Our approach is unique, based in science, and it works.

In a compelling study at MIT called The New Science of Building Great Teams, researchers used body-worn sociometers to measure social interactions in a former Bank of America call center. These digital devices measured the length and depth of interactions among colleagues. Colleagues who interacted more had faster calls, less stress and the same approval ratings as their colleagues who stayed glued to their phones. When the company synchronized employee breaks across their call centers, they saw a 20% drop in the average call handling time—even for lower-performing teams—and a $15 million improvement in productivity over one year. Taking time to connect with colleagues fosters increased productivity.

In 1990, two scholars wrote a widely respected paper on organizational learning called Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning & Innovation. As table stakes, the most adaptive and innovative organizations have team members with a wide variety of skills and experiences. But this research found that it’s actually the quality of the relationships between these colleagues that matters most. When the relationships between people are deepened and improved, innovation, organizational learning and productivity all rise. Our relationships magnify our individual skills, unlocking a collective power no individual has alone.”

Harvard professor Amy Edmondson coined the phrase “team psychological safety” in a groundbreaking research study in 1999 that studied 51 manufacturing teams. Her work found that groups who believed they were safe to speak up were more likely to engage in behaviors critical to team learning and performance such as asking for help, admitting mistakes, and discussing problems.

The Rotman Management Journal concluded in 2017 that diversity of thought delivers three key benefits to an organization. It helps guard against groupthink, and expert overconfidence. It helps to increase the scale of new insights being created and shared. And diverse thinkers can best tackle your most pressing problems.

Diversity programs often fail because they don’t create the necessary pathways for inclusion. Studies by Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev  reveal that behavioral change begins when we address our biases openly, and effective social contact reduces our biases. In practice, individuals who work side by side begin to see each other as equals. Familiarity fosters acceptance because we find the things that unite rather than divide us.