Long haul flights pose a peculiar modern day problem for me; namely the art of avoiding conversations with my neighbor. There is nothing more tedious than a chatty co-passenger intent on striking a conversation every time your eyes meet or you look in their general direction.
In short haul flights this problem is easily fixed, by simply pretending to be asleep and ignoring their presence; a strategy that cannot be employed in long haul flights; sleep for 10 straight hours and you might be mistaken for dead ! When forced into a conversation, my in flight talk mode kicks in, which usually begins with a courtesy Hello, ends with a discussion on the weather and lasts for a full 2 minutes.
Reading and napping are my preferred activities on air planes.There is something strangely comforting about reading a book, in a pressurized metal box, hurtling at close to the speed of sound.
This flight too was completely unremarkable, with all the familiar sights and sounds associated with air travel. Smartly dressed air stewards guiding passengers to their seats, anxious passengers shoving their hand luggage into the tiniest available gap in the overhead lockers and the occasional mid level executive, sweet talking the air hostess in the hope of being allotted an emergency exit seat.
So familiar were these sights and sounds, that they almost blended into the background noise and never distracted me from my kindle. It was not until, I smelt the aroma of freshly brewed coffee that I took my eyes off my iPad to notice a lady with a small suitcase in one hand and a coffee cup in the other. As I looked up at her bright brown eyes she apologised and gently pushed her coffee cup towards me. Not knowing if the cup was full or if the contents were hot, I reached out with a sense of caution. After all, the last thing I hoped for, was to spend the next 10 hours in coffee stained clothes. With the cup safely secured in my hands, I watched, as she expertly pushed aside the haphazardly stowed over head luggage to make just enough room for her small carryon bag. Yes I know, I ought to have been more chivalrous and offered help with the luggage.
She tendered yet another apology for the inconvenience, as I stood up to make way for her to reach the seat by the window. A thank you would have been just fine, an apology was certainly not required, I thought to myself as I returned to my reading. My thoughts were interrupted by the crackling of the loudspeaker as the captain announced the departure of the flight and instructed the cabin crew to take their designated seats. As if on cue, the lights dimmed, the constant chatter of the passengers was replaced by the gentle hum of the twin engines.
Some airlines don’t require small personal electronics items like an iPad to be switched off. This must have been mentioned in the pre-flight instructions, to which I didn’t pay much attention. Deciding not to invite the wrath of the cabin crew, I switched off my iPad and tried to squeeze it carefully into the seat pouch which had barely enough space to accommodate two in-flight magazines, but now, housed a small pillow, a blanket and my iPad.
The hum of the engine had turned into a roar, instinctively I turned towards the window. She was still holding on to her coffee. Under the dim cabin lights, I was no longer sure about the colour of her eyes, may it was grey not brown. This was the dreaded moment when, I had to make small conversation with my co-passenger. I knew exactly what to so say and how to say it. An almost perfectly choreographed conversation about the Weather! Much to my surprise, the conversation didn’t end with the Bright British Sunshine. (Oh Yes ! On that day it was not raining in London !). One topic lead to another and before long we had discussed everything from Business to Books. We had chatted through, drinks service, food and the snacks service.
After the last of the empty snack packs were cleared, the cabin lights were dimmed once again, presumably to allow passengers to catch a nap. With my eyes shut, I reflected on the last few hours, I was surprised that I carried on a conversation with a stranger for so long, that too in an airplane. It just felt like I had always known her. As these thoughts raced through my mind, she remarked, “Kindred Spirits”, a term that I was not familiar with. Kindred Spirit, is a person whose interests and attitudes are similar to one’s own. Similarity was definitely one of the reasons, two stranger could chat away for so long.
It has been 3 weeks since that flight. I’m back to my office, dealing with many different personalities, some easy , some difficult and some impossible. Such an eclectic mix of people brings with it disagreements, conflicts, misunderstandings and arguments arising out of differences in temperaments, beliefs and interpretations. Unless you are an entrepreneur building your own company from scratch, you are unlikely to have the luxury of choosing the people you work with. As a manager, you might be lucky enough to choose your team. But most of the time we deal with people who are very different from us.
My experience on the flight got me thinking about teams in general, and about my own team in particular. How should I chose team members, do I choose based on similarity, ‘kindred spirits’ perhaps ? Or should I build a team with diversity ?
I am the sort who reaches for the packet of cheese that is tucked, way behind in the last row. I do this, knowing that the smart super market staff tend to arrange their stock in the ascending order of expiry dates, hoping to sell the older items first. Should I seek out such expiry label hunters for my team ? Will recruiting people similar to me, reduce office conflicts and make work places more productive and more creative ?
Is there a case to be made for building teams with diversity ? Are we just being politically right or are there advantages that out weigh the disadvantages ?
Could diversity have prevented the financial crisis
People from diverse backgrounds bring different perspectives to address the same problems. Having a richer set of solutions to choose from definitely results in better outcomes. Building teams of people with similar backgrounds may make the decision making process a lot easier as they tend to have similar ideas and views. However, this has its own dangers.
Susan Cain, the author of the book, ‘The Quiet Revolution’ , makes the case for having teams with both extroverts and introverts. For too long, extroversion has been seen as a dominant trait for leadership roles. As extrovert leaders groom their successors, they tend to pick people who are like them i.e. extroverts. This leads to a situation where top leadership is composed predominantly of extroverted men.
When asked the question, “Did extroverts cause the financial crisis ?” Susan Cain replied.
This is an interesting thing. I don’t want to be too simplistic because obviously it was caused by many different factors. But I think one under appreciated role is the fact that Wall Street has such an extroverted culture and bold risk-taking. It doesn’t appeal to the type of person that is more cautious and pays attention to warning signs. What happened is that over the last few years, those types became more and more discredited because it seemed as if their warnings were false. There was one bull market after another. Even those who had doubts didn’t feel empowered to express them.
Perhaps a more diverse top management team with more women, more introverts and others may have resulted in healthy debates and a diverse point of view.
Diversity is the mother of Innovation
In today’s competitive environment, the ability to make quick decisions based on a broad agreement is definitely an advantage. While teams of like minded individuals might be able to make decisions quickly, a lack of diverse ideas and constructive criticism ultimately leads to sub optimal decisions.
According to this Harvard business review report,
Employees of firms with 2-D diversity are 45% likelier to report a growth in market share over the previous year and 70% likelier to report that the firm captured a new market. (https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-diversity-can-drive-innovation)
Think beyond Demographics
Most people tend to interpret diversity very narrowly as demographic, that is color, gender and age. The definition of diversity must be more broad based to include, sex, sexual orientation, religion, personality types, educational qualifications, cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
Complimentary skill sets
“Kindred souls” as co-passengers definitely make long haul flights short and memorable. However, in the work place, diversity creates natural checks & balances and fosters innovation.
So the next time you recruit for your team, look around the table and find the ones who are most Unlike you, the complimentary skill sets they bring on-board may save you from making wrong decisions if not from the next financial crisis.
