The Multicultural Mind

Summary

Organizations need innovation, and there is a source right under their noses. Research has shown that people with multiple cultural experiences have higher levels of creativity-David Thomas shows how to create a workplace in which multiculturals can thrive and everyone can benefit from their insights.

In today's rapidly evolving business world continual innovation is now a must. Scholar and consultant David C. Thomas says the same forces of globalization that have created today's superheated competitive environment have also provided a potential hidden advantage: the multiculturals in your midst.

Thomas cites ample research and examples showing that people who have experienced more than one culture are more creative that those with more limited experience. Multiculturals have a broader worldview. Having to integrate different cultural values forces them to develop more complex ways of thinking and makes them better able to see new patterns and connections. Their heightened empathy, the result of learning to adapt to sometimes wildly different cultures, helps them build support for their ideas and work effectively on the teams that implement them.

This book makes a powerful business case for recognizing and cultivating a new dimension of diversity. Thomas looks at how different people express their multicultural identities and how to establish the organizational conditions under which multiculturals can flourish, And he shows how even the most monocultural among us can develop the characteristics of a multicultural mind.