Customer Experience Patterns Podcast

Andrew's slides

Andrew's talk

Diverse Teams Perform Better And Are Smarter

Diverse Teams Feel Less Comfortable

Thanks to my talented colleague Emily Tolmer for the cover art. Thanks to my friends at Moon Island for the music.

We talked about the one-story test for customer experience and design projects. The idea that every member of a project team should have the same story they're telling.

With the test coming when a new member joins. Can they also tell the story of the project? If they can, that's a sign that the purpose of the project is clear and simple, and that the communications about the project are clear and consistent.

The one-story test is also a great test for your team.

Do all members of your team tell one story about the team, and what you do? And is it easy for new members to your team to pick up the story? I've been on teams that couldn't pass the one-story test and it was tough for us. So administer the one-story test for your project, for your team, and see how you do.

Second idea I want to come back to was Andrew's contrasting cooperative mess and collaborative magic. Collaborative magic maybe sounds like it's easy. Everything is working well. Every piece of feedback from a colleague or project team member resonates and you incorporate it.

But it's not like that. Andrew shared a quote from a head of product design. "Whilst people were tired, at the end of it, they said it was the best project they worked on. Really productive collaborations take work. And they can be hard. So when it is feeling that way to you. Don't run from the difficulty.

Andrew's contrast between cooperative and collaborative, reminded me of the research from McKinsey, HBR and others that consistently show that more diverse teams outperform more homogenous teams.

Diverse teams are more innovative. They get better results, and they make fewer incorrect decisions.

But why? Because diverse teams focus on facts and are more likely to correct misstatements. They are more careful and deliberate in decision-making. They examine problems from more angles and thus they get better outcomes. Again and again.

And maybe you picked up on the fundamental contrast between diverse and homogenous teams. Diverse teams put in more work. But then it's not surprising that people report that being part of a diverse team feels less comfortable. Working hard isn't comfortable.

And that brings me back to cooperative mess versus collaborative magic. Don't mistake comfort for effectiveness. Don't expect collaborative magic to feel magically easy. It won't.

So here's another test to go with the one-story test: The easy work test. If your project work does feel easy, see that as a symptom that maybe something isn't working, not a sign that everything is fine because it's going easy.