Diversity:Driver of Innovation and Growth

By Yvonne G. Schoper

Yvonne G. Schoper, professor with a focus on International Project Management and women in project management; 12 years work experience at BMW in product development projects; lecturer at Tongji University in Shanghai and the University of Reykjavik in Iceland; member of the executive board of the German Project Management Association and the delegate in the IPMA

Diversity management is a popular buzzword for several years."Diverse project teams deliver better projects for a better world"is the motto of the 1st Diversity in Project Management Congress 2017 of IPMA in the Netherlands. But what does this organizational development concept “diversity” mean for the discipline of project management? What makes the success of diversity for projects?

Background and Need for Diversity Management

For several years diversity management has become an integral part of the organizational development of many companies. There is hardly a multinational company that has not firmly anchored diversity management in its corporate strategy.

But what is meant by "diversity"? Diversity (originally from the Latin word “diversitas”) is understood as any form of visible and invisible variety, mix, and multiplicity. Aspects of diversity are e.g. age, gender, origin, culture or religion. Diversity management refers to the management of this variety; it involves recognizing and tolerating the individual diversity of all employees,and especially harnessing and developing this diversity in organizations. The aim is to value the diversity of all employees and to improve the equal opportunities of all, so that they can use their skills and potentials for the benefit of the organization.

In addition, diversity is a powerful driver of innovation and growth.Studies show that the economy is growing where diversity is actively promoted. The study "Diversity and Innovation", commissioned by the European Union in 2008 shows that there is a positive relationship between diversity and innovation. Research results from the project practice show that diversity is of great importance to the success of project teams. It can lead to a higher level of motivation,creativity and problem-solving skills. The studies by DiStefano and Maznevski show that intercultural mixed project teams can outperform the performance of homogeneous project teams, provided that they are well managed and managed. However, if these mixed teams are poorly managed, there is a danger of failure. In a study of 1,000 international teams, Gratton found that innovation is positively related to gender equality within teams and that there is a negative relationship to gender inequality. Egan explored the importance of diversity in Fortune 500 teams. The study shows that heterogeneous teams develop more creative ideas more often than homogeneous teams. The reason is that the different perspectives and diverse knowledge of the team members enrich the efficiency of project teams. But this does not happen by itself. Behind this success is a team leadership that not only recognizes but also appreciates the diversity in the team.

Key to Success of Diversity Management

The fact that diversity, as a value-oriented concept of corporate governance, leads to clear advantages and measurable success, has been adequately presented by scientific studies as well as corporate practice with identical findings. But how do you achieve a successful diverse corporate or project culture? The key to the success of diversity lies in inclusion(包容性). The prerequisite for successful inclusion is a culture of openness as a basic attitude, a respectful,appreciative openness to the diあerences between individuals and the active integration of all members into the organization or project team.However, an open-minded attitude as access to the diverse resources alone is not enough; it also requires specific practical skills to deal with the differences successfully on the behavioral level. This inclusive communication and collaboration is referred to as "inclusion" .

The goal of inclusion in project management is to create an eあective project environment in the form of a lived project culture, in which communication and collaboration can develop optimally within the project team as well as externally towards all stakeholders. Designing this culture is a demanding leadership task that project leaders of various teams have to develop. Especially in project teams cooperation has always been interdisciplinary. Project managers do usually have a lot of experience in dealing with diあerent disciplines and cultures in their projects. However, this is often not the case for the wider aspects of diversity in organisations: starting with the integration of women into typically male and thus masculine organizational structures to a better collaboration between young and older people in highperformance teams, or a better integration of introverts in typically extroverted dominated project teams. In most areas there is still a need for development both in organizations and project teams.

Dealing with Unconscious Bias

The key to successful inclusion is that each individual becomes aware of and overcomes the unconscious bias that each person carries within himself or herself. In today's complex world,people learn mechanisms to simplify the reality to make it more manageable. These simplification tools include prejudices against people of other groups.

A variety of studies have shown more unconscious biases in terms of organizational life and the leadership of teams; for example,female executives are generally rated worse than equivalent male executives. This is especially true when the assessor is a man or the woman works in a male function or industry.

These prejudices and inner barriers to others continue in everyday organizational life and have their effect. But not only individuals,but also organizations have developed a multitude of barriers and unconscious biases in the form of unwritten laws, informal power structures, implicit norms, routines, behavioral patterns and taboos. These unconscious mechanisms at different levels result in tremendous persistence of the respective systems, which, while ensuring that diversity is strategically supported by top management,has been more or less stagnating in practice in many organizations for years. An eあective transformation process therefore requires a longterm, holistic diversity implementation model that must be developed for all levels and areas, implemented with strategies, structures and processes, training and performance measurement, brought to life in a top-down manner and consistently demanded. Diversity management requires a holistic, long-term attitude and behavioral change for each individual in an organization. Project teams, as an important component of an organization, can play a pioneering role in this change process and thus serve as a model for line organization.

New “Diversity in Project Management Award” of the IPMA

For the first time, the new "Diversity in Project Management Award"was awarded in 2017 on the occasion of the 1st Diversity in Project Management Conference of the IPMA. With this new award, the IPMA honors project managers and project organizations for their extraordinary contribution to the implementation of diversity in project management by demonstrating excellence in diversity and inclusion in projects. This year's Diversity Award went to General Electric's Steam Power Systems division in Switzerland for its longterm sustainable approach to diversity management as part of its corporate culture, following its motto: "Having a culture where all voices matter makes GE a smarter company" .

Conclusion

Diversity is a powerful driver of innovation and growth, both at macroeconomic and microeconomic levels. Diversity can make organizations and project teams successful. However, diversity must be well managed. It has to be understood by all participants,continuously developed and demonstrated. Successful diversity requires successful inclusion. A culture of inclusion means that all members of a team are the key to the success of a project team,precisely because of their diversity. Diversity goes far beyond gender diversity and includes not only culture, ethnicity, age,different education and experience but also different personality structures. Managing this diversity makes the leadership of diverse,heterogeneous project teams both challenging and above-average.In times of increasingly global competition, digital transformation and ever shorter innovation cycles with socially aging societies and a growing shortage of skilled labor, it is important to use the talents of all people in society and integrate them into the organizations. This is an essential key to long-term successful corporate governance.