Published
You may already be convinced of the value of cognitive diversity in major projects: the idea that involving many different people in your planning and decision making; consequently enabling you to look at a decision from multiple, sometimes opposing, perspectives.
Advocates of cognitive diversity see it as:
- a way to mitigate the risk of GroupThink
- a means of assuring your project is recognised as valid by the people for whom it has been designed
- part of the strategy for navigating complexity, ambiguity and uncertainty
- helping to future-proof your project organization by developing the younger generation of project professionals
- essential for sense-checking decisions
- one of the ways in which projects can help ensure everyone’s voice is heard and valued in wider society
The Major Projects Association embarked on an experiment that is all about cognitive diversity, using a platform called, Opiner and we are extending this experiment into 2022.
If you are unfamiliar with Opiner, let us employ the voices of the Association members who are already involved in this experiment to showcase what we are doing. We’ll share one of the Opiner responses once a week via our social channels, to remind you and reinforce the idea of cognitive diversity.
Here is our first voice: Lucy Hill from AECOM, who is responding to the first Opiner question that was shared by Jo Jolly from Environment Agency:
We’ll be launching a second question in early 2022 on the theme of reimagining skills for the next generation and, if you are an Association member, we’d like you to be part of the diverse group who respond to that, so please:
- Share this post and the idea of cognitive diversity
- Sign-up for our Opiner response community
- Keep an eye open for each weekly featured profile from those already part of the Association’s Opiner community
Follow the link below to register for the Association Opiner Community
For more on cognitive diversity, check out this video from Mattew Syed, from the RSA Shorts Series: