"Great minds don't think alike!"
Whether you’re new to a leadership position or looking for a refresher on best practices, check out "The Boldly Inclusive Leader" by Minette Norman, a book that covers an array of topics such as empathetic listening, building trust, psychological safety, culture building, and more, exploring how each intersects with being inclusive.In a chapter titled “Embracing Differences,” Norman points to research that diverse teams feel less comfortable and therefore perform better than homogenous ones. She also highlights a core value held by one of her clients: “Great minds don’t think alike.” Her client’s employees regularly remind one another of it to counteract conformity and groupthink. Perhaps you could use this clever phrase to increase diversity in your workplace?
If you receive a meeting request for a strategic planning session and notice the invite list is pretty homogeneous, reach out to the organizer and say something like, “I believe great minds don’t think alike. Have you considered inviting some people of color/women/or some other underrepresented identity to help us develop the best strategy?"
If you’re discussing an interview candidate and someone mentions they don’t think they’d be a culture fit (which is often a euphemism for bias), speak up with, "Hey, I think they’d be a culture add. After all, great minds don’t think alike, and this candidate could bring different experiences and perspectives to our team.”
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