The Value of Diversity

A few years ago, I travelled from the Swiss Alps to the Himalayas in just 48 hours. It was a massive culture shock. While the mountains in each country were equally spectacular, the way each country operated could not have been more different. I went from Switzerland, where trains ran on time to the exact minute, perhaps even to the second, to arriving in Pokhara at the base of the Annapurna Himalayan range, where a 200km bus trip took eight hours with no reference to time whatsoever. If you arrived at your destination, the bus company considered its mandate fulfilled!

That complete change of pace got me thinking about how different people on this planet are. In Australia, 25% of people are born overseas, which means you’ll almost certainly work in teams with colleagues from a variety of backgrounds. Every year, many people immigrate from Europe and Nepal (before the pandemic, Nepal was the fastest-growing group of international students), enriching our wonderfully multicultural population.

We often hear about the importance of diversity in teams. At times, the message feels overemphasised, but what’s harder to articulate is why and how it improves teamwork. As I bumped my way along the main highway from Kathmandu to India (at about 25km/h), I passed a newly constructed cable car and started thinking about the teams who designed and built it.

I could imagine how different the approach to constructing a cable car in Switzerland would be compared to Nepal. But if you could assemble a construction crew with experience in both countries, imagine how much stronger the problem-solving and innovation could be. The key would be considering all approaches and communicating openly, without fear of dismissal.

Bringing together Swiss and Nepali engineers, project managers, and builders would no doubt create conflict over how things “should” be done. But the wealth of experience and variety of perspectives they could draw upon to overcome challenges would be invaluable. Ultimately, when a team brings together different levels and types of experience, its ability to innovate, create, and solve problems expands.

There would be the Swiss way, the Nepali way, and the best way for that particular project. Being open to the perspectives that others bring is smart because it’s through the variety of experiences that diversity truly shows its value. Too often, I’ve seen team members dismiss ideas simply because, “it’s not how we’ve always done it,” but that doesn’t make those ideas wrong or any less valid.

When we keep an open mind and stay curious about perspectives we might initially dismiss, diversity can be fully leveraged. It’s remarkable how many different approaches can solve a problem depending on the lens through which you view it. By harnessing diversity, listening deeply, and questioning with curiosity, we can often find solutions that are more efficient, stronger, or safer than what we thought was possible.