Dov shares a little story about a friend from North Africa, Faiz and his attempts at fitting into corporate culture.

We all know that we live in a time where things are changing more rapidly than ever.
It’s not about surviving, it’s about thriving. To thrive requires constant adaptation and that only happens through innovation.

But have you unconsciously been strangling creativity and innovation by creating a culture of fitting in, rather than a culture of belonging? Cultures of belonging have massive cognitive diversity

For this to be accomplished innovation and creativity must flow from every segment of your company.
Women / Mothers framing the children of tomorrow.
Artists are dismissed because they are outside of the status quo. Through their art they speak to a future that few can comprehend. They are looking into the face of adversity and are saying what we fear to say.
Youth who are in the streets protesting saying how things are not right. They are all changing the world. Each is very diverse cognitively from most leaders.

Those leaders who are creating cultures of belonging that are deeply innovative because they are listening to these who are divergent.

If you have minimized your own creativity, you have got the idea that you have to be something else once you have grown up. You need to encourage the youth back into your life and team. You need to bring this cognitive diversity into your culture.
In Dov’s book, Fiercely Loyal he writes about “The 4 C’s: FIRST TWO C’s—Cooperation and Collaboration.”

Cooperation suggests that we take a look at those we may have previously seen as competitors and see if we can find a way for us to cooperate and collaborate that will benefit both parties and potentially our customers.”

Example:
Software development for the most part has come through open source projects.

Open communication:
Having an open, communicative community will tell you more about your customers than a million-dollar market research ever could.

Community isn’t all about you (the organization).
The focus must always be on the community itself.

To create a culture of belonging you need innovation and Intrapreneurship
Dov’s second Two C’s: Contribution and Community.

Contribution is among the highest of the hierarchy of human needs. However, after the global pandemic the need for Community has risen to the top of human needs. Businesses need to start with building community because of the epidemic of loneliness. People want to have somewhere that they can come together. Sense of isolation has been propagated by all social media. The corrosion of Community ties and mass produced miss and disinformation has accelerated a sense of isolation.

People want to feel connected, so they find themselves falsely bonding to groups that they would not normally engage with. People want to feel proud to say they are part of your organization, because they are certain that your organization cares about what it is doing.
Community is not about you. The focus must be building community first. How can you serve the community at a higher level, the community inside your business culture. This is all about creating a community of belonging.

Contribution and Community must be tied together.

Failing to create a Community of belonging in today’s marketplace of social media -essentially being deaf to the voices of your fans and your critics, - a price no company that wants to stick around can afford.”

Open communication:
Having an open, communicative community will tell you more about your customers than a million-dollar market research ever could.

Community isn’t all about you (the organization).
The focus must always be on the community itself.
“Dove” is a subsidiary of Unilever, and like all other companies, it wants to make a profit. They followed up these viral ads with community sites online and actual live, off-line community events where they are listening to the pain and needs of their community,

Dove has become a trusted brand that cares.”

Your community (membership should have its privileges).

What are the privileges about being a part of your community? How do you empower your people to become evangelists for your company’s culture and its community?

Building a community is no different than building any relationship... the other person has to know they are genuinely important to you and that you “get” them.
The relationship between productivity, profit, and employee engagement in companies is well established.
Investors use engagement rates to make investment decisions. Companies with high engagement rates saw their stocks rise by 50% in two years.

Community engagement matters.

Contribution and Community must be tied together.
- Diversity Solution group: (no more than 6 people.)
These people must be from as diverse a group as you can find (preferably internal, but if you lack cognitive diversity, go external) These individuals must also be from different parts of the corporate hierarchy.

Example of Cognitive Diverse persons: The Super logic person, the super emotional person, Deeply empathetic, Artistic, Scientific, Fiscally minded, Performer, Idealist, etc.

- Each person gets to present their solution in 90 seconds

- Everyone else writes notes on only what they dislike / love about the solution presented

- Have the group think about the implementation challenges with each solution.

- Next, what are the solutions to these challenges?

A lack of cognitive diversity has had a stranglehold on the creativity and innovation of your organization.