Like Me

There has been a tendency since forever for companies to hire new people that are like the existing people.  This results partly from both conscious and unconscious bias but also from a 'reasoned' argument that like people will get on better so the new staff will not disrupt existing relationships snd cultures.

This is still taking place in an era where the DEI movement has never been stronger - and where most senior managers and execs have had unconscious bias training. - and would probably profess their support for increasing diversity.

I remember many years ago when studying innovation being told that: 

If you have an engineering problem and you ask an engineer to solve it, you should get a competent solution.  If you ask non-engineers to solve it, you might get an innovative solution idea which can be made to work by an engineer.

So, diversity can bring different strengths to play on problems and issues, and help you relate to different segments of the market.

So look around your organisation - and especially at new hires. Are they all out of the same mould?  If so, you might be missing out on a variety of views that could increase your capacity to innovate, grow and develop.