【良心出品】How Diversity Makes Us Smarter中文译文

How Diversity Makes Us Smarter Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working By Katherine W. Phillips on October 1, 2014 The first thing to acknowledge about diversity is that it can be difficult. In the U.S., where the dialogue of inclusion is relatively advanced, even the mention of the word “diversity” can lead to anxiety and conflict. Supreme Court justices disagree on the virtues of diversity and the means for achieving it. Corporations spend billions of dollars to attract and manage diversity both internally and externally, yet they still face discrimination lawsuits, and the leadership ranks of the business world remain predominantly white and male. It is reasonable to ask what good diversity does us. Diversity of expertise confers benefits that are obvious—you would not think of building a new car without engineers, designers and quality-control experts—but what about social diversity? What good comes from diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation? Research has shown that social diversity in a group can cause discomfort, rougher interactions, a lack of trust, greater perceived interpersonal conflict, lower communication, less cohesion, more concern about disrespect, and other problems. So what is the upside? 多元化怎样令我们更聪明 身边的人与我们不同，使我们更具创造性，更勤勉，也更努力。

凯瑟琳·威廉姆·菲利普 2014·10·1 首先，我们要承认，多元化这个问题很深奥。在美国，这个对各种观点包容性相对较高的国家，提到“多元化”，人们也会感到焦虑不安，矛盾重重。最高法院的法官们对多元化的原则难以达成一致意见，他们努力去实现审判的多元化；企业为能在内外部形成并实现多元化散尽千金，尽管如此，它们仍就面临着歧视诉讼；商界的领导阶层，仍由白人和男性主导。

我们有理由提出这样的疑问，多元化对我们有什么益处。专业技术多元化的益处显而易见——想要研发一款新型汽车，工程师，设计师和质量控制专家缺一不可——那么社会多元化的益处是什么呢？种族，名族，性别和性取向方面的多元化，又会为我么带来怎样的益处呢？研究表明，团体中的社会差异会引起一系列问题，如：内心不安，交往困难，信任缺失，感知性人际冲突增强，交流减少，凝聚力降低，对不敬的敏感度增强等。那么，其优点又体现在何处呢？ The fact is that if you want to build teams or organizations capable of innovating, you need diversity. Diversity enhances creativity. It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving. Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to unfettered discoveries and breakthrough innovations. Even simply being exposed to diversity can change the way you think. This is not just wishful thinking: it is the conclusion I draw from decades of research from organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and demographers. Information and Innovation The key to understanding the positive influence of diversity is the concept of informational diversity. When people are brought together to solve problems in groups, they bring different information, opinions and perspectives. This makes obvious sense when we talk about diversity of disciplinary backgrounds—think again of the interdisciplinary team building a car. The same logic applies to social diversity. People who are different from one another in race, gender and other dimensions bring unique information and experiences to bear on the task at hand. A male and a female engineer might have perspectives as different from one another as an engineer and a physicist—and that is a good thing. 事实表明，要想构建创造力十足的团队和组织，多元化必不可少。多元化会使创造力增强。它推动了对新颖信息和观点的探索，成就更好的决策，从而使问题得以解决。多元化能改善公司的财务状况，造就自由的探索及突破性的革新。听取不同的意见会改变你的思维方式。这可不是一厢情愿的空想：通过对科学家，心理学家，社会学家，经济学家及人口统计学家团体数十年的追踪研究，我最终得出了这样的结论。

信息与创新 要想理解多元化的积极影响，关键在于理解信息多元化的概念。当人们聚集在一起以小组为单位解决问题时，不同的人带来了不同的信息，主张和观点。我们讲到学科背景多元化时，这一点尤为明显——不妨回头想想刚才提过的跨学科团队造车的情形。同样的逻辑也适用于社会多元化。种族，性别和其它方面各不相同的人们会为手头的工作带来独到的信息和经验。男性工程师和女性工程师从工程师和机械专家的角度，可能对同一事物持有不同的观点——这是件好事。 Research on large, innovative organizations has shown repeatedly that this is the case. For example, business professors Cristian Deszö of the University of Maryland and David Ross of Columbia University studied the effect of gender diversity on the top firms in Standard & Poor's Composite 1500 list, a group designed to reflect the overall U.S. equity market. First, they examined the size and gender composition of firms' top management teams from 1992 through 2006. Then they looked at the financial performance of the firms. In their words, they found that, on average, “female representation in top management leads to an increase of $42 million in firm value.” They also measured the firms' “innovation intensity” through the ratio of research and development expenses to assets. They found that companies that prioritized innovation saw greater financial gains when women were part of the top leadership ranks. Racial diversity can deliver the same kinds of benefits. In a study conducted in 2003, Orlando Richard, a professor of management at the University of Texas at Dallas, and his colleagues surveyed executives at 177 national banks in the U.S., then put together a database comparing financial performance, racial diversity and the emphasis the bank presidents put on innovation. For innovation-focused banks, increases in racial diversity were clearly related to enhanced financial performance. 对大型创新机构的研究，再次表明情况的确如此。举这样一个例子，马里兰大学的克里斯蒂安·德热与哥伦比亚大学的大卫·罗丝两位商业教授研究了在标准&普尔（一家为反映全美股票市场情况的公司）指数综合排名前1500名中的顶级公司中，性别差异的影响。首先，他们查看了从1992年至2006年工资顶尖管理团队的规模及性别组成。之后，他们又查看了公司的财政状况。他们发现，一般情况下，用他们自己的话来说“公司高管团队中有女性代表，会令公司的价值提升420亿美元。”同样，他们根据调查比率及资产的扩展费用对公司的创新强度进行了评估，发现看重创新且顶尖领导团队中有女性的公司，财务收益更多。