How to build a diverse innovation team (and why it’s critical)

The benefits of having a diverse team are well known, and today – especially in healthcare – are critical. Unfortunately, healthcare innovation has historically relied on small groups of individuals that belong to the same network, resulting in very similar ideas, experiences, and failures. Systemic racism and gaps in health outcomes have always been underlying problems in the sector, but Covid-19 has made them impossible to ignore. If healthcare, as an industry, is going to address the issues exacerbated by a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the time is now. Founders, innovators, and investors need to step outside the familiarity of who and what they know, to ensure all perspectives are accounted for, especially in the early stages of innovation and development.

Why start with innovation? Because it’s where the products, tools, solutions, and ideas that will change the status quo are born. Without diversity of thought, experience, and perspective, the end result of innovation only serves those at the table, very likely missing – unintentionally – those not represented, even if they are the focus. In addition, it’s been widely shown that diversity unlocks innovation and new ways of looking at a problem.

We get it: When you’re in the throes of making an idea come to life, it may seem like the fastest path to launch is the one to take. It can be so much easier to call up someone you know to get their feedback rather than sourcing it from someone you don’t. That’s why it’s so important to be intentional about building a diverse innovation team at the outset. Making it part of your strategy and timeline — and beyond that, part of your DNA — will help ensure the innovation you’re developing has the widest, most equitable impact.

Go outside of your network
We tend to associate with people who think like us, which can be problematic when trying to innovate for those who fall outside of our bubbles. Even if we think we’re being intentional about engaging diverse perspectives, we often seek out ideas and feedback that confirm our existing beliefs. That’s why it’s so critical to purposefully identify opportunities and tactics that take you outside of your network when designing, testing, and proving your concept or idea.

When most people think of going outside of their network, they envision finding people who look different – someone from another race, for example. While that is absolutely critical, it’s just a start. Make sure “outside of your network” encompasses all kinds of differences – social, economic, regional (urban vs. suburban), cultural, gender, education, and age. For example, in healthcare, we’ve noticed it can be tempting to defer to feedback from white-haired, Ivy League-educated professionals. While that group absolutely has value and expertise to add, there are so many more voices to whom it is critical to listen and include.

Think like all users
You’ll never drive adoption if you leave the key audience out of the innovation process. As founders, we know we have to identify the problem we’re trying to solve, and the people for whom we’re trying to solve it. That said, many paint with a broad brush here and either make assumptions about the target audience or leave them out altogether. Remember you have to know how the patient populations of a rural Kansas hospital would use/interact with your solution versus how those receiving care from a New York City institution would – and everyone in between.

This might require thinking far outside the box. For example, looking to community leaders that can facilitate engagement or enabling people from a lower-income community to participate in the process by covering the hourly wages they’d have to forgo.

Ensuring you have an expansive, diverse collection of voices as part of the innovation process is critical to designing and developing something that works for all of your intended audiences. You might even glean insights that inspire you to make your solution relevant to an even wider audience.

Identify your biases – and actively source against them
As humans, we all have unconscious biases that influence the way we see the world and interact with others. We can’t simply erase them, but we can identify ours and actively work to counteract them – especially when it comes to the innovation process. Say, for example, you grew up in an urban area and went to a prestigious, highly-ranked university. You might have biases against someone who grew up in a rural area and went to work right after high school. Or, you may have biases against someone past a certain age, especially if you’re a digital native and grew up using technology that others didn’t. Whatever your biases are, it’s important to source feedback and expertise that goes against them, so the solution you develop is designed with those people and ideas in mind.

We see this quite often in healthcare. Innovators often want to talk to and get the perspectives of medical residents and fellows. While these people are on the front lines – and spending many hours – with high volumes of patients, they make up one group. There are practicing physicians with 30 years of service delivering and managing care that would likely offer a different perspective based on a culmination of their experience.

Another common bias we see in healthcare is based on variations in health systems and organizations, from academic medical institutions to rural community hospitals. There is a certain prestige that goes along with an academic institution like The Mayo Clinic, so the opportunity to gather feedback from the team there would naturally be quite attractive. But, if you’re developing a solution to be used by providers across the country, the insights and feedback from those working in other types of organizations and care settings are just as critical, especially since most U.S. hospitals are classified as community hospitals.

Be super intentional and vocal about it
Think about a diverse network as a key pillar to the success of your business. You wouldn’t start a new business without a business plan, and the same is true about building a diverse team.

Once you know what you’re looking for, make a plan you can implement in order to build it. How are you going to source the people you’re looking for? How and where are you going to look outside of your network? Founders know that intentionality is key to achieving the kinds of results desired, and this is no different. Like the persona/audience mapping work common to product development, do the same for your innovation team. Create a checklist of the people and audiences you need to hear from, and then set out to reach them.

One thing we recommend to founders, innovators, and investors alike: Make your commitment to building a diverse innovation team known. You never know who the person you are talking to at the moment could connect you with, and they’re unlikely to volunteer to make introductions unless you are vocal about your priorities. It’s important to be honest about what you know and don’t know, and even more important to be open to feedback. In addition to the goal of building a team that brings diverse thought, insights, and perspectives to the table, you are demonstrating that this is a core value to you and your organization.

By starting out with the intention to build a diverse team, you are setting yourself up for greater success, building something that impacts a more expansive and diverse audience, and also establishing a standard that will follow you far into the future.

Photo: wildpixel. Getty Images

 

 

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