Diversity of Thought Is Uncomfortable… That’s the Point
The E1B2 CollectiveApr 27, 202611m1,460 words
Hire for human difference, tolerate the ensuing discomfort, and let autonomy plus diverse thinking drive better decisions and steady growth.
Summary
The speaker argues that true DEI is about bringing different human beings and working styles into an organization—not only race or gender—and that leaders must accept the pain that comes with competing perspectives. He reframes DEI from personal, operational terms (’Do I understand how Denzel executes a microtask?’) and insists leaders can no longer unilaterally make every final call because they lack the granular data. He recommends building autonomy, tolerating micro-losses, and designing teams so a single product can produce multiple revenue paths (’three to four different ways’ or the ‘seven streams’ idea from Derek Falcone). The payoff is steadier, compounding growth quarter over quarter if leaders can harvest diverse ideas effectively.
Key takeaways
- — Redefine DEI operationally: hire for different workflows, rhythms and capacities, not just demographic markers—’Do I understand his patterns, his movements, his energy?’
- — ’Different thinking hurts’—expect discomfort around day 60 when new ideas collide and persist; that discomfort is a signal you are getting useful diversity.
- — Leaders no longer have the data to make every final decision; scale erodes the ability to intuit customer behavior across all segments.
- — Design for multiple monetization paths: the speaker prefers ‘three to four different ways’ to make money from one product and cites Derek Falcone’s idea of ‘seven streams of one product line.’
- — Accept micro-losses and grant autonomy while investing in data collection; that combination accelerates individual and team growth quarter over quarter.
- — Silos and single-decision leadership produce stagnation; structural diversity of thought yields more consistent upside and resilient product-market fit.
Transcript
Speaker 1 · 0:00So there's not enough people talking about the following. There's not enough people talking about how the statement of I want to hire eight new salespeople, marketing people, and two new finance people because I need diversity of thinking. I need to feel like this organization is getting like a little bit of a innovation adrenaline boost. And I wanna feel that we all are in a place that is a 100% driven by we should not look and feel and do and be and act in the ways that we used to twelve months ago, twelve months later. And it's not just gonna be about the way that we think, which is great.
Speaker 1 · 0:54Like, I want people to always innovate and grow and have expanded thoughts and visions and outcomes. But I quite literally want different human beings, more of them, a diversity of them. And I'm not just talking about color, and I'm not just talking about gender. I'm truly talking about and and let me let me be on the record. I haven't said this in a while publicly.
Speaker 1 · 1:25As an African American male, I did not grow up learning or understanding DEI from the perspective of what most think about the first time I say it. Like, the brand of DEI, many people think of and you all can finish the sentence. Now when I think of DEI, the very first thing I think about is, do I understand how Denzel likes to execute any microtask that he a 100% looks at, and it is his a 100% outcome and focus? Do I know his workflows? Do I even care that he doesn't feel that the current workflow is contextual enough to him?
Speaker 1 · 2:19Do I understand his patterns, his movements, his energy? Do I know what it looks like when he's overstimulated and overcapacity? Do I understand the timing of when we need to contextually move him to into another pocket or do other things inside the org to make it mutually beneficial. Do I? Do I?
Speaker 1 · 2:43Do I? And this is a thing that a lot of people are not leaning into. Do I understand? And we we don't I'm not gonna say we don't. Many people don't.
Speaker 1 · 3:00Many people don't lean a 100% in when it truly bet pertains to I am seeking different thinking because different thinking hurts. Different thoughts like like, when you are when you are a startup or when you are starting a new product or when you are trying to scale a new thing, it doesn't feel the greatest starting anything new. And it and it kinda feels good in the first thirty days, first forty five days. But around around day 60, you kinda get a little bit of a not a reality check, but a a market check. Right?
Speaker 1 · 3:45Like like, you you're going through something different and new, and you're trying to navigate things. And and that's kind of the same feeling you get when you have a bunch of different thoughts inside the organization. And I think a lot of people inherently, a lot of leaders inherently try to avoid that because it's easier navigating all the thoughts truly. Like, at the end of the day, it's easier to navigate full full thoughts when you can just say, I'm the decision maker. You just say, listen.
Speaker 1 · 4:15I'm the CEO. I'm the founder. I'm the leader of this segment. Whatever it's gonna be, I'm going to make the inevitable final decision no matter what. The buck stops with me.
Speaker 1 · 4:24I just don't think that's effective. I just don't think that scales. I just don't think that feels right. And my definition of feeling right, it's not just the anxiety it gives you. It's not just the uncomfortable pressure, the the enclosing on the chest.
Speaker 1 · 4:43That's not what I'm really referring to first. You just might not be that sharp anymore as a leader to make the final decision. Like, have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought about since you are no longer in the game, you don't actually understand how the game moves, the patterns, the energy, the cadence, the rhythm? You don't understand the behaviors intently not intently.
Speaker 1 · 5:17My apologies. You don't understand the rhythms and the feelings of your customers literally and tangibly enough to have the data sets to always make the final decision. You don't. That is objective. Whether you're the CEO of a 200 person, 2,000 person, 20,000 person organization, there is no way that you can do that.
Speaker 1 · 5:46And I'm talking a segment of eight people, a segment in a in a in a a in the a division of an organization of 5,000, and I'm talking about founders, I don't care what type of leader you are. Autonomy and diversity of thinking is 100%, in my opinion, the recipe to honestly, it's a recipe of always having a nice variety within your organization. Like, I was talking to a lady, a fabulous lady, a potential partner yesterday, and I was telling her, in my opinion, I always love to see three to four different ways of any brand making money with one product, by the way. Multiple verticals. There's a there's another guy, Derek Falcone from Baltimore where I'm from, that talks about seven streams of one product line.
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