Similar or Different?
Diversity is the big topic in many organisations. Why is that? Complicated conditions can be processed with high levels of expertise (=equality), complex conditions, on the other hand, by means of robustness and non-fragility (Taleb). The latter rests upon diversity, because there are more reaction possibilities with which one can process the coming surprises that are marked with complexity. Different team members perceive different things, give them different meanings and react differently to them.
If a team has to solve ‘complex’ tasks, it therefore needs exactly this diversity in its members. This is then also more likely to be experienced as an enrichment and not as something which is divisive. On the other hand, a team which processes ‘complicated’ conditions must (!) react to diversity more reluctantly. At the very least, it reduces or encumbers its performance ability, because additional communication efforts become necessary, which do not emerge from the task and which are required to keep the team parameters stable. Otherwise constant change in composition is pre-programmed.
Therefore, like in so many places in this theory, it makes sense to evaluate both sides of a difference (here, similar or different) as fundamentally beneficial. What function difference is given in teams, strongly depends upon its task. Therefore, in the guiding processes, goal setting and goal processing, it is important to bear in mind, when making decisions during the processing of team parameters, whether new employees should be more similar or different that the currently existing ones.