Every day there are more headlines about the challenges of workforce diversity. A focus on diversity often means a focus on hiring, and even with substantial investments of time and money, it takes years to turn the tide for companies with thousands of employees.
Cloverpop today published research that reveals how inclusive decision making allows companies, especially tech companies, to use diversity to improve business performance. The study -- lauded by experts and executives -- was based on 566 business decisions made by 184 different business teams in a wide variety of companies over two years. The research found that gender diverse business teams make 25 percent better decisions than all male teams, with this advantage increasing by up to 50 percent when a wide range of ages and geographic diversity are added to team compositions. A free white paper describing the study and resulting recommendations can be downloaded today. A free webinar will be held on Tuesday, September 26, at 11 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. ET.
Industry trailblazer Regis McKenna once declared, “Marketing is everything, and everything is marketing.” Today that’s more true than ever. Marketing is the connective tissue and motivating force of a business, spanning from the 4 Ps to the 5 Cs, from creative content to cutting-edge technology, from advertising tactics to business strategy.
Do you see any of these decision-making problems at your work?
- Decisions take too long.
- Decisions don't involve the right people.
- Decisions are not data-driven.
- Decisions are not communicated consistently.
- Decision execution fails from poor follow-through.
If so, you not alone. Decision-making mistakes and inefficiencies happen again and again in business, damaging 20% of manager performance, and acting like a boat anchor on about 50% of employee engagement.
Decision making. It’s the bread and butter of managers and executives, who make about three billion decisions each year. Indeed, Bain & Company research found that decision effectiveness is 95 percent correlated with financial performance, while the UK Institute for Employment Studies found that decision making underlies 50 percent of employee engagement.
Despite this, very few of us keep track of the decisions we make and how they turn out. Think of it: you track sales, you track web clicks, you track your Starbucks receipts. But you don’t track the very most important thing you do at work - the decisions you make.
As a result, most organizations are not very good at decision making. It's no surprise that our study of 500 managers and executives found 98% fail to apply best practices when making decisions.
If decision making is so important, why are we so in the dark?
Leadership and management are largely about judgment and decisiveness, so it’s no surprise a Bain & Company study found that decision making drives 95% of business performance.
What gets measured gets managed, and what gets managed gets better, so it’s no wonder the decision-making process in most companies is slow, frustrating and stuck in the past. And since decision making is much of what managers and executives do, it’s no wonder our calendars are crammed with ineffective meetings and our inboxes are flooded with 100s of burning emails.
