When it comes to tasks that we are more familiar with, like problem solving, and coming up
with creative ideas, and strategies, or new products and businesses, the power of cognitive
diversity is even more profound.
And perhaps a good way to make the point conceptually, is to imagine you are putting together a group
of 10 people in a team to come up with creative ideas – to do the next big thing in your
business or organisation.
And let’s also assume that this is a talented group of people – each of whom comes up
with 10 genuinely useful ideas. So, 10 people in the team – each of whom is coming up
with 10 useful ideas – how many useful ideas do you have in total?
This is a slightly trick question – cos you think, one would think 100…. 10 people,
10 ideas each - but if they’re cognitively homogenous – if they think in the same way
- and they come up with the same 10 ideas, you only have 10 overall!
However, if on the other hand, they are cognitively diverse and come up with different ideas from
one other, you could have 100 useful ideas.
In the space of innovation, which is going to dominate the future of our economy, our
political institutions, and more, engineering cognitive diversity, relative to the context,
you get this massive uplift in what I call collective intelligence.
And the tragedy is two things…
One a psychological point – we are attracted unconsciously to people who think like us.
When people are mirroring our perspective back to us, it makes us feel smarter, it validates
our world view. The pleasure centres of our brains light up in brain scanners when people
are telling us things we already suspect or believe or confirm our prejudices.
And can you see the problem?
When it’s a simple task- that's fine, any one person has the solution – you surround
yourself with like-minded others, you are able to deliver the solution.
But as the complexity increases – and no one brain is sufficient to solve the problem
- when you are attracted who think in the same way, you’re getting no uplift at all
in collective intelligence.
And by mirroring each other’s perspectives, you become more confident about a solution
that might be gravely mistaken.
This is why cognitive diversity is so important – and I believe will become the key feature
of competitive advantage for the next 50 years
But here’s another thing – it’s not just a psychological problem – it’s a
conceptual one – while researching the book I talked to one of the most eminent forecasters
in the world, and he said if I truly believe my model is the best one out there, then,
by definition, I should be working with people who think like me.
That logic is extremely compelling - it is also spectacularly wrong.