International Insights

Diversity of Thought

The concept of diversity of thought (DoT) continues to grow in prominence in governance and other group decision-making contexts. This trend is greatly encouraging. DoT holds the potential to improve both the composition of boards, by bringing together different perspectives, and the way that boards address complex challenges and opportunities.

To date, however, three factors have held back the potential usefulness of DoT:

  1. The lack of a consistent definition for DoT, making it more difficult to identify whether DoT is present (or absent)
  2. Poor dissemination of research findings that provide insight into when DoT is likely to have a positive (or negative) impact on group decision-making
  3. The absence of an effective method for evaluating whether decision-making
    groups have sufficient DoT and an ability to apply it – you can only manage what you can measure

This paper addresses all three of these limitations. Supported by data from a sample of New Zealand boards, it offers boards advice on good governance practice relevant to DoT now, as well as making some predictions about how DoT will impact governance in the future.

Discover more insights in the report here

 

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