Joe DeSimone argues that diverse teams drive innovation better than homogeneous ones. He draws on his academic experience to show how different perspectives solve problems differently, and warns that maintaining diversity in professional settings requires relentless leadership commitment.
In the late 1990s, my group, Very Diverse Group at Carolina, graduated over 80 PhD students and half were women and others underrepresented in sciences. And I had a large number of African Americans in my group. And I was giving a talk in South Carolina in 1990s, and the NAACP had a boycott on the state of South Carolina because of the Confederate plaque, Confederate flag. And I was a keynote lecturer. And we decided we weren't going to go as a group. And what happened was they ended up moving the meeting to another state. And, you know, now we hear about NASCAR finally addressing the Confederate flag. You know, I mean, it's just a lot has happened, but a lot hasn't changed. And, you know, our faculties don't represent the diversity of our student population. And there's so many things that we need to keep working on. And again, back to the importance of this. This is where the richness of innovation is, right? The diversity of perspectives, the thinking and cultural values, all that comes together. If we don't get this right, we're holding back innovation. And it takes a relentless. Unfortunately, it takes relentless leadership to keep making this front and center. Because I'll tell you, I see it so many times that if you don't keep it front and center, it's easy not to do. And it's got to be relentless. And people fall back to not thinking about it, and it's uncomfortable being with people that are different than you. And that uncomfort has got to be harnessed. Right? That's where all the richness is. Early in my academic career, I got invited to a innovation group, and not only was it all white guys around the table, but they all graduated from the same research group and they all knew the same stuff, and they were at a structural disadvantage for driving innovation. Right? Your community is. You've got to think about your community, your groups at the onset, or you're not going to be as innovative as you possibly could be. And that's something you've got to be relentless. It's great. Ellen Coleman, this has been a big passion of hers, too, and one of the great reasons why she's part of the team at Carbon, and she's been a strong advocate and it's a really important thing for us.
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