• by Mark Lieberman , Op-Ed Contributor, May 2, 2011

As Thomas Friedman says, the world really is flat., That's what I kept telling myself as my son and I road-tripped from college campus to campus last week visiting computer science departments throughout the Northeast.

The ingenuity coming out of these schools, it seemed to me, was a reflection and a direct result of the multinational, multi-ethnic, utterly heterogeneous populations of students and faculty inhabiting these departments.

Coming from the hotbed of tech and media innovation that is New York City, I wasn't surprised. There's a reason that entrepreneurship finds its home here, and it's intrinsically tied to the melting pot of New York.

Diversity in the workforce is not a new topic, and its advantages hardly need to be rehashed here. But I've come to appreciate the dynamism and energy that it can lend to an organization, even when it's not embedded by design.

For instance, in my entrepreneurial and managerial experience, I've always made it a priority to hire the best person for any job, and I've come to think broadly about what makes someone the best.

The best research analyst might have a legal background. The best programmer might have a graphic design degree. I never approach a staffing effort with a preconceived notion of the type of person who should fill a given position. Dig into a resume, and every candidate will, inevitably, surprise you.

It's this approach to hiring around -- rather than to -- a role's requirements that I credit with the amazing diversity I'm proud to see within my own organization today. Our diversity is one not only of gender, race, and nationality, but also of age, experience, religion and background. It's a diversity of opinion, where people bring in sometimes vastly differing perspectives, and are willing to argue to get to the best result.  In our small company of 40 people, we have people of all ages and religions from Bangladesh, Guyana, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Korea, Portugal, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine -- and, of course the United States.

 

The result? A team with almost no turnover. Why?

There's geographic diversity, and there's geographic proximity; the benefits of the latter sometimes are overlooked in our age of desktop video conferencing and telecommuting. But for a company to be able to move quickly and develop a great product, its people are better off under one roof and around one watercooler. No technology can replicate the effect of a face-to-face meeting with a client and partner -- at their watercooler.

In a recent column in the New York Times, David Brooks confirmed my long-time suspicions that teams coalesce more effectively when they share an office, writing that "humans communicate best when they are physically brought together." He cited a University of Michigan study that convened teams of people -- some in person and some electronically -- to play a difficult cooperation game. He wrote: "The face-to-face groups thrived. The electronic groups fractured and struggled." 

That's why, I think, so many technology companies like my own, Simulmedia, Invidi, and Visible World, which operate at the intersection of technology and media, are based in New York City. We need to be well positioned to partner with both media agencies and media companies, most of whom have headquarters here as well.

But given that we work in a very diverse world with customers all around the globe, having a diverse workplace under one roof to work with myriad customers and partners around the globe is crucial.

Of course, connections across geography, age, and background are happening all the time. One of the greatest moments during that college tour I mentioned earlier took place while visiting Professor Remco Chang, the data visualization guru in comp sci at Tufts, my alma mater. As we were about to leave, my son asked him for advice about a chess simulation he has been programming for a school project; Dr. Chang said he had worked on the very same project several years ago.

It was tough for me to keep pace during their highly animated and technical conversation, but I couldn't help relishing the sight of my son -- whom I've watched countless times at sporting events and musical performances -- so inspired by a connection with this hip, young professor.

Two lives, two diverse backgrounds, two minds, one exciting exchange under one roof. Small world.