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Do you want a high performance team? Then encourage people who are different from each other to work together

Watching/listening to/reading this very interesting INSEAD Knowledge interview with Mr. Carlos Ghosn, I noticed not least this passage:
"When you have a very diverse team – people of different backgrounds, different culture, different gender, different age, you are going to get a more creative team – probably getting better solutions, and enforcing them in a very innovative way and with a very limited number of preconceived ideas."


On page 401 of the book Organizational Culture and Leadership by Mr. Edgar H. Schein, I read this:
"The more turbulent the environment, the more likely it is that the more diverse organization will have the resources to cope with unpredicted events."

"For diversity to be a resource, the subcultures must be connected and must learn to value each other enough to learn something of each other’s culture and language. A central task for the learning leader, then, is to ensure good cross-cultural communication and understanding throughout the organization."

Due to the fact that people get older and older, I’d like to ask you this question: To what degree do you involve people, who are above 70 years of age in, for example, designing the products of the company, you work for?
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deborah said…
My Company does not often involves retired people. Sometimes retired employees getting involved because of their experience and their specific knowledge. It happened also that new managment members invited retired employees to gather information about the company's culture development over the past years.
January 31, 2009
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