Diversity of thought - why it matters
Diversity of thought. You know when you hear it: views shift, minds stretch, ideas flow. There can be challenge – uncomfortable perhaps but useful, because this is how innovation grows.
Who wouldn’t want this kind of culture for their organisation? Particularly when building a stronger board or developing leaders for the tough conditions we all face today.
But saying you welcome diversity of thought isn’t the same as making it happen. So how do you it bring it to life?
Supporting diverse representation is the first step to tackling ‘group think’. But to unlock diversity of thought’s real value, an organisation must also foster an actively inclusive culture across the workplace as a whole.
Leading by example
In reality, this means not only recruiting candidates with differing backgrounds and life experiences in the first place, but enabling them to contribute fully once in their roles.
This is particularly important at Board and senior leadership level because of the impact of this group’s mindset and behaviour on a business’s culture and direction. Leaders are vital role models for emerging talent coming through from below.
Today’s International Women’s Day 2022 (8 March) challenges the specific bias that stunts women’s career progression and life chances (#BreakTheBias).
But IWD’s call for a world where difference is actively valued is equally relevant for the UK’s other eight legally ‘protected characteristics’ – which range from disability, age and sexual orientation to maternity, race and religion / belief.
When it comes to diverse thinking, everyone has a role to play.
Harnessing difference as a strength
As JGA Lead Associate Pip Meaden explains: ‘There’s no doubt that our personal experiences shape our values and how we view, think, feel and act – yet I’m not sure that in business we fully utilise this as a strength.
‘At JGA, we know from listening to our clients that an employer who encourages diversity of thought and opinion – and understands how to capture it effectively – is viewed by their workforce in a positive light.’
Are employee-owned businesses generally better placed to do this? In theory, yes.
‘Organisations that share responsibility across the workforce should already have mechanisms in place to channel employee voice and opinion into their core thinking and decision-making process,’ says Pip. ‘This can challenge leadership, but when it works well it can also play a key role in supporting positive outcomes.’
Practical steps to unlock diverse thinking
So how can you harness the power of diverse thinking in your organisation? Pip shares three practical steps.
Encourage your workforce to take an active interest in your business and provide the space for opinion and thought to be shared.
Ensure leadership has the capacity to listen.
Provide individual development for those who require more confidence to voice opinion and share – it’s not always easy.
‘We know that an employer who encourages diversity of thought and opinion – and understands how to capture it effectively – is viewed by their workforce in a positive light’
Pip Meaden, Lead Associate
The role of the ‘critical friend’
Sound advice – but that’s not all, because Adrian Wheale, JGA’s Associate, Executive Resourcing, reveals there’s another step that every Board should take to prevent senior-level ‘group think’ causing the kind of damage seen in recent headline-grabbling organisational failures: appoint an Independent Trustee, Non-Executive Director or similar independent figure to act as a ‘critical friend’.
As Adrian explains: ‘The ‘critical friend’ role is steeped in Company Law, Corporate Governance codes and normal UK practice. But, too often, not enough thought is put into the fundamental engineering of our top teams and, similarly, not enough credence given to the role. We promote on competency and technical skill, but rarely on acumen and independence of thought or views.
‘Engineering a board from a more diverse base will support diversity of thought and address the risks of group think, but it’s the ‘critical friend’ who adds steerage to the process,’ he concludes.
‘When an Independent Trustee, Employee Trustee or NED with real independence, rigour and challenge is present, then a fail-safe exists.’
JGA’s Independent Trustee Resourcing and Executive Resourcing Services can directly help organisations to achieve greater diversity of thought at a senior level. To find out more about these and our other Transition, People and Governance services, please get in touch.
Are your organisation's values still relevant for now?
Associate Pip Meaden explores how Covid has reshaped our values - and why they matter even more for organisations today.
Values. There was a time when these felt like an ‘optional extra’, championed by a certain type of business targeting a certain type of customer. Not anymore. Today, having a set of clear, relevant values is a must-have for organisations. Culturally, commercially and competitively, values matter – provided they’re not just words on the wall.
‘As people, values are part of what makes us ‘us’ and what makes us tick,’ explains JGA Associate Pip Meaden. ‘In business, values underpin how an organisation functions, from the type of people it employs to how its teams engage with each other, their stakeholders and customers. Values drive the success, or not, of the organisation as a whole.’
At JGA, being clear about our values – and acting on them – is one reason we enjoy enabling other values-driven businesses to articulate what they stand for, so they can bring that meaningfully to life.
Reconnecting with what matters
Described as the ‘Great Pause’, many believe this pandemic has prompted people to reconnect with what matters, reshaping their home, work and life priorities for good.
No surprise that ‘Reconnecting’ is today’s 2021 World Values Day theme.
Our world has fundamentally shifted and organisations, too, are now finding their values in the spotlight as they navigate the new challenges they face – including the shift to hybrid working.
For many, their values are driving their efforts to balance the efficiency of working from home with what previously made their culture so successful, when their people were based together in one place.
The value of values
Pip sees this approach first hand in the forward-thinking organisations she supports. ‘Leadership teams are now exploring what model will work best, both for their people as individuals and commercially for them as an organisation – given that treating everyone fairly isn’t the same as treating everyone equally,’ she explains.
‘Values matter here because this is about businesses assessing – and reassessing – what’s important to them, their people and their customers in the wake of Covid. What have we lost? What have we gained? And how do we learn from both?’
For values-driven businesses, hybrid working – like some of the other challenges they face – needs significant thought to get right, but, as Pip points out: ‘We don’t need to ‘react’ now.’
‘Instead,’ she concludes, ‘organisations should give themselves the time to calmly find a solution, write the policy and create a mechanism that works for all parties and their business – with an eye on the future and their values at heart.’
Are your values still relevant?
If you’re not sure if your values are still relevant for your people, customers and business, we can help. At JGA, we partner with you to unlock your understanding of what makes them different. Our transition, people and governance support enables organisations to bring their values to life.
Want to know more?
World Values Day
Lisa Fryer, Associate, reflects on World Values Day and businesses relationships with employees and communities
This year, World Values Day on 15th October has a focus is on putting our values into action.
As identified on their website “Values are the things that are important to us as individuals, organisations, and as communities. By putting them into action each and every day we can change ourselves, the communities we belong to, and the whole world for the better.”
In the employee owned community we already recognise that organisations with a distinctive culture or purpose are:
more likely to grow revenue faster than competitors
more profitable than industry peers
more likely to make long term strategic and operational decisions and commit to taking action on them
The White Rose report released on 26th June, EO Day, shared how across the UK EO businesses combined sales were +4.3% compared to +1.2% as a UK whole. The median change in operating profit was +5%, and mean increase in productivity was +6.9%.
The common factor in many employee owned organisations is that they have a clear sense of purpose and direction, often driven by a legacy or history based around shared experiences and values. These may be ethical, social, environmental or emotional, but whatever they are, they act like a sort of glue, that holds certain individuals and groups together, creating a focus and energy to get things done. Most co owners experience a sense of shared responsibility for their businesses and the wider communities they serve and support.
When I think of the employee owned organisations I’ve experienced, whilst they are diverse, working in different sectors and regions as well as at varying scales, they all have a clear identity. Many are market leaders in the sectors they represent, with reputations for excellence other organisations aspire to. However, they will all acknowledge that they are not perfect, and are constantly seeking out how to do what they do even better tomorrow, next month and next year.
And it’s the same feeling within the wider employee owned community. At last years EOA awards there were examples of businesses from various sectors being recognised for their achievements and their values celebrated by the whole community. These organisations, like so many other employee owned businesses put their values into action on a daily basis, meeting their customers and clients needs, supporting their communities, working towards sustainable goals and taking a more ethical approach. And everyone at the awards enthusiastically celebrated these successes, proudly applauding the employee ownership model as a better way of doing business.
So by my reckoning, the employee owned sector is full of businesses and co owners already putting their values into action.
I’ve chosen trust as the value that I feel is most relevant this year. Trust has been widely spoken about, in particular recently, and when missing it is something you become keenly aware of. Trust is what binds together the individuals in organisations, those invisible links that are created when transparent and open communication is in place. Trust is the connection that enables collaboration and courageous decision making in times of crisis.
Trust also represents the legal structure that enables an employee owned organisation to seek assurances that the business is being run true to it’s values and for the benefit of the employees, current and future. It is the mechanism that enables the distribution of profits to the beneficiaries, the tool that enables those beneficiaries to hold the operational leadership to account and in some cases even replace them if necessary.
Putting trust into action to me, means doing what you say you’re going to to, speaking up and saying the difficult things when it’s important to do so, and keeping those shared secrets just that, secret, until their owner is ready to share.