An excellent article by Scott Page on the Centre for American Progress site, entitled Diversity Powers Innovation. The concepts are not new here (we find much of it in Wisdom of Crowds-type stuff....) but well-expressed and interestingly phrased. If you haven't thought of a problem-solving team as a "bundle of perspectives and heuristics", then you will after this. The conclusion is as follows:
"Innovation provides the seeds for economic growth, and for that innovation to happen depends as much on collective difference as on aggregate ability. If people think alike then no matter how smart they are they most likely will get stuck at the same locally optimal solutions. Finding new and better solutions, innovating, requires thinking differently. That’s why diversity powers innovation."
The key bit of this for me is "collective difference" rather than "aggregate ability"....I think that sums it up very well: making the most of the differences each of us is bringing to the table (and understanding how they can complement and collaborate), rather than a simple gathering of "smart" people....
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