How many times in business have you heard someone make the point, ‘it’s important to build a diverse team’ or in team sports, ‘a diverse, yet well balanced team will be critical to a successful campaign.’ This doesn’t sound like rocket science and if you spend some time thinking about it you can clearly see why of course both of these approaches would be beneficial to success. However unless you have truly lived through many projects amongst differing teams, you don’t always have an appreciation as to why, let alone building one skillfully. It’s not easy.
After a recent trip, I stumbled across two examples of why mashing together ideologies, philosophies and diversity are of huge benefit & have helped me think differently about how to approach things…
Up first - I was at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. There was a special exhibit about two of the most well known country stars, Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan. What became apparent was that by the nature of simply working together, they moved music forward to a place it simply may never have reached. “They worked together seamlessly, and were open and enthusiastic about trying new musical ideas”. This was just the start, the exhibit went on to say “Rock Bands and musicians from LA, San Francisco & London, including members of The Beatles – came to Nashville for the same reasons as Dylan & other non-country acts. The resulting musical & cultural cross-pollination pointed popular music in a new direction”. The fact that these artists came together & were open minded enough to listen & learn from one another for the greater good of music versus their own personal gain to me is incredibly inspiring & can easily be related to business & sport alike.
The second relates to one of the greatest Sportsmen of all time – Muhammad Ali, previously known as Cassius Clay. I found myself in the Ali museum in Louisville to learn about the great man himself. Interestingly the exhibit spoke much more about his achievements as a man & his efforts with human rights and less about his success in the ring. But that’s for another day…I digress. There was an amazing quote from his trainer Angelo Dundee which read – “If you take the endurance of a tennis player, the courage of a racing driver, the sensibility of an actor, the continued discipline of a long distance running and mix those ingredients, you are on the way to knowing what it takes to be a professional Boxer”. Some great lessons about dedication to your craft as an individual, but take a parallel from this in that if you want to move things forward in the world, to change something for the better, you need inputs and thinking from outside of your world & you can only do this by having diversity & most importantly inputs from people who can offer different perspectives & insights.
To finish, I will leave you with a quote from a close from a friend of mine who specializes in health, fitness & nutrition who has said “There are many ways to get fitter, stronger & leaner. You shouldn’t discriminate against any or favor one. As soon as you do, you close your mind and limit your potential”. Follow @RossEdgley or visit his page at Rossedgley.com.
Hope you enjoyed reading this; don’t forget to let me know what you think.
Until next time J