How Will You Adapt? Cognitive Diversity And The “Next Normal”

The impact of COVID-19 on our ways of working has been staggering. The most obvious, the shift to remote work, has impacted organizational cultures and employee engagement almost overnight. Beyond remote work, it has accelerated a number of key future of work trends, in some cases irreversibly. In the years to come, it will continue to reverberate in the ways we collaborate, balance our career and family obligations, and think about our teams and organizations. 

At the end of 2019, we wrote an article about why we thought cognitive diversity would be the most important management idea in 2020. 

Oops. 

We obviously didn’t take into account the potential for a global pandemic to turn life and work on its head. 

Nevertheless, in working with clients to adapt to the “new normal,” we’ve seen firsthand that understanding and being able to harness cognitive diversity are more important than ever. We’ve already seen that different types of thinkers will have different reactions to the many changes we are all adapting to. Having access to predictive insights on their likely responses to new and evolving strategies, and adjusting the strategies accordingly to be able to reflect and harness your organization’s cognitive diversity, will be an invaluable asset to your ability to adapt successfully.

This pandemic has been an important reminder that we are all deeply interconnected, and rebuilding in any sustainable way is going to require a broad team effort. 

We are fortunate to work with clients who are often the most progressive and forward-thinking leaders in their industries. Those leaders are now looking beyond the upheaval of the past few months and are thinking about a new way forward. They are building plans for how they will adapt to the “next normal.” 

As we work with them to harness cognitive diversity in tackling the issues they’re grappling with, we want to share insights and ideas on what’s working and where there’s cause for optimism. That’s why today, we’re launching a series called: How will you adapt? 

The series will cover off on a range of topics that are top-of-mind for business and talent leaders across industries and around the world. It will include perspectives directly from those leaders, as well as Herrmann experts. 

In the first installments, we’ll share perspectives on how cognitive diversity can improve reboarding efforts as organizations get back to work in both homes and offices, and how to manage the forthcoming spike in employees seeking career changes as a result of new circumstances the pandemic has brought about.

Future topics will include:

• How this crisis has “raised the bar” for managers, and how manager training will need to evolve as a result
• Reskilling for new competencies expected of managers and leaders, especially in terms of building leadership and learning agility
• Doing more with less in light of layoffs
• Building your culture in hybrid remote/co-located environments
• How to best align cognitive diversity with Artificial Intelligence tools and strategies that are now being accelerated

If you have a topic you’re interested in hearing about, or a story you’d like to share, please let us know by submitting a comment below. We’re looking forward to working together to make our collective adaptation as successful as possible!