In six years of running the 2+2=5 program, I have found that without a doubt, far and away, the most successful teams to complete this activity had a strong mix of diversity and background. Our cultural and ethnic backgrounds provide us with a stored bank of information that we use all the time in decision making or, even more simply, how we see the world.
Of course, I am not the first one to say that diversity impacts the way we see the world and that diversity is an asset for teams. I think, for the most part, it is a pretty basic and universally accepted idea; but, a team of fourth graders taught me how valuable diversity of thought is to a team. Inarguably, we all look at the world through our different lenses. We can leverage those differences by being conscious of each other’s strengths and considering the need for diversity when building our work teams. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we need just diversity of race, culture, or ethnicity, but also leveraging any other differences that we may have. Think about other difference that we have in the workplace and build a team that leverages those differences as opposed to selecting teammates that are homogenous in nature. Even just as simple as building a work team with someone from the marketing department, someone from the finance department, someone from sales, someone from management, and someone from manufacturing; each person will have a different view of how to solve a problem and a different view of the company as a whole.
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