DIVERSITY OF THOUGHT – THE KEY TO UNLOCKING THE FUTURE?

Diversity of thought – the key to unlocking the future?

This glimpse
of the future was crafted by: Tracey Matthews

In 2016, Nkiruka, a sixteen year
old African girl, contemplates her future. She needs to make educational
choices. Should she follow her heart and study the sciences? She dreams of
becoming an engineer. She’s torn, though: the profession’s not known for its
diversity. So what should she do? Just imagine if she could travel in time to
see how it worked out…

Leap forward to 2066. Nkiruka is
now the CEO of a large, successful multinational, multidisciplinary,
engineering firm. On the eve of retirement, she is satisfied that her
sixteen-year-old self would see that the dream worked out. But not without
bumps along the way. Or perhaps because of them.

During the intervening years, the
world has been turned on its head. Climate change has radically disrupted
patterns of trade. Economies have risen and fallen. The populations of Africa and
Asia have skyrocketed, transforming global markets and dramatically
altering their needs. Technology changes have revolutionised societies. Health
impacts have severely tested healthcare systems. Digital access has spread to
all corners of the planet, empowering new constituencies of people as never
before. Bowing to demand from their better informed electorates, politicians
have enshrined equality and diversity as a right.

Under these pressures, a million
new engineering challenges arose, requiring fresh perspectives. But the
innovators of yesteryear were unable to adjust. Attuned to a different world
order, they quickly ran out of ideas.

Nkiruka was smart. The solution
seemed very clear to her. How else to find new answers, if not by involving
diverse people? And if diverse people were not around to ask, how could an
engineering company that thrived on innovation hope to survive?

Early on in her career, she saw
the opportunity, and reached for it.

When she was newly qualified, she
realised that the only way to meet the needs of her clients was to represent
their customers, and that meant change in her workplace. Her employer was
already on the ball, committed to diversity at all levels of seniority across
all departments. Regardless of the moral need for equal opportunity, it saw the
potential for internal business benefits.

Nkiruka painted a more ambitious
picture, though. She saw enormous external business benefits, and volunteered
to help achieve them. She pointed to the ‘Power of Parity’ report by McKinsey Global Institute,
which predicted a 26% increase in GDP simply if gender inequality could be
eliminated. If that was true for gender equality, she argued, think of the
potential of full equality. The agenda was set.

It wasn’t easy or
straightforward. The company’s culture needed a reboot. Over time and with new
initiatives, though, they reaped the rewards. The child and elder care
facilities and flexible working arrangements attracted the best talent from
under-represented groups. The human resources department used blind CVs to help
avoid unconscious bias and predictive analytics to identify talent hot spots.
Staff were trained in inclusive
leadership as a matter of course.

With careful blending of teams,
it began to work. The company’s lobbying efforts to national governments on
diversity sat well with their clients and suppliers. Its charitable schools
programme role-modelled different kinds of engineer. In short, diversity became
an explicit strategic resource that differentiated them from their competitors.

The business case became stronger
and stronger. Not only did the talent come, it stayed. Design teams swerved
groupthink with diversity of thought, winning valuable new work. And
eventually, with the workplace culture transformed optimally, the company grew
a reputation for finding fresh, innovative solutions.

The CEO looks back in
satisfaction. Her vision for balanced diversity unlocked the future. Much more
than a moral crusade or a PR stunt, she harvested positive intergenerational,
material benefits not just for the company, but for the world.

Back through the decades to 2016,
the hesitant sixteen year old Nkiruka comes across a quote by Michelle Obama,
First Lady of the United States, as she trawls the web. “No country can ever
truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of
the contributions of half of its citizens.” It is a lightbulb moment for
Nkiruka. With a twinkle in her eye, she chooses engineering.

(Aurecon has launched a new futuristic blog! Called Just
Imagine, it provides a glimpse into
the future for curious readers, exploring ideas that are probable, possible and
for the imagination. This post
originally appeared on Aurecon’s Just
Imagine blog. Get access to the latest blog posts as soon as they
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