Ask better questions: where is the most fertile ground for innovation?

Speak to anyone in business these days, and they will tell you that innovation is the lifeblood of competiveness and sustainable growth.

What is sometimes unclear is how to actually “do innovation” and where to focus one’s efforts. We need to start by asking better questions to get better answers. So here’s one: Where is the most fertile ground for a company to innovate?

As Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, who pioneered the idea of disruptive innovation, put it: “Almost always great new ideas don't emerge from within a single person or function, but at the intersection of functions or people that have never met before.”

Creating intersections that matter to ignite innovation

At EY, we believe that the concept of inclusive leadership – bringing diverse perspectives together to solve complex problems – creates the needed intersection for innovation. We often use the shorthand “D&I” at EY, which means diversity and inclusiveness. Diversity is the right mix; inclusiveness is how to make the mix work.

Diversity leads to better performance

As at EY, for many organizations the word “diversity” has evolved from being a compliance issue to a business imperative. However, some companies are still not clear on how diversity can directly impact the bottom line. Perhaps it’s because diversity alone is not enough – there’s a spark that’s needed.

It has been widely documented that teams that leverage their diversity perform better. For years, researchers have examined a range of success metrics, from earnings to employee engagement, and found these results to be consistent. In fact, an EY survey of global executives, The power of many: how companies use teams to drive superior corporate performance, found that companies with diverse teams report higher growth rates of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).

Not surprisingly, research also shows that companies with diverse teams that are led inclusively perform better. Additional recent EY research shows that groups with a high degree of engagement have 7 points higher retention and 10 points higher revenue growth.  And “feeling free to be yourself at work” is a key driver of engagement. While building diverse teams is a good first step, it is not enough on its own. Diverse teams must also be “inclusive” if they are truly going to leverage the power of their differences to drive innovation, test old ways of thinking, ask better questions and find the best solutions. At EY, we are all about asking better questions when it comes to important issues such as diversity. Not the same old questions, but new ones.

Making D&I real throughout our organization starts with a strong tone from the top and making it one of the key drivers of our overall business goals.   As part of this charge, we recently appointed Karyn Twaronite to the EY U.S. Executive Committee. Karyn’s appointment is one way we are demonstrating our commitment at the highest levels, showing our people that D&I has an important seat at our leadership table.

As EY’s Global and Americas Diversity & Inclusiveness Officer, Karyn will continue to look for ways to leverage the differences of our people — including background, education, gender, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, nationality, generation, working and thinking styles, ability, technical skills and more – to deliver excellence to our clients (and the broader marketplace) every day.  To reinforce this message, EY recently launched an innovative microsite specifically for EY people and stakeholders as they initiate their own D&I journeys or enhance ongoing efforts.
 
EY is committed to building a better working world through better questions – ones that challenge, inspire and unlock new solutions. By asking the better questions about diversity inside and outside our organization, we’ve learned that we can deliver better solutions to the marketplace by leveraging the collective power of our multi-talented teams. We are harnessing this power to drive better outcomes for our firm and our clients. Karyn’s appointment is another important step in our growing commitment to these core components of our strategy, and another stride toward building a better working world.

Asking better questions leads to better answers – and the better the answers, the better the world works. So, here is a question…How have you seen diverse and inclusive teams influence innovation? Please tell us on Twitter: @SteveHoweEY  and @KTwaronite_EY