision makers: for example, women
make 80% of consumer purchases in the UK
▪ Gay men and women have average household incomes that are almost 80% higher than
average
…win the war for
talent
▪ A strong focus on women and ethnic minorities increases the sourcing talent pool, a
particular issue in Europe. In a 2012 survey, 40% of companies said skill shortages were
the top reason for vacancies in entry-level jobs
SOURCE: Women Matter, McKinsey & Company, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013; Thomas Barta, Markus Kleiner, and Tilo Neumann, “Is there a
payoff from top-team diversity?”, McKinsey Quarterly, April 2012; Martin Dewhurst, Matthew Pettigrew, and Ramesh Srinivasan, “How
multinationals can attract the talent they need”, McKinsey Quarterly, June 2012; Diversity wins!, McKinsey & Company, November 2011;
McKinsey qualitative survey; The War for Diverse Talent, Green Park , September 2010; Scott E. Page, The Difference: How the power
of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools, and societies, Princeton University Press, 2007; McKinsey analysis
SOURCE: Women Matter, McKinsey & Company, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013; Thomas Barta, Markus Kleiner,
and Tilo Neumann, “Is there a payoff from top-team diversity?”, McKinsey Quarterly, April 2012; Martin Dewhurst,
Matthew Pettigrew, and Ramesh Srinivasan, “How multinationals can attract the talent they need”, McKinsey
Quarterly, June 2012; Diversity wins!, McKinsey & Company, November 2011; McKinsey qualitative survey; The War
for Diverse Talent, Green Park, September 2010; Scott E. Page, The Difference: How the power of diversity creates
better groups, firms, schools, and societies, Princeton University Press, 2007; McKinsey analysis

Creativity is a mental process in which two or
more bits of information come together in your
mind to create a new and useful idea.
• In our minds, similar pieces of information are associated with each other
and effectively exist in proximity.
• But, if you want to get creative, you need to diversify your thinking and
encourage your mind to look for information associated with other
concepts.
• If you are looking to generate more creative ideas to solve a problem, the
best thing you can do is to diversify your thinking.
• open a dictionary, or any book, and select a word at random. applying a
distantly related model. taking the team to external locations
• Facebook, many of us now have networks that include people we have
never met. So, from time to time, why not select someone from your on-
line network and meet up for a coffee just to exchange ideas and get to
know each other. It’s a great way to learn and diversify.

Diversity factors
• Demographic
• Multi-disciplinary and cross-functional
• Knowledge & Education
• Experience
• Generalists & Specialists (Breadth vs.
Depth)
• Extra-curricular interests
• Cognitive Preferences (introverts)
• Risk taking
• Visionaries vs. Pragmatists

Kathryn Finney, founder and managing director of
DigitalUndivided, a New York-based social enterprise
supporting black and Latina entrepreneurs
• Mentorship is great, but sponsorship is
key. Mentorship is not hard to get,
because everyone likes to give advice.
But it’s another thing to walk someone in,
advocate for them and put your name on
the line and say “you should invest in her,
you should hire her”.

How diverse are the stories we watch?

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