What is Cognitive Diversity in the Office?

Picture this: you and your sales team have a monumental pitch coming up, and your team has spent the past few weeks researching and preparing the perfect presentation for the potential client. However, three days before you travel to your client’s headquarters to present, your team learns about a new market innovation that completely changes the nature of your pitch. How does your team respond? Do you scramble and fail to adapt to the new information, or do you synthesize and integrate the new findings into your original pitch to create a more nuanced presentation that wins over the client? Cognitive diversity may be the key to achieving the latter.

What is Cognitive Diversity?

 

Discussing diversity within the office space is nothing new. The topic of increasing diversity within a range of areas, including ethnicity, gender, and age, has been and continues to be an important consideration in any hiring and promotional endeavor. However, the concept of cognitive diversity is newer to the conversation.

Cognitive diversity, as defined by researchers Alison Reynolds and David Lewis of the Harvard Business Review, refers to the “differences in perspective or information processing styles” present in any given group of people. Similarly, leadership coach Janine Schindler describes cognitive diversity as “the inclusion of people who have different ways of thinking, different viewpoints, and different skill sets in a team or business group.” In other words, cognitive diversity refers to the range of ways people think, especially in the context of a team or group.

Geil Browning, the CEO and Founder of Emergenetics International, an organization that specializes in cultivating cognitive diversity within the workspace, breaks down cognitive diversity in terms of seven brain attributes: four ways of thinking and three ways of behaving:

Thinking:

1. Analytical: Analytical thinking is all about utilizing existing research and data to make objective, concrete, and less-biased decisions. It’s the frame of mind that enables you to examine different options, allowing you to determine which ones will actually work.
2. Structural: This way of thinking is all about planning. The structural attribute helps you create a plan or process that is methodical, cost-effective, and—most importantly—doable.
3. Social: Social thinking enables you to relate to others. It entails your ability to listen, communicate, collaborate, and even inspire your fellow team members.
4. Conceptual: This last way of thinking is all about big ideas. Conceptual thinking is the attribute that gives you the visionary ideas that lead to innovation and progress.

Behaving:

1. Expressiveness: If you have an expressive behavior style, then you have no trouble clearly communicating your thoughts and feelings about any particular situation.
2. Assertiveness: Someone with an assertive behavior style is able to voice their opinions, put pen to paper, and turn any idea into a reality.
3. Flexibility: If your behavior style is characterized by flexibility, then you’re open to multiple points of view—you can also adapt to thrive in a variety of scenarios.

These seven attributes are just one framework used to discuss cognitive diversity. But regardless of lens or method used, experts agree that cognitive diversity is essential to a team’s success.

What are the benefits of cognitive diversity?

 

In a study conducted by the aforementioned researchers from the Harvard Business Review, a variety of teams completed a strategic execution exercise that “focused on managing new, uncertain, and complex situations.” Within the exercise, each group was “to formulate and execute a strategy to achieve a specified outcome” within a designated time frame

What the researchers found was that there was a “significant correlation between high cognitive diversity and high performance.” The teams with more diverse perspectives and ways of processing knowledge were able to complete the exercise much faster than the teams that were more cognitively homogenous.

The researchers go on to explain that “a high degree of cognitive diversity could generate accelerated learning and performance in the face of new, uncertain, and complex situations,” meaning that teams with more cognitive diversity are more likely to adapt to and overcome a variety of scenarios.

“Companies produce the best results and are better able to innovate when their team members don’t all think, process information, or see the world in the same way . . . A culture that encourages (explicitly or implicitly) conformity of thought breeds stagnation and imperils a company.” – leadership development expert Sara Cannaday

How can office furniture and design cultivate cognitive diversity?

 

Cognitive requires an office environment that moves away from “one-size-fits-all” ergonomics. Because different people have varying sensory needs, office furniture acts as a tool for environmental equity.

Here is how furniture can be used to support a cognitively diverse workforce:

Focus Zones

Employees with ADHD or those who are highly analytical often need to eliminate peripheral distractions to enter a “flow state.”

• Study Carrels and High-Walled Desks: These provide a visual “blinder” effect, reducing the cognitive load required to ignore movement in an open office.

• Acoustic Privacy Booths: For those sensitive to noise, soundproof booths offer a “silent sanctuary” where they can work without the physical pain of auditory overstimulation.

Physical Outlets

Many people process information better when they are moving. For “kinetic thinkers,” sitting still can actually drain the mental energy needed for problem-solving.

• Standing desks: Keep employees on their feet and allow for micro-movements that help maintain alertness.

• Treadmill or Under-Desk Pedal Desks: These allow employees to channel physical restlessness into movement while keeping their minds engaged in deep work.

Visual Mapping

Neurodiverse teams often include “visual-spatial” thinkers who need to see the “big picture” literally spread out in front of them.

• Mobile Whiteboard Screens: These serve a dual purpose: they act as movable walls to create instant privacy and provide a massive canvas for externalizing complex thoughts.

• Flip-Top Nesting Tables: These can be quickly reconfigured from individual “islands” into a large “war room” setup, catering to different social and collaborative comfort levels.

Controlled Stimulation

Cognitive diversity also covers the spectrum of introversion and extroversion, which are defined by how much external stimulation a brain can handle.

• Collaborative Tables: These allow introverts to work “alone together”—they get the benefit of a communal atmosphere without the pressure of face-to-face eye contact.

• Clubhouse-Style Modular Sofas: Low-slung, soft seating encourages the informal “cross-pollination” of ideas that extroverts and intuitive thinkers thrive on.

 

Diversity of any kind is important in the office space. But beyond the things that traditionally come to mind when thinking about diversity is the act of thinking itself! Strengthening the cognitive diversity within your office can play a vital role in ensuring the success of your next big team project. But working in a team requires the perfect space to do so; and here at Facility Solutions Plus, we can help your employees put their brains together by designing the perfect collaborative environment, from traditional conference rooms to open, modular floor plans. Because teamwork of any kind requires a place that primes your team for success.

Contact us for a free office consultation!