SEEING YOUR BLIND SPOTS
Can you see your own blind spots? By definition of course, the answer is no. What is true for a person is true for a corporation. That is why diversity is so important to individuals and to corporations.
Jan Swarz is the president of Princess Cruises. One day in a corporate meeting, the discussions involved what should be done about bedding on the company’s 18 ships. After lots of talk about various aspects of mattress construction and fabrics, Jan exposed a blind spot by highlighting the menopause situation (Christopher Palmeri “Carnival Rocks the Boat” Bloomberg Businessweek , 11/16/15–11/22/15, pp. 22–23. 96):
“ That’s something few men would have brought up at a high-level corporate meeting. But the average Princess guest is 53 years old, Swartz says, and she’d gotten an earful from some of them about the night sweats and hot flashes associated with menopause. So she pushed her staff to find duvets that look plush without trapping too much heat and to design the bedding in layers that could easily be taken on and off. ” (p. 22)
Another problem solved because someone on a team with a different viewpoint spoke! This is how diversity works. It doesn’t matter how smart you or your team might be. Even genius requires perspective for its wisest application. Diversity can bring that needed perspective.
As it turns out, Arnold Donald (the CEO) had appointed Swartz to her position with the specific purpose of stimulating diverse thinking. And it worked. And Donald has continued to look for ways to diversify his staff so that Princess Cruises will continue to benefit from diversity. He clearly understands its value as he affirms:
“ ‘I guarantee if you get a diverse group of people aligned around a common objective with a process to work together, they will out-engineer, out-solution a homogeneous team 90 percent of the time and create things none of them alone would have created.’ ” (p. 22)
The next time your team has an important objective to achieve, remember that it will be even more important that you involve a diversity of people . . . unless of course, you are happy about all your blind spots.
