Oct/106
Close the Gender Gap! Problem Solving Improves When More Women are on the Team
Years ago, our founder Ned Herrmann proposed that gender-balanced, heterogeneous teams would be more creative and effective. At the time, this idea seemed reasonable to most, but was challenged by others who felt it was perhaps too politically correct and difficult to prove. At last there is research, published this week in Science Daily, that substantiates this premise.
Although it makes sense that diversity – having different perspectives on a given problem and its solution, would drive innovation – it is often overlooked as a critical process step. Our research has demonstrated that mental diversity in a team or group can provide up to 66% more effectiveness vs. random groups. Fred Keeton, Chief Diversity Officer for Harrah’s has applied that to create what he calls Diverse By Design teams to tackle the company’s most pressing business problems.
This latest research sought to better understand how groups perform and more specifically what might facilitate or hinder that performance: “We set out to test the hypothesis that groups, like individuals, have a consistent ability to perform across different kinds of tasks,” says Anita Williams Woolley, the paper’s lead author and an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business.
“Our hypothesis was confirmed,” continues Thomas W. Malone, a co-author and Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “We found that there is a general effectiveness, a group collective intelligence, which predicts a group’s performance in many situations.”
Groups that show greater “social sensitivity,” which entails effectively perceiving others’ emotions, performed better than other groups, especially those that were one-person dominated. The “social sensitivity” factor was greater in groups with more women—which can also be substantiated by our HBDI® assessment research showing that women overall tend to have stronger preferences in that domain.
I have gotten mixed reactions to our gender-related research over the years. Some women find it offensive to imply that they are using their brains differently than men do. The facts and research do prove however that women do use their brains differently, and there are important consequences that emerge. Our differences can in fact be an advantage as this research demonstrates.
Difference does not imply better or worse, right or wrong, but may make our group process feel more annoying or cumbersome. Bringing together different preferences and styles into a group process may be inconvenient and require greater facilitation skills, but the fact is, when you can effectively harness those varied styles through Whole Brain® Thinking techniques, you will get better results.
As the Science Daily article explains, “When it comes to intelligence, the whole can indeed be greater than the sum of its parts.”
You can find more success factors for diverse teams by downloading the article, Improve Group Productivity.
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6:26 pm on October 7th, 2010
PURE SEXISM.. NOTHING ELSE… WHAT NONSENSE!!
4:53 pm on October 8th, 2010
This makes sense because there was a study about women having more empathy. I think it can both ways though. Men tend to be more task focused, so they can get a lot done. Women are more socially sensitive, but they also can be catty and take things too personal. I’ve worked with both and to me it doesn’t come down to genders. It’s about chemistry and staying focused on the goal.
3:38 pm on October 10th, 2010
Both interesting comments-I agree wholeheartedly that chemistry is essential and that it is really about diversity, not plugging in token women! That is what our research is really about.
3:22 pm on October 11th, 2010
The whole concept of promoting women (or men) as a monolithic group is pure sexism at its worst. Nevertheless, there are obvious differences between men and women taken as a whole and recognition of them can be useful when considered in a general sense but should never be applied to any single individual, as an individual will virtually always be the exception to a rule. Then, there are the politically correct mythologies that have evolved around sexist promotional campaigns by various feminist groups. One that comes to mind that has been shattered by real-world experience is the myth that women are naturally superior multi-taskers, based on their traditional roles in homemaking where they attend to numerous demanding tasks in parallel. However, this ability clearly isn’t one that is universally effective because it has been my personal observation based on numerous examples on an almost daily basis that most women are incapable of talking on a cell phone and operating an automobile at the same time. There are exceptions to this, of course, and I know a few but, taken as a whole, there is a distinct gender gap in this specific multi-tasking ability; one where men clearly have the edge. Finally, I am forced by real-world experience to agree with Dennis. This article and the gender-biased “research” that spawned it are “pure sexism … nothing else … what nonsense!!”
2:54 pm on October 14th, 2010
Mark, I find it comical that the reason you think this article is sexist is based on your opinion that men are better multi-taskers. Let’s not apply an attribute to “any single individual, as an individual will virtually always be the exception to a rule.”
7:55 pm on February 17th, 2011
As a woman, I definitely think that there’s a difference between the two sexes. One is not necessarily better than the other, but the difference is definitely there.
I agree that each individual is different, but take any woman off the street and tell her to take care of a 2 yr. old – she’ll probably do better than any man you’ll take off the street. Take any man and tell him to fix a broken door and he’ll probably do better than any woman. Of course, nothing is written in stone and the woman might very well be able to fix the door better than the man, but chances are she won’t.
I don’t understand the point of arguing over gender differences – it’s obviously there. As stated above, none is better than the other, just different.