Thinking differently: building successful, cognitively diverse project teams

Embracing diversity in the workplace is not just a ‘nice to have’ or a box-ticking exercise, it’s essential if we want to build the most successful teams. For truly effective problem-solving and decision-making different types of thinkers. ‘Cognitive diversity’, where people think, solve problems, process information and make decisions in different ways, can help ensure successful project delivery — a cognitively diverse team will individually approach challenges differently, but will collectively work together to offer the project a wider range of perspectives and insights.

Diversity by definition

Generally speaking, cognitive diversity can be broken down into four categories: internal, external, organisation and industry. Internal diversity is connected to a trait or characteristic that someone is born with — for example their ethnicity, race, culture or sexual orientation. External diversity refers to traits or characteristics associated with a person’s identity that are acquired and/or experienced during their life — things like socioeconomic status or marital status.

Organisational diversity covers the differences between employees within an organisation, both as a whole and in different areas such as departments or teams. An organisation that has people from different educational backgrounds, of various races and genders, working across the company in a variety of roles and functions is more organisationally diverse.

Finally, industry diversity describes the differences between employees based on their experiences in different industries and sectors. As with cognitive diversity, this can help to bring fresh ideas and experiences to the table, useful in enabling organisations to be innovative and achieve their transformation goals.

Cognitively creative teams

Building a more cognitively diverse project team, is important for many reasons. In many cases, to effectively solve a problem, a project team will need to approach it from all angles. If everyone has the same thinking habits, however, the entire team will approach the problem in the same way — and if that isn’t the best way, then they are going to get stuck! Cognitive diversity enables a range of approaches to the problem, which means the team is more likely to find a solution, and find it faster. 

Diversity also lowers the risk of ‘groupthink’, which can lead to poor decisions, because critical thinking and alternative perspectives are not adequately considered. Cognitive diversity brings together people with different perspectives, ideas and ways of thinking, reducing the likelihood of workplace groupthink. If a lack of cognitive diversity can dampen creativity, the opposite is also true. When teams are full of diverse thinkers, they can generate better, more creative ideas and more innovative solutions to problems.

To reap the benefits of cognitive diversity, a project team will need to be strategically organised. When building a team, the project manager should consider each individual team member’s thinking and problem-solving style, making sure that the team being assembled has the diversity of thought necessary to achieve the best outcomes. Some managers unconsciously (or even consciously!) recruit team members that are 'just like them' — searching for and favouring people that confirm their pre-existing beliefs, approaches and hypotheses.

Ultimately, managers need to be aware that this ‘confirmation bias’ exists and should be wary of it when assembling their team. Expanding the team, by taking on new employees with different mindsets and styles of thinking, or secondees from other departments, can offer fresh perspectives. Of course, this necessitates knowing the cognitive styles of individuals, so project managers must create a psychologically-safe environment that encourages people to reveal their different modes of thinking, empowering them to try doing things differently.

Developing a diverse culture

Building a cognitively diverse team, however, is not without its challenges. When an organisation lacks diversity in general it will be hard to find people that think differently. Recruitment practices can contribute to this problem. When sourcing, screening and interviewing potential employees, employers should include questions and exercises that give an insight into how candidates think and approach problems, including asking them to walk through their process and explain how they came to that answer or solution.

Appointing people who think and approach problems differently is key to embracing cognitive diversity in the workplace. But it’s important to remember that these people may also learn differently. To empower project teams to do their best work, we need to take those learning differences into account, offering educational and professional development opportunities that appeal to different learning styles. Employees could also be invited to lead their own learning and development workshops, to share their ways of thinking and approaching problems with their co-workers.

Celebrating difference

When bringing together people with different styles of thinking there are going to be differences of opinion. This should be seen as a positive thing — it’s often those differences of opinion that drive innovation, and can help build a culture of psychological safety, where employees know it’s acceptable to disagree with others’ opinions

To be successful, organisations need their employees to be engaged. One key strategy for driving engagement is by embracing cognitive diversity. Research overwhelmingly shows that employees are more actively engaged when they believe their organisation truly fosters an inclusive culture. Prioritising cognitive diversity enables the creation of this culture: one of the most effective ways of doing this is to show employees that the organisation embraces equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) initiatives and builds diverse leadership teams. When employees see that they are not only accepted, but celebrated for their differences, they are more likely to embrace and showcase those differences in others, including cognitive differences. 