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Diversity

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.

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The brilliant humourist Mark Twain receives credit, but I have been unable to find a solid citation.

The observation has been attributed to several other prominent humourists including: Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Artemus Ward (pseudonym of Charles Farrar Browne), Kin Hubbard (pen name of Frank McKinney Hubbard), and Will Rogers. Yet, it is unlikely then any of them said it. The creator remains anonymous based on current evidence.

It’s all about our tendency to believe that what we think is fact when unfortunately it’s just opinion, and as an opinion it may not be correct. 

Most importantly, when we act based on a belief something is fact and it turns out to not only be opinion but wrong, this is when things can often go spectacularly wrong.

Perspective is everything!

Here is the most perfect example I have ever found!!!

Enjoy The Cookie Thief!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oioZqbGEzTQ

Marilyn

Barefoot Brainstorming

If it’s time to ramp up your team’s innovation and collaboration abilities – we can help! Contact us today. 

For brainstorming tips, presentation and storytelling skills, or keynote speaking pointers be sure to follow Barefoot Brainstorming on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. OR see us in action on YouTube and Instagram!
We would love to hear from you! Leave us a comment down below or tag us on social media.

Diversity = Strength !!

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I am certain you’ve heard it before — seek input, be inclusive, welcome perspectives, collaborate with others. But why? Why is this type of inclusion beneficial for individuals, teams, and organizations?

When individuals from different walks of life come together and share unique viewpoints, there is an increase in positive results.

Without diversity of thought, innovation is thwarted, and corporate initiatives may stall.

You need to approach issues with a number of perspectives to be able to see the big picture.

Leaders must leverage the strengths that vary from person to person as well as their unique contexts, preferences, and life experiences.

Many organizations that lack diversity face a common problem: There’s not enough dissent.

When homogenous teams engage in groupthink, they fail to consider outside perspectives, and therefore create blind spots that later get them in trouble.

By inviting people with different cultural experiences and perspectives to the table, organizations can eliminate those blind spots. How? By enhancing understanding of how messaging, products, and services are received by people with different points of view.

And that’s just one way diversity builds strength. Diversity also fosters innovation and creative problem solving by pushing everyone to look at things from different perspectives.

It leverages the different life experiences of team members to create products, services, and solutions that are much more unique than its competitors. This process also helps generate ideas that are more flexible and adaptable to the ever-changing market and customer demands.

And what about attracting that illusive top talent?

Organizations that rank higher in diversity are 25% more likely to attract and retain great talent.

Diversity broadens talent pools, and has been shown to make all employees more engaged and productive.

Inviting diverse perspectives means that on an individual level, we feel appreciated and heard.

Here are some don’ts to keep in mind!

Practice inclusion without delusion!!

Don’t just implement inclusion initiatives for the sake of best practices. Do so out of genuine curiosity and interest.

If you don’t believe someone’s input is worth hearing, believe me, they’ll feel that at their core!

And lastly for the contributors … bring your whole self to the conversation! Your unique experience of the world is both valid and valued!

Every perspective matters!

We’re all moving in a direction toward a common goal in our organizations.

When everyone contributes their perspective to the goal, we can get there more efficiently, more creatively, and more successfully.

Diversity equals strength!

Marilyn

Barefoot Brainstorming

If it’s time to ramp up your team’s innovation and collaboration abilities – we can help! Contact us today. 

For brainstorming tips, presentation and storytelling skills, or keynote speaking pointers be sure to follow Barefoot Brainstorming on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. OR see us in action on YouTube and Instagram!
We would love to hear from you! Leave us a comment down below or tag us on social media.

Storytelling For Inclusion!!

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There are few things more gripping than a great story.

Storytelling is part of our make-up, helping to entertain, educate and inspire us.

In business, storytelling is an intrinsic part of our working lives.

We like to hear stories and share them because they give us hope and motivate us.

They also influence our everyday workplace culture.

So why and how does storytelling have such an influence in inclusion?

An organisation’s culture is a culmination of all the stories we hear and share at work every day.

Imagine a story being told in the office about how a colleague who was so excited to be hired that they sent a thank you email to the CEO, and received a delightful email in response.

Storytelling is highly emotional creating either a positive or negative reaction.

The messages they communicate can make or break organisational culture.

There’s no magic formula when it comes to creating a truly diverse and inclusive organisation. It’s about doing a wide range of things in unison. But if there’s one theme that runs through everything we do, its storytelling.

True inclusion means encouraging, hearing and responding to everyone’s story. People want to feel included. They need a sense of acceptance and belonging because of who they are, rather than who the organisation thinks they should be.

Everybody has an inclusion story – even those you might not expect!

Marilyn

Barefoot Brainstorming

If it’s time to ramp up your team’s innovation and collaboration abilities – we can help! Contact us today. 

For brainstorming tips, presentation and storytelling skills, or keynote speaking pointers be sure to follow Barefoot Brainstorming on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. OR see us in action on YouTube and Instagram!
We would love to hear from you! Leave us a comment down below or tag us on social media.

How Diversity Makes Us More Creative!!

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Diversity is key to creativity. Not just diversity in your workplace, but also in your personal life.

It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving. 

Diversity can improve the bottom line of organizations, and lead to incredible discoveries and breakthrough innovations.

In fact, many people consider diversity one of the most important ingredients for creative thinking!

When you are looking for solutions to a problem (virtually all creativity is the result of trying to solve some kind of problem), your brain will automatically work with information that is related to the problem. It defaults to the patterns that are known and comfortable.

So, if you want to get creative, you need to diversify your thinking and encourage your mind to look for information associated with completely unrelated concepts.

Tests have shown that the one way of improving your creativity is to move. Not travel, but move. Living in a new culture, learning new ways of doing things and diversifying your life, immediately makes you more creative.

There are quite a few examples of creative individuals who did their best work while they were living abroad. Picasso, Handel, Hemingway and Stravinsky all created their most well-regarded work while living in foreign countries.

In the workplace diverse teams produce more creative results than teams in which all members are from a similar background.

Hire people with diverse backgrounds, education, knowledge and experience.

Better yet, hire people from other countries and cultures. Not only do such people provide diversity within your workplace, but each of them will also have diverse networks whose knowledge they can tap in order to solve problems.

Deep-level diversity is critical.

Usually, diversity focuses on demographics (e.g., gender, age, and race).

But, the most interesting and influential aspects of diversity are psychological (e.g., personality, values, and abilities), known as deep-level diversity.

Focusing on deep-level diversity as opposed to demographic diversity will carry you further.

Demographic variables perpetuate stereotypical and prejudiced characterizations.

Deep-level diversity focuses on the individual, providing a much deeper understanding of human diversity.

The bottom line is being around people who are different from us makes us more creative and innovative!

Marilyn

Barefoot Brainstorming

If it’s time to ramp up your team’s innovation and collaboration abilities – we can help! Contact us today. 

For brainstorming tips, presentation and storytelling skills, or keynote speaking pointers be sure to follow Barefoot Brainstorming on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. OR see us in action on YouTube and Instagram!
We would love to hear from you! Leave us a comment down below or tag us on social media.

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