Few schools can claim more diversity than Awty.  We have about 60 nationalities represented in our student body, an age range from 3 to 18, and just about every cultural background you could imagine.  Our diversity adds a positive dimension to each student’s everyday learning experience that I hope they would never take for granted.

I was reminded of the positive value that diversity brings to a school when I attended a recent lecture by Dr Scott Page, the Leonid Hurwicz Collegiate Professor of Complex Systems, Political Science and Economics at the University of Michigan.  The lecture was held here in Houston at last week’s ISAS (Independent Schools Association of the Southwest) conference for Heads of Independent Schools.

As Dr Page explained, historically people have primarily looked at diversity through moral and political lenses.  Tolerance, acceptance and inclusivity have been seen as ‘the right thing to do’, and they have emerged as legal requirements. 

Dr Page’s research, the other hand, has taken a different direction.  He has been considering the pragmatic benefits of diversity, showing how diverse ways of thinking and seeing problems can lead to better outcomes in a practical sense.

His thesis is that the way we think in groups is different to the way we think as individuals, and that our collective wisdom exceeds the sum of its parts.  It follows from this that the more diverse the group, the more effective the group will be.

Interestingly, Dr Page pointed out that most people express a strong preference for working in groups of like-minded people, and they also rate more diverse groups as being less effective (probably because the individuals are less likely to get their own way in a group with fewer other similar-thinking individuals).  However, despite the greater discomfort felt by the participants, groups of people that comprise a mix of ages, genders, occupations, nationalities, religions and backgrounds are far more likely to find effective creative solutions to problems than less diverse groups.

I appreciated Dr Page’s insights on this issue, because I will shortly be starting a wide-ranging consultative process to develop a new five-year strategic plan for Awty.  The more I listed to Dr Page, the more evident it became that Awty’s diverse character is truly one of our great and unique strengths.

And so, if we follow the implications of Dr Page’s research, then rather than pondering moral or philosophical questions like “Why can’t we all get along?”,  we should be focussing on practical questions such as “How can we be more productive together?”  He suggests that the answer lies in messy, creative organizations and environments with individuals from vastly different backgrounds and life experiences.

Page concludes that diversity is a strategic advantage because it raises average ability.  Quoting research by Jeffrey West and John Quigley, he has found, for example, that every time the size of a city is doubled, the average IQ of that city increases by 4% and the average productivity of each worker rises by 13%.  Page concludes that this is because of the increased power generated by bouncing ideas off one another – and the increase is greater in more diverse populations.

A smaller scale but perhaps even more compelling example is found in Jim Surowiecki’s book, “The Wisdom of Crowds”.  He tells the story of the beautifully titled ‘West of England Fat Stock and Poultry Exhibition’ of 1906.  At the Fair, visitors were invited to guess the weight of a steer (definition for the benefit of my urban readers: a male domestic bovine animal that has been castrated and is raised for beef).  Remarkably, the average guess was within one pound of the real weight of the steer.   The steer weighed 1197 pounds, and the average guess was 1198 pounds.  While it is reasonable to assume that many of the visitors were farmers, and thus estimating the weight may have been easier than it would be for a person who had lived in (say) Hong Kong all their life, it does seem incredible that they were within a pound of the correct weight.

Another interesting point emerges from examining a list of winners of Nobel prizes.  The first ten Nobel prizes in Chemistry were awarded to ten people, each of whom worked essentially as an individual.  By contrast, the last ten Nobel prizes in Chemistry have been awarded to 27 different people (usually working in partnerships or in teams) – and during the same period, 15 other scientists have sued claiming that they should have been awarded the Nobel Prizes that were awarded to other scientists.

Einstein’s original paper in which he announced this Theory of Relativity in 1905 was just three pages long, it had no bibliography, and it did not even list his occupation (he was a civil servant at the Swiss patents office at the time).  In 1953, Watson and Crick’s paper announcing the structure of DNA was just one page and had a bibliography with six references.  In 1999, the article analyzing the structure of the human genome was seven pages in length, and carried the names of 240 authors from 15-20 research laboratories in seven countries.  We used to speak of great scientists.  We now – quite accurately – speak of great teams of scientists who tap into the creativity and diversity of their colleagues as part of a team effort.

And this seems to support Scott Page’s conclusion that diversity – the wisdom of the crowd – is a strategic advantage, which is excellent news for Awty as we embark on our strategic planning process!

If you are interested in Scott Page’s ideas on leveraging diversity, a very similar lecture to the one I attended can be seen on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt9UeknKwZw.  It runs for 1 hour and 23 minutes, so viewing it represents a significant investment of time – but for anyone interested in the practical benefits of diversity as a tool to solve problems, I highly recommend setting aside the time required to watch it.  It is worth viewing right through to the end, but as his approach is mathematical and sequential, the end won’t be meaningful unless you have watched and absorbed everything that precedes it!

Just like a Head of School’s speech ;-)

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Last week I described the exhilarating atmosphere of our Homecoming soccer match against Fort Bend Christian Academy.  The photos below were taken at the match, and I hope they convey something of this wonderful event, which resulted in a 6-0 win to Awty.  As always, please click on any of the images to enlarge it for better viewing.