“Success requires more innovative problem solving, and more innovative problem solving demands diversity and inclusion,” Shi said. Watch clips from his presentation below. Or you can view the full presentation from Toyota and download the slides at DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

Stephen Howard, Corporate Manager of Debt and Derivatives, Toyota Financial Services, shared how Toyota’s Treasury Department uses the diverse backgrounds and thoughts of its team and its suppliers to generate  significant business results.

“Working together with MWBEs is a sustainable platform. It’s good for business. It improves our ever-changing national demographic for the better,” Howard said. Watch clips from his presentation below. Or you can view the full presentation from Toyota and download the slides at DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

Toyota Motor North America is No. 41 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50.

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Cloutier also explained (video below) how the company has changed its recruitment efforts to align job codes to find talented veteran employees. ADP particularly values veterans for their history of service and leadership experience.

ADP is No. 27 in the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50.

The post ADP: What Technologies Can Increase Veteran Recruitment? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Dr. Drew Hertz, medical director for UH Rainbow Care Network and an assistant clinical professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, was a guest speaker at DiversityInc’s Innovation Fest! event where he explained how this innovative program will provide 24/7 access to nurses and doctors for referrals, advice and healthcare coordination. University Hospitals is one of the 2012 DiversityInc Top 5 Hospital Systems. View the video below.

For closed captions, press the CC button in the YouTube player.

Video Minutes

0:01:48 Funded by a $12.8M Federal Grant

0:03:39 The Physicians Extension Team

0:05:34 Reducing Healthcare Inefficiencies

0:08:59 Five Goals of Rainbow Care Connection

0:09:38 Six Key Programs of Rainbow Care Connection

0:09:57 Create a Physicans Network

0:10:46 Shared Savings Agreements

0:11:38 Practice-Tailored Facilitation

0:13:13 Heightened Support Services

0:13:39 Innovation: Family Care Advocates

0:14:39 Three-Part Behavioral Health Program

0:16:55 General and Targeted Outreach

0:18:10 Three-Part Telehealth Program

0:22:43 Keys to Success

Watch the other Innovation Fest! presentations from our event for more on diversity and innovation.

The post Improving Healthcare for 68,000 Black & Latino Children appeared first on DiversityInc.

The nine diversity innovations presented by leading companies at our Innovation Fest! demonstrate how they’ve transformed effective diversity management into a true source of innovation, capable of generating the business solutions they need to differentiate their company, get a leg up on competitors and capture new market share.

Diversity Management: A Source of Innovation

Held in New York City, DiversityInc’s second Innovation Fest! featured a series of quick-fire, 30-minute presentations from corporate leaders quantifying the benefits diversity management has on business results. [View presentations from our February Innovation Fest!]

These include positive results in sales, productivity and pipeline development from innovations in resource groups, recruitment and talent development, supplier diversity, employee engagement/productivity, and corporate communications.

Watch videos of the presentations from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Brown-Forman, Wells Fargo, Rockwell Collins, BASF, AT&T, Travelers, Marriott International and Monsanto in the player below, plus watch University Hospital’s Dr. Drew Hertz, the lunchtime speaker. (For closed captions, press the CC button in the YouTube player.)

The full Innovation Fest! presentations with PowerPoint slides are available on DiversityIncBestPractices.com by clicking the links below.

DiversityInc Innovation Fest!: How 9 Companies Capitalize on Innovation

Increasing Engagement, Retention & Talent Development of New Black Hires
Elena Richards, Talent Management Leader, Office of Diversity, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)

How a Liquor Company Benefits From Resource Group for Non-Drinkers
Matt Hamel, General Counsel and Executive Sponsor of the Non-Drinker Resource group, and Judy Spalding, the resource group’s founder and co-leader, Brown-Forman

Accredited Domestic Partnership Advisor Program
Kyle Young, Certified Financial Planner and Vice President, Investment Officer, Wells Fargo

Improving Healthcare for 68,000 Black & Latino Children
Dr. Drew Hertz, Medical Director for UH Rainbow Care Network and an Assistant Clinical Professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

Innovative Ways to Develop & Support Supplier Diversity
Amber Janey, senior project manager for supplier diversity, and Evette Creighton, Diversity Program Manager, Rockwell Collins

How Diversity Dashboards Improve Leadership Accountability
Tina Kao, vice president, Talent Development, and Patricia Rossman, Chief Diversity Officer, BASF

The Innovation Pipeline: Promoting Cross-Function Collaboration
Sam Zellner, Executive Director of Innovation Applications and Services Infrastructure, AT&T

Diversity Training Equals $2M Savings for Insurance Company
Nicole Hughey, Director, Enterprise Diversity & Inclusion at Travelers

Social Gaming: A Diversity Strategy for Cross-Cultural Engagement
Francisca Martinez, Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition, Marriott International

Talent Acquisition Integration
Melissa Harper, Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition, Monsanto

The post How 9 Companies Capitalize on Innovation: Resource Groups, Engagement & Talent Development appeared first on DiversityInc.

In our 90-minute diversity web seminar on innovation, Capital One Senior Director of Diversity & Inclusion Donna Schaar and The McGraw-Hill Companies Chief Diversity Officer Terri Austin, Digital Innovation Manager Olga Kozak and Enterprise Community Manager Edward Ford present their companies’ diversity-management innovations—Barriers to Greatness and Digital Employee-Resource Groups, respectively—which have resulted in increased productivity and improved employee engagement.

You will learn:

• How Capital One removed 107 operational, cultural and organizational “roadblocks” in six months.
• The best ways to collect employee input and build a culture of openness with high employee engagement.
• How McGraw-Hill launched a digital resource group and how it benefits the company’s product portfolio.
• How to leverage social media and other digital advancements to improve collaboration throughout your organization and increase employee engagement.

“The innovation and success we’ve seen as a company is about the people we hire,” says Schaar. “Innovation links to talent development—that’s truly what we believe. Diverse thought equals innovation.”

Watch the innovation web seminar on DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

Not a subscriber? Buy this web seminar now, or request subscriber information and pricing for DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

The post Diversity Web Seminar on Innovation: 107 Ways Diversity Management Improves Business Efficiency appeared first on DiversityInc.

Surowiecki presented these key insights on diversity management from his book at DiversityInc’s Innovation Fest! Click here to view all of the Innovation Fest! presentations.

The audience noted the relationship between innovation, business success and cultures that encourage opinions and ideas from people from different backgrounds. He discussed how the collective intelligence from a diverse group of individuals more frequently delivers a more viable and innovative solution than from an individual or group of homogenous individuals, even those with higher IQs.

For example, he noted that when a game-show contestant is given an opportunity to poll the audience for a correct answer, the audience gets it right 91 percent of the time.

The reason the wisdom of crowds works—and why it’s especially valuable in a large organization—is because it provides access to an unspoken diverse knowledge base and bypasses bureaucratic obstacles, such as information hoarding and a disrupted flow of information.

But Surowiecki did have a stipulation: The group must be diverse so everyone can make different kinds of mistakes. “Problems arise when the group is homogeneous—that’s when you make poor decisions. Diversity is fundamental in that sense.”

Going Against the Crowd

Actually achieving this diversity, however, is a challenge for diversity-management leaders, as it goes against human nature, Surowiecki said. “We like to work with people who are like us and who we agree with. It’s easier; it’s smoother and runs well,” he said, noting that “we need to get over that. The best decisions don’t emerge out of a quick consensus.”

The fundamental key, he said, is finding comfort in that disagreement. There needs to be an established trust between individuals—i.e., between company leaders and their employees—so that people can have candid conversations and voice their opinions. “It’s not easy to get people to say what they think,” said Surowiecki. “We are worried about what others think of us. We don’t want to appear too far from the center.”

“Diversity makes it easier for people to think for themselves,” said Surowiecki. He pointed out that crowds are wisest when people act as much like individuals as possible, as independence is fostered by having diverse points of view.

“This is why having diversity advocates really matters. We need people who can really push for it, who can foreground the benefits of diversity and remind us why it matters,” said Surowiecki.

Our next Innovation Fest! will be Sept. 12 in New York City. For more information on our upcoming events, visit www.DiversityInc.com/events.

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