You can not know what you do not know

I have read a great deal that suggests that diversity in a leadership team is helpful for the long term longevity of a business. But why would this be? I think one reason is the fact that if you are the CEO, you can not know what you do not know. If you admire your own type of intelligence, and you try to hire a lot of people similar to you, then your blind spots will be carried by the whole team. Having a diverse leadership team is like insuring your investments through diversity. If you hire someone whose strong points and weak points are completely different from your own, then the team as a whole has reduced the total number of blind spots. Ultimately what you should want is something like your own immune system: no macrophage is sensitive to all of the pathogens it runs into, but all of your macrophages, working together as a team, manage to keep you safe most of the time.

This is an interesting bit about some smart guys who failed, possibly because they were too many guys:

For the past four seasons, I’ve starred on an ABC show called The Middle, otherwise known as “Not Malcolm in the Middle—we’re on the same night as Modern Family.” During this time, I’ve lived in a happy, beautiful bubble of gender equality. Five out of the show’s nine writers are women. The Unit Production Manager (an important on-set producer) is a woman. Television shows tend to rotate through directors, and 60% of ours have been women. The cast also includes two strong female leads (Patricia Heaton and, well, me) whose characters pass the Bechdel test week after week. And most importantly, The Middle was created by two women, Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline, who are still running the show.

This is not the norm. Having women steer the ship makes all the difference in the world.

For example, I worked on a show in 2006 (another sitcom for ABC) that was created and run by men. There were only two female staff writers. All the producers were male. Every director, too. But despite the bro-heavy environment, these guys were not bad or misogynistic — in fact, they were awesome, progressive and kind. And yet nary a woman in sight.

So what was the problem? Why did this show reek of peen? It wasn’t because of some deep-seated aversion to women in the workplace. Rather, the problem was that these guys seemed to only hire people who were exactly like them: guys. And while working with what’s comfortable and familiar is all well and good, if your goal is to create an honest story about men and women interacting with one another — as was the aim of this particular show — you’re definitely going to miss the mark if you don’t have any input from a real, live female.

The show was canceled after twelve episodes.