Having a multi-cultural environment is a huge blessing.  It enables people of different backgrounds, beliefs and underlying value bases explore their commonalities and differences to the benefit of all.

If we were all the same

It’s the differences that add value to our lives.  I cannot image a society that requires conformity and represses freedoms of expression supposedly in the name of equality.

During a recent collaboration I was involved with the value of team diversity jumped out at me.  Different personalities, different approaches when listened to and considered by all stakeholders can only lead to innovative and much higher quality results.

On reflection, it occurred to me how powerful the balancing of different approaches can be toward creating a positive result – that would not have been achieved otherwise.

In this case the objective oriented “just get it done” personality balanced with the strategic  thinker, together with those just interested in understanding the tasks focus, led to all being able to achieve a full understanding and consideration of the why’s of any approach.

Through respectful dialogue the collaboration took on a life of it’s own and each persons perspective was acknowledged as a valid and important contribution.

Diversity is the core of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

It is the very diversity of life itself that feeds the growth and maturity needed for our civilizations to continue to evolve to higher levels of understanding and achievement (evolution).

On a more micro level it is this same diversity that can help collaborative teams exceed expectations and be clearly recognized as high performing teams.

For me, the power of cultural diversity is a key strength of American and Canadian societies.