Our bet for the biggest idea in management for 2020? Cognitive diversity.

Cognitive diversity is broad concept, but we define it as the differences in the thinking (i.e., cognition, perspective or information processing styles) that people use to process the world around them, collaborate, solve problems, and make decisions.

Understanding these differences in thinking, and how to harness them, enables teams to tackle problems in new ways and increase their productivity. For organizations, building a culture of inclusion around these varied perspectives strengthens that culture, builds agility in change, and ultimately drives better business results.

The latest survey from Right Management reveals that three out of four organizations lost high-performing employees they did not want to lose during the past year.

In today’s always-connected world, it seems as if we’re all constantly being bombarded with information. It’s one of the reasons clients have been telling us that their leaders need to build their nimble thinking skills. Living in an age of smartphones, social media and overflowing email inboxes means that having the ability to manage our thinking so we can focus with intention, even if only for a few minutes at a time, is critical.

The Herrmann International team checked in from the floor of the Expo Hall at the 2011 ASTD International Conference & Expo in Orlando last month, giving us a glimpse of some of the hot topics they were hearing about during the show. Hear what they had to say.

What learning topics will help drive your success in 2010?

We’re continuing to build our THINC™ Webinar calendar for the year, and we need your input to make sure we’re covering the topics that will benefit you.

From leadership strength to innovation, virtual teams to social learning, faster on-boarding to better measurement, business leaders and learning professionals have a full plate in 2010.

We’ve distilled down the trends and focus areas organizations are talking about into our list of Top 10 for 2010, including the Whole Brain® implications for each of these trend areas.