PALESA NTOAGAE | A rich mix fires up innovation and performance

“Culture fit” has been treated as the cornerstone of traditional workplace values and one of the deciding criteria for recruitment, with organisations seeking people who understand their values and can easily integrate into existing teams.

But for a country as diverse as South Africa, what if our pursuit of “fit” has been our greatest blind spot?

When teams have similar backgrounds, experiences or ways of thinking, shared assumptions can be less likely to be challenged, creating conditions in which blind spots emerge. The quality of our decisions improves when we deliberately introduce perspectives that test our assumptions. Inclusive practices therefore improve decision-making, unlock discretionary effort, and fuel innovation.

When too many people around a table agree too quickly, leaders should become curious. Consensus can indicate alignment, while at times also signaling that the problem is not being viewed from different perspectives.

Sometimes, the voice we most need to hear is precisely the one we have not invited into the room, and the value of that differing perspective can ultimately show up in the bottom line.

Deloitte research has found an association between inclusive leadership and stronger team outcomes, including an increase in perceived team performance, improvements in decision-making quality, and increased collaboration. The lesson is that diversity creates value when people are genuinely able to contribute.

The lesson is that diversity creates value when people are genuinely able to contribute

Furthermore, inclusion unlocks something that cannot easily be mandated: discretionary effort. People do not consistently give their best and become high performers just because they are managed and expected to do so. They do so when they care about the outcome, trust the people around them, and believe their contribution matters. When people feel respected and included, they are more willing to challenge, experiment, collaborate and take ownership.

That has an impact on engagement, loyalty and productivity. For organisations to evolve and sustain themselves, recruitment may need to extend beyond culture fit to consider what candidates can add to an existing culture.

People are at the heart of any organisation, so being intentional about mixing skills to fuel innovation is what inclusion means. This can translate directly into the quality of product designs, helping organisations craft more relevant solutions and better understand opportunities within emerging economies.

The question then becomes, when we struggle to design relevant solutions for a market, is the problem always the market, or could it sometimes be the assumptions of the people designing the solution?

That does not mean representation automatically produces the right answer. However, different experiences expand the questions an organisation is capable of asking. The same principle applies to gender. Particularly during Women’s Month, organisations have an opportunity to look beyond commemorative conversations towards the deeper examination of the architecture of decision-making. If women are well represented across an organisation but largely absent from its most consequential decisions, leaders should ask what perspectives are missing and what that means for the business. This demands humility.

Good leaders understand that experience does not make them immune to bias. We all carry assumptions. The difference lies in whether we recognise those assumptions, remain open to being challenged, and stay curious about perspectives unlike our own.

The organisations best positioned to lead today are those that create environments where belonging and constructive challenge can coexist. They are led by people secure enough to be challenged and curious enough to change their minds.

When selecting talent, organisations should consider not only those who fit the culture we already have, but also those who can contribute to the culture we need next, because when people genuinely belong, they stop performing for approval and start contributing with conviction.

• Ntoagae is chief people officer: personal & private banking pan-Africa at Absa Group.