It has long been recognized that creativity is essential to business success. Despite this, creativity wasn’t always the subject of angst, concern, or investment by upper management. For a long time, creativity was considered unmanageable, elusive, or not subject to influence by management tools or attention. This changed about twenty years ago when an interest in creativity switched to an urgent concern around creativity, as the power of innovation began to be realized as a differentiator between competitors and, eventually, a necessity for survival. Business leaders began to examine academic fields such as anthropology and neuroscience, which contained a substantial body of work on creativity.
One of the most influential books associated with this new focus on creativity is Frans Johansson's "The Medici Effect" which makes a compelling case that many innovations arise as a result of intersectionality – by bringing together people and ideas from a range of diverse backgrounds, you increase the likelihood of intellectual cross-pollination and through this, great leaps in innovation.
Since then, of course, there has been a lot of research pointing out the benefits of diverse teams with regard to creativity, group dynamics, and decision-making. McKinsey has done a lot of good work in this area, recently showing, for example, that companies in the top quartile of ethnic and cultural diversity outperformed those in the fourth quartile by 36% in profitability.
So, what does all this mean for CASSS? Among other things, it means we would be wasting a great opportunity if we didn’t examine ways to make sure our committees and work groups are diverse groups, offering multiple perspectives from which we can make better decisions.
This is one of the reasons I am so excited about the new CASSS Emerging Leader in the Advancement of Scientific Knowledge Award (ELAA). Designed to benefit both CASSS and some of our top early careerists, the ELAA award aims to provide three early career professionals, PhD students, or post-docs with the opportunity to help plan the 2024 WCBP Symposium. CASSS benefits from the great new program that the awardees will put together for WCBP and the opportunity to develop new leaders in CASSS. Our candidates benefit by receiving hands-on guidance through the planning process by industry, regulatory, and academic leaders and the chance to develop some lifelong lessons and relationships.
Are these benefits the only reason CASSS is committed to DEI? No. Allowing people to be their true selves and succeed or fail without human-imposed or society-imposed barriers is simply the right thing to do. But in our future state, as CASSS continues to grow, succeed, and influence, one of the reasons we will have done so is the thoughtful way we have promoted and maintained diverse, effective, and game-changing committees and teams. We could use your help! Forward the ELAA award application to a deserving emerging leader today!