Dear Friend,

When it comes to diversity and inclusion, what kind of diversity is more important? Identity diversity (e.g. race, gender, ethnicity) or cognitive diversity (e.g. background, experience, knowledge)?

While your answer may be “both”, the NeuroLeadership Institute’s Khalil Smith thinks that focusing on identity diversity may matter more when it comes to recruiting, retention and career development.

Just one point for identity diversity (here are three more):

Identity diversity can achieve cognitive diversity, according to Smith.

Apparently, as employees, we tend to get a bit lazy and don’t try as hard to convey our point if we feel our peers share the same experiences as we do – something psychologists call “social loafing”.

According to Smith, “With greater identity diversity, employees must work harder to sell their point, which sparks greater insight, promotes more active sharing, and makes implicit ideas more explicit. The result of that extra work is better output. Although homogeneous teams may feel more productive, they actually perform worse.”

Khalil is leading part of the Business Leadership Summit on this topic at the Engage for Good Conference this May as well as an entire breakout session dedicated to the NeuroScience of Mitigating Bias.

Additionally, we’ll also feature a keynote panel on D&I with PwC’s Rod Adams, United Airlines‘ Kate Gebo and Caesars Entertainment’s Gwen Migita moderated by Fenton‘s Zain Habboo.

If diversity and inclusion is on your shortlist of priorities for 2019 and beyond, I hope you’ll join us!