Canadian Lawyer

UPFRONT 12 www.canadianlawyermag.com COLUMN: LEGAL INNOVATION NOW Challenging orthodoxies Diverse teams are more productive, process information more carefully and perform better, argues Kate Broer WE HAVE and do spend a great deal of time in the Innovation Age talking about technology and digitization disrupting industry. The legal profession has, of course, not gone untouched by these changes. We all feel the challenges as the world grows increasingly complex and as we learn to coexist with technology in ways we couldn't have conceived. We live in an era in which the pace of change is unprecedented and unrelenting and re- quires us to keep innovating all the time. We also live in an era of unprecedented opportuni- ty to innovate and succeed on a grander scale than ever before. The key, though, is to turn that demand into energy in environments that encourage pro- ductive discourse and sharing of ideas, which in turn, breed new ways of doing things. The overwhelming evidence supports that, effectively actuated through inclusion, diverse teams are more productive, process informa- tion more carefully and perform far better than homogenous teams. This is now so well known it has become almost uncontroversial. But how do we ignite the power of inclusion and diversity in order to innovate? Orthodoxies stemming from an organiza- tion's culture can keep it operating and mak- ing decisions in the same way, and it can lead to stagnation. External orthodoxies can also hamper progress, keeping entire industries mired in the way things have always been done. These can create "a reassuring but false sense of security, even as the sands of disrup- tion shift beneath the organization," as Bansi Nagji and Helen Walters wrote in "Flipping Orthodoxies: Overcoming Insidious Obstacles to Innovation." Those equipped to treat every aspect of what they do as open to scrutiny and who see challenge as a positive action are the ones most likely to emerge as industry disrupters and leaders. Inclusive and diverse teams can help challenge orthodoxies and break free from the old ways of thinking and acting. By challenging accepted views, inclusion and diversity can help build resilient, flexible and creative organizations that are better po- sitioned to succeed in the constantly evolving marketplace. Truly inclusive and diverse or- ganizations have the advantage of bringing multiple perspectives and broader knowledge to bear on both routine and complex deci- sion-making. Most industries also recognize that sub- jecting proposed solutions to critical analysis reveals their strengths and weaknesses. The legal profession is uniquely positioned to un- derstand that examining problems and ap- proaching issues from every angle and point of view makes potential solutions become clearer. Subjecting ideas to the kind of dis- course that truly tests their strength is more difficult in insular environments where the scope of inquiry is limited by uniform experi- ence and knowledge. By contrast, diverse teams bring substan- tially more raw knowledge on more varied topics and can offer new ways of looking at the same issues. An inclusive mindset invites a range of ideas to the table, along with the op- portunity to combine approaches, values and experiences to create something new. These new concepts are, in turn, subjected to deep- er critical analysis from the many perspectives testing their validity. Those who tenaciously pursue an inclusion and diversity strategy are reaping the bene- fits, with people at all levels engaging in more meaningful discourse and driving better out- comes. So, why isn't everyone doing it and why are some organizations better at it than others? In my own global law firm, we have seen the "Inclusion and diversity can help build resilient, flexible and creative organizations that are better positioned to succeed in the constantly evolving marketplace."

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