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Study Shows How Diversity and Inclusion Are Crucial to Gain the Perspectives and Ideas that Foster Innovation in the Workforce

Diversity and Inclusion in the Workforce

Diversity and Inclusion in the Workforce

“Fostering Innovation Through a Diverse Workforce” is based on an exclusive survey of 321 executives at large global enterprises ($500 million-plus in annual revenues). All respondents had direct responsibility or oversight for their companies’ diversity and inclusion programs. The study was sponsored by AT&T, L’Oréal USA, and Mattel.

 

According to the survey, a diverse and inclusive workforce is necessary to drive innovation and promote creativity—85% of respondents agreed (48% strongly so) that diversity is crucial to gaining the perspectives and ideas that foster innovation. As importantly, more than three quarters indicated that their companies will put more focus over the next three years to leverage diversity for their business goals, including innovation.

 

“Companies have realized that diversity and inclusion are no longer separate from other parts of the business,” said Stuart Feil, editorial director of Forbes Insights. “Organizations in the survey understand that different experiences and different perspectives build the foundation necessary to compete on a global scale.”

–Taken from the article “Forbes Insights Study Identifies Strong Link between Diverse Talent and Innovation” by Debbie Weathers.

Image: "2011 Diversity Conference" by Oregon Department of Transportation.
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How Money, Trust, Generosity, a Sense of Belonging, Perceived Freedom and Getting Outside Your Comfort Zone Affects Your Happiness

How Money, Trust, Generosity, a Sense of Belonging, Perceived Freedom and Getting Outside Your Comfort Zone Affects Your Happiness

How Money, Trust, Generosity, a Sense of Belonging, Perceived Freedom and Getting Outside Your Comfort Zone Affects Your Happiness

Time and time again, we find that people systematically overestimate the impact of material things and underestimate the positive impacts of social connections.

–John Helliwell, a University of British Columbia economist who was asked to help the United Nations measure and improve global happiness levels.

The following are summaries of 6 main points Helliwell listed as important discoveries in happiness research:

1. More Money Doesn’t Make You Happier
Studies found that income does support life satisfaction, but mostly at low income levels, and not as much as people expect. Positive social interactions have a much greater impact on well-being.

2. The Importance of Trust
When trust is high, people have the confidence to reach out, whether in the workplace or in the community.

3. A Sense of Belonging
Studies show that feelings of belonging at the local community level have twice the impact of those at the national or provincial. As for social media, a Canadian survey found that it is the size of your network of real-time friends, and not the online version, that supports life satisfaction.

4. The Importance of Generosity
Donors and volunteers to charities have been found to receive greater personal satisfaction from their philanthropy than recipients. In a recent study, cancer patients who counseled their peers received even larger benefits than those they were counseling.

5. Perceived Freedom to Make One’s Own Life Choices
While good health is important, the perceived freedom to make important life choices is also crucial. For example, Denmark, which has the world’s highest self-assessed levels of freedom, also has the highest life satisfaction levels.

6. The Importance of Reaching Outside Your Comfort Zone & Establishing Good Relations
Small towns tend to outperform the big cities on happiness because it is easier to get to know neighbors, build trust and create a sense of belonging. “When people ask where to start, I say transform your elevator ride from a prison sentence to a social event,” he says. “Chat with neighbours and help carry their groceries. It’s easier to reach outside your comfort zone when you realize that you and the whole community are likely to benefit.”

–The above points are taken from the article “Six Things Science Tells Us about Happiness” by Basil Waugh, University of British Columbia.

Image: "3D Social Networking" by Chris Potter.
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How in Order to Value Our Relationships, We Need to Invest in Them

How in Order to Value Our Relationships, We Need to Invest in Them

The more time, effort or work you put toward someone, the more you’re personally invested in them, and the more you like them and want it to work out.

Do you think this principle of liking people more via investing more in them can be applied in all social relationships, not just relationships among couples? If so, how? We look forward to your comments below…

Image: "Mark Zuckerberg has changed our lives" by Ulisse Albiati.
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Warning: 1 Act of Kindness Per Day Doesn’t Make You Happier. But 5 Acts of Kindness Per Day Just Might

Warning: 1 Act of Kindness Per Day Doesn't Make You Happier. But 5 Acts of Kindness Per Day Might

Warning: 1 Act of Kindness Per Day Doesn't Make You Happier. But 5 Acts of Kindness Per Day Might

In 2005, a study was conducted proving that engaging in deliberate acts of kindness leads to increased well-being, with one caveat: it must be done in such a way that exceeds the individual’s propensity to be kind.

Specifically, engaging in an act of kindness per day, for a week, will not lead to well-being benefits, but doing, say, five acts of kindness in a single day, does.

Why is it that just doing little acts of kindness doesn’t really make you feel that much better? Like anything that’s positive for you, eventually you’re going to start taking it for granted over time, and it’s not going to make you as happy as it once did. There’s a term for this, and it’s called ‘hedonistic adaptation.’ Now there’s a trick to scratching this itch of the human condition, and it’s to actively plan out experiences that throw off the pattern.

So why don’t you try it for yourself? Go out and fill a day with doing the world some good.

Image: "Friendship" by Pink Sherbet Photography.
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The Health Risks of Social Isolation

The Health Risks of Social Isolation

The Health Risks of Social Isolation

I did my doctoral dissertation on the health effects of social isolation, and what we found was that people who were socially isolated, i.e. people who were either not married, or didn’t have many friends and relatives, or didn’t belong to voluntary or religious organizations, had a mortality risk that was about 3 times as high as people who had many more sources of contacts.

–Dr. Lisa Berkman, director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, discusses research findings showing health risks rise for people who are socially isolated, especially older adults.

Also, here is Dr. Berkman’s abstract for her paper “The Role of Social Relations in Health Promotion“:

In considering new paradigms for the prevention and treatment of disease and disability, we need to incorporate ways to promote social support and develop family and community strengths and abilities into our interventions.There is now a substantial body of evidence that indicates that the extent to which social relationships are strong and supportive is related to the health of individuals who live within such social contexts. A review of population-based research on mortality risk over the last 20 years indicates that people who are isolated are at increased mortality risk from a number of causes. More recent studies indicate that social support is particularly related to survival postmyocardial infarction. The pathways that lead from such socioenvironmental exposures to poor health outcomes are likely to be multiple and include behavioral mechanisms and more direct physiologic pathways related to neuroendocrine or immunologic function. For social support to be health promoting, it must provide both a sense of belonging and intimacy and must help people to be more competent and self-efficacious. Acknowledging that health promotion rests on the shoulders not only of individuals but also of their families and communities means that we must commit resources over the next decade to designing, testing, and implementing interventions in this area.

Image: "008/365: Isolation" by Josh Pesavento.