This TED Talk features diversity researcher Rosio Lorenzo, recorded live at TED at BCG 2017.

Fifteen years ago, I thought that the diversity staff was not something I had to worry about.

It was something an older generation had to fight for. In my university, we were 50-50 male-female,

and we women had often better grades.

So, while not everything was perfect,

diversity in leadership positions

was something that would happen naturally over time, right?

Well, not quite.

While moving up the ladder, working as a management consultant across Europe and the US,

I started to realize how often I was the only woman in the room

and how homogeneous leadership still is.

Many leaders I met so diversity as something to comply with out of political correctness

or best case, the right thing to do.

But not as a business priority.

They just did not have a reason to believe

that diversity would help them achieve their most immediate, pressing goals,

hitting the numbers, delivering the new product,

the real goals they are measured by.

My personal experience working with diverse themes

had been that while they require a little bit more effort at the beginning,

they did bring fresher, more creative ideas.

So I wanted to know, are diverse organizations really more innovative?

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