Mental Fixedness, a mental block to see something in a new way to solve a problem.
It strikes me that fixedness is part of the problem wih Divesity and Inclusion – both have been around for a long time – fixedness and the lack of diversity have formed a symbotic relationship – one that’s comfortable but not beneficial to organizations and detrimental to innovation.
Fixedness blocks innovation. “The most challenging aspect about innovation is rooted in a concept called fixedness” says Drew Boyd. Drew writes a popular blog on Innovation in Practice and teaches a systematic approach to innovation – a step by step way to innovate on command. If you want to learn innovation, read Drew’s blog.
Now, we all know diversity drives innovation, there are books written about it, blogs discussing it, research supporting it, but we don’t seem to have it, – well, not in the executive ranks nor in the boardrooms.
What if we break fixedness and start to innovate around Diversity? Here’s a challenge:
Women are more prone to transformational leadership.
Organizations with transformational leaders have a higher return on performance.
Women represent over 50% of the workforce,
yet only 3% of the CEO roles in Fortune 500 companies.
From the majority to 3% is a huge drop off, so what happens?
We could be headed down the wrong path when the solution is here, staring us right in the face, only we can’t see it. Instead of the same ol’ same ol’ – why not apply a Sytematic Thinking Tool to crack the diversity code, fix fixedness, change percentages to build gender rich, culturally aware, and innovative organizations. &
