Diversity Makes Us Creative and Smart It is human nature to choose to interact with people who are similar to us. This does not exactly mean having a similar psychology, but it can also mean people who share obvious commonalities. On a very basic level, we can take the example of a person who plays first person shooter games, would most probably interact with a person playing a similar game in the arcade. But just because we feel comfortable around similar people, should not mean that we should stop meeting new and different people. According to studies, if we surround ourselves with people who are like us, we are basically confining ourselves to a comfort zone. That means that we do not want to work with people who have different mind-sets. This concept, however, has two major disadvantages. Firstly, the people who would only interact with similar mind-sets would never think beyond a certain horizon, i.e. their mentality and approach to subjects and matters remain the same. This is because when you do not meet new people, you will never be able to know how others think and approach different matters. Secondly, these people grow less tolerant to uncertainties because they have grown used to their own lifestyle. To consider a very simple yet serious example, a man who has lived in New York all his life would not be able to survive for long if he is sent to live in a jungle for a month. The person would find hunting, gathering, lighting a fire and other such activities out of place and tiring. This theory has gained so much popularity in the past that we already see diversity in employees of all large companies. Coca Cola and AT&T are in to diversity because not only does it sound good and considerate, but they also know that diverse workforces promote creativity and innovation. When managed well, they can produce very good results. However, many studies have been conducted so far regarding the effectiveness of diversity; it has been found that the race of a person is not the only player in differentiating a person from the rest. Diversity is actually created with a combination of several demographic factors. In a workplace, diversity is depicted through a variety in gender, nationality, race, color, language, age, etc. All these demographic factors represent different sets of learning and thinking approaches. Management experts hence, highly advice companies to hire a diverse workforce in order to encourage creativity and eventually productivity.
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