Page 80 - Free the Idea Monkey

The argument breaks into three parts:
1. Understanding. If your workforce mirrors the diverse demo-

graphics and cultural aspects of your customers, you are bound
to have a better understanding of your audience. (Providing you
encourage all those unique voices to contribute. If all you are doing
is counting heads—“let’s see, we employ 53 percent women, 11 per-
cent blacks, 16 percent Hispanics ... yep,
we’re covered; now let’s have the same
old people at the top make all the deci-
sions as they always have in the same old
ways”—you haven’t gained a thing.)

2. Credibility. If your workforce looks
like the people you are trying to reach, you
increase the odds of closing the sale. Let’s
use a simple example to make the point.
From whom would 22-year-old guys want to buy their $90 athletic
shoes? A 63-year-old grandmother or another 22-year-old guy?

3. Connectedness. And if your workforce is the same as the
people you are trying to reach, you are bound to be closer to them at
all times, which gives you a leg up on the competition.

The takeaway is clear: diversity makes a company more capa-
ble—because you are adding more skills—and smarter—because
you are drawing on more and different brains. It provides a differ-
ent lens that allows us to see the world in a different way. The more
(different) inputs we have to work with, the better chance we have to
make connections.

Talent, brains, curiosity and creativity are all race/gender/
ethnicity agnostic, and an indispensable part of your innovation
success. We recommend you don’t innovate without as many differ-
ent viewpoints as possible. That—and not some government man-
date—is why diversity is important.

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