Diversity Matters And Diversity Determent – The Innovation Reality Lens
One of the most substantial underpinnings of interactions between diverse groups in organizations committed to specific goals is between the (a) “focusers” and (b) “electrons” and as related to this syntactically oriented quote from ‘Including Diversity In Creative Teamwork In Design Education’ stating: “Until (a) find a way to expose (b) to a meaningful range of culture, (b) will continue to speak in languages that only their ( b) [piers] understand.” which illustrates what we are calling the Innovation Reality Lens.
By contrast The Reality Distortion Lens ( a phrase popularized by the capability of Steve Jobs from Apple Computing ) rather seeks to, with peers in organization O that when solution X, Y , or Z, is defined the solution will be judged the “best” by the pool of potential end users / purchasers but not necessarily within the content of an environment in which they currently reside. As design, engineering, innovation is not done for the purpose of art, rather completed for the purpose of ROI or expected optimization of outcomes from a pool of eventualities, if diversity leads to the increase of optimization, “success” is bestowed and diversity is a by product of inclusion. Drinking the KoolAid is simply the expectation.
As detailed in “Including Diversity In Creative Teamwork In Design Education” we strangely ( and without inconsistent rarity in the real world ) see that “the [client’s] approaches and knowledge domains were not salient or used constructively in the projects.” or possibly ( and is often the case ) that the product produced was not for the client’s environment, rather that external forces ( imposed by the environment at hand or dictated by a specific predetermined outcome that was to occur ) creates a disruptive innovation / creative destruction innovation situation. In the case of factory turnarounds and full scale firm changes, this is often the case, however there are simple solutions – a reality check with the outside world ala demand analysis – are the products wanted or not.