The positive impacts of diversity have been discussed in many areas such as innovation management – I’ve also touched the topic more than once. However, most evidence for this has been anecdotal or based on experience. The Difference: how the power of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools, and societies by Scott E. Page takes on a different approach – the diversity it talks about is cognitive diversity and the book ultimately offers proof based on models and mathematics that diversity indeed trumps ability.
As it’s one thing to say diversity is good and quite another to prove it, it’s a strong statement but The Difference also makes a strong case for it. If and when someone you know doubts that (cognitive) diversity brings benefits, this is the kind of book you can hit them on the head with it and win any such conversation. Of course there are some caveats, boundary conditions which must apply for diversity to produce benefits.
The models and covering them with plenty of examples take up most of the book. Many of the example cases are very simple – at times I felt they were too simple, but they did manage to drive the point home, so they served their purpose adequately. Nevertheless, they did take some time to think through so I will spare you from the proof-part.
There are many lessons to learn from the book and it provides numerous smaller but still significant insights. The most important practical conclusions, however, can in my opinion be condensed into the following:
- Make sure the problem at hand is one that benefits from diversity; in particular difficult problems or prediction. Tasks truly focusing on individual effort – like selling merchandise – will obviously not benefit from a diverse group.
- Broaden your horizon – but not too much. That is to say you shouldn’t throw diverse people at the problem indiscriminately; a poet will likely not be much help in figuring out a new drug candidate.
- Remember what diversity matters – cognitive diversity. Most of the time when people talk of diversity, they mean ethnic diversity. However, merely ethnically diverse people may not be cognitively diverse.
- Don’t forget intelligence or ability (however one defines those), just don’t focus on them solely. Don’t try to find the most capable person (this might in fact even be detrimental) but also understand that people with very limited abilities will not contribute much even if they bring diversity.
- Manage the diversity. Why? Page puts this well:
.. even in those cases where diversity should produce benefits, it will do so only if managed well. Lots of strange things can happen in a diverse group that would not be likely to happen among homogeneous people – including physical and verbal violence.
- Don’t expect too much – it’s clearly noted that while diversity has indisputable benefits. However, the benefits are not huge. Don’t expect diversity to magically solve all your problems, but you can expect it to bring an improvement.
- Believe. It turns out that belief in that diversity brings benefits may be a necessary precondition for it actually bringing those benefits.
Of course this list leaves out a lot of fascinating details on topics like ketchup. You’ll get to those if you read the book. The one major complaint I have of the book is that it gleefully (admittedly, also explicitly and knowingly) glosses over how one deals with many of the problems stemming from diversity. Sure, covering this comprehensively is impossible – because we don’t have all the answers. Still, it would’ve been nice to see some more pointers to that topic.
All in all, The Difference is not a book I would recommend without qualification. It can feel tedious at times, and at times you might be left wondering whether the models really end up proving useful. In the end they (mostly) do, but even an analytical mind such as myself may find the last chapters relating real-world empirical evidence and practical guidance the most fascinating. All in all a very good book, but I certainly don’t need to read this type of a book again. But then again, I was convinced of the benefits of diversity already before – if you are not or are still looking for proof, reading The Difference will be very useful.
