How can we be more creative? Some people swear by long walks or hot showers to free the unconscious mind.
IWEC Foundation partner, Felix Malitsky & Sunita Bajaj, Fortis Lux Financial weigh in.
Forbes
photo:T-Mobile’s Joy Stanfield (center) with members of her Team of Experts. T-MOBILE
It’s more complicated, though, if a team needs to innovate. When members of a group have a lot in common, with similar points of view and shared biases, it’s likely that unconventional ideas will be disregarded or not even surface. But a team made up of people with widely different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can consider a problem from many angles. And with leadership that values difference, team members will feel empowered to explore approaches that would, otherwise, never be considered.
Making use of diversity within a team to generate new ideas and solve problems is called creative friction, and two companies in very different industries are turning that to their advantage. T-Mobile, the global telecommunications giant, and Fortis Lux Financial, a boutique financial services firm based in New York, embrace diversity as a moral good and social imperative but are also very aware of the competitive advantage that accompanies it.
I spoke with Holli Martinez, Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion, and Joy Stanfield, Team of Experts Manager, from T-Mobile, and Sunita Bajaj, Managing Director, and Felix Malitsky, President and Founding Partner, from Fortis Lux Financial, about how they drive innovation with diverse teams.