What does it bring you, being diverse and inclusive? To answer this, we will need to distinguish between diversity and inclusivity.
Diversity covers the blind spot
Diversity is quite simple. It’s about the composition of your team. Whether you only have type A people, or only type B people, or a mix of types A to Z. If you only have people of a certain type, a form of bias will quickly emerge. A blind spot. The broader and more diverse your team is, the more blind spots are covered. Together you see more.
That is of course very valuable, but in addition to that, different types of people often have different types of skills. Among programmers, we often see that people from different cultures also work differently. But male and female programmers also often have a different approach. Female programmers, for example, are often more meticulous in their work, and enforce a certain insight in advance. Men often cover more ground. People with a Middle Eastern background often have a broad knowledge, while it is a more typical Dutch mentality to want to specialize more. It is also typically Dutch to like the freedom to fill in things yourself, while I notice that Southeast Asian programmers like to have a clear specification. One is not better than the other. It’s actually beautiful if you have it all in your team. One can then also learn from the other. Everything has added value. But we have to acknowledge, recognize and adopt the differences. Then you will get very far together.
My own profile for instance is frighteningly broad. I am not the programmer, the back-ender, the front-ender, not the DevOps specialist, but I can do it all. I am not the manager, the scrum master, but I have knowledge of both. My broad view of the field provides me with many advantages. There are absolutely front-enders who are better at front-end than I am, but for some things, you need the whole package. It’s beautiful when you can deploy everyone where they can contribute the most.
Inclusivity is necessary for diversity
The part about inclusion is about more than the composition of your team. It’s about whether people feel at home. If you want to create a diverse team, you can simply amend your HR strategy and focus on a certain target group. But if you want to retain and motivate a diverse team, inclusivity is really needed. You want people to feel at home. Assembling a multicultural team is not enough. You also want to look at the aspirations of individual people, and how you can safeguard that. If people can express their identity, the beautiful sides of diversity will only then truly come to their right.
At Wise Minds, we speak from experience and gained insights because we have a diverse team in various areas. And we benefit from it too. Because what many people don’t realize enough: your market is also diverse. And how do you create a product that attracts a diverse audience? With the help of diverse people.