Our first episode of Bright Insights, we redefine diversity with Managing Director and Global DEI Lead Dolly Meese and BCG BrightHouse Luminary Okorie Johnson, aka OKCello.
Beyond the better-known demographic diversities, we must also think about cognitive diversity – how our lived experience and biochemical makeup allow each of us to take in information and problem-solve in unique ways. Understanding cognitive diversity is the key to unlocking untapped potential within teams and organizations. In this episode, we learn about the benefits of this diverse tapestry of thoughts and influences through the metaphor of music.
Dolly talks with Okorie about how we developed our program and workshops on rethinking diversity during the BCG BrightHouse Luminary Fellowship. From his expertise as a cellist, songwriter, looper, improviser, and storyteller, Okorie draws parallels between the dynamics of music and the intricacies of cognitive diversity.
The metaphor not only illustrates the complexities of diversity but also underscores the emotional impact – joy, creativity, and a sense of inclusion – that comes with embracing cognitive diversity. Okorie performs with his cello to express the beauty of dissonance and release. In context, we can understand this build and resolve of tension as openness to difference, how cognitive diversity creates movement and opportunity for innovation, inclusive problem-solving, and delight in discovery.
Tune in to hear how harmony arises when we embrace the full spectrum of thought, bringing a new dimension to the way we approach business and innovation.
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Transcript
Dolly Meese (Moderator)
Today’s diversity, equity and inclusion conversations tend to focus heavily on demographic fields of diversity, like gender, age, race and ethnicity. While these are critical elements of our identity, they often limit to a finite set of boxes that we can fit into. When we narrow our view of the DEI, we crop out details from a larger, richer and more complete picture.
By extension, when we fail to see each person completely as a whole. We don’t benefit from the fullness of their unique contributions and potential. And if this is true for an individual, it’s amplified for groups. That’s why we’re seeking to open the aperture on how diversity is understood by looking beyond the surface to what influences the ways we think or what we call cognitive diversity.
And to turn this into reality. We’ve created an offering that focuses not just on what makes us diverse, but how we understand and appreciate cognitive diversity on teams to unleash creativity, harmony, agility and even joy. Which brings us to our extraordinary luminary fellow, Okorie Johnson, an incredible cellist, looper and composer who brought us new insight into finding harmony with cognitive diversity through the metaphor of music. Welcome, Okorie.
Okorie Johnson
Hey, thank you for having me, Dolly.
Dolly
It’s great for you to be here. We’ve been working with Okorie for many years, and the last eight months we’ve developed a new perspective on cognitive diversity and put it into action through multiple sessions with a Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 2000 Company. Okorie, what’s been your biggest aha moment during this process.
Okorie
When it comes to making a case for diversity being an important part of making teams that optimally function, that kind of granular look at not just where you come from or who you are, but how you think, seems really compelling.
Dolly
As we widen the aperture on diversity, we thought it important to look at what are all the ways that not only are the visible ways in which we might be different from one another, but what are the ways that really influence the way we think, the way we make meaning, the way we imagine?
So, demographic diversity absolutely a part of that. But alongside it, cognitive and neurodiversities with how we think, our lived and learned experiences. And so, we started to think about how do these all shape the way that we think as human beings. Now, this sounds like a big heady idea.
Okorie
Yeah. Yeah.
Dolly
And we, we had lots of conversations around how do we make this accessible.
Okorie
Music is especially wonderful for having this conversation because of the fact that the various musical instruments that we know are all so different from each other. If you don’t know much about musical instruments, you probably don’t know about the ways in which they’re different. Much like the way our brains work, right? It’s not really until you start talking about how our brains work and how we think and, and what has informed how we think that we get a sense of, you know, maybe even understand how we could be different from each other and not so much just understand how we could be different, but how those differences might really complement each other.
Dolly
You can think about it from the rational side of the brain of why it makes for a good metaphor to talk about the diversity within a group of people. But the other thing that’s really interesting about music as a metaphor is the feeling that you get from music. Which is a bit more intangible, but is one of the really important things we talk about with cognitive diversity.
Okorie
Absolutely.
Dolly
It’s not just the unlock of the creativity or the ideas that emerge when you’re able to bring cognitively diverse groups together, but also the feeling of joy that it creates in that moment. So, I’m curious if you can talk a little bit about that.
Okorie
We’ve been working on this really for like almost a year now, and we’ve had so many, sometimes challenging and sometimes absolutely like beautiful and mind-blowing conversations about cognitive diversity. And before we start talking about how cognitive diversity can produce that experience, I think it’s important to say that in our conversations, looking at cognitive diversity from various different perspectives, looking at ourselves through this lens, we had these really powerful, joyful moments illustrating what we are suggesting that the work will do, right?
So, I was excited about that. The kind of joy is, is sometimes indescribable, except for it’s not, because I imagine that in groups when they really work well and when we’re really learning from each other’s differences and learning and learning how to incorporate those differences, I think the same kind of joy is certainly attainable. Right?
Dolly
I agree. Totally. Totally. But I think that’s important for us to realize, is that we often talk about let’s make the business case for DEI. Let’s talk about the rational reasons for why people should have more diversity amongst their teams, etc., but we don’t often talk about the emotional case.
Okorie
Mm, Absolutely.
Dolly
And right now, in this day and age, people are thinking about employee retention, recruiting, etc., we’re coming back from COVID, how are people sort of coming back together? How are we addressing things like isolation and feeling alone? And so, these feelings of happiness, inclusion, joy, creativity, these are at the heart, I think, of what a lot of organizations strive for, and can often pose great challenges for them.
So, talking about this in a sense of, not just why to do it from a business sense or the business case for it, but also the emotional case for DEI can be quite powerful, certainly for the individuals involved. But also, if you’re a leader, what that emotion can actually unleash for a group.
Now, what’s interesting about this is we’ve also talked about the roller coaster of emotions that happen. And we’ve talked about there’s a role that tension plays as well as harmony. And so, can you talk to us a bit about how those two things factor in from the musical metaphor?
Okorie
Yeah. So, I just want to play a—it’s not really bad chord—but the way it fits right now is basically a minor second. It’s kind of really uncomfortable. Minor third, I’m sorry, right. We probably wouldn’t describe this as pleasurable. There’s a certain kind of…angst to it. But if you kind of give yourself to the angst and just kind of sit with it for a minute—when it resolves, it feels so different and so good and it feels kind of like a deliverance of sorts, right? Like a return, right?
So, you know, this is a major third and a lot of times people kind of describe it is like a—like a Zen thing. You can kind maybe imagine meditating to it. It can be really good, right? But if this is all we hear, all the time, it’ll get boring. And so, what we find that music is—really good music is—that it’s basically the story of going from, that to that, from the discomfort, from the tension, from the angst to the release. Right?
Dolly
Mm.
Okorie
In some ways you don’t actually really get to experience joy unless you’re going through challenge. That, that happy is not quite the same thing as joy and a nice sound is not quite the same thing as a resolution as the release of tension that perhaps has been built up. That’s life, right? That’s work. That’s groups, that’s relationships, both personal and work relationships. And we oftentimes can forget how important the tension is and convince ourselves that tension is only evidence of the fact that something is broken, or something is bad, when more often than not, sometimes tension is just evidence of growth, and growth is ultimately a return home.
Dolly
How do you—from a music perspective—how do you go from that tension to the resolution, the harmony? So often when we think about something like diversity, equity and inclusion, the hardest part is the getting comfortable being uncomfortable, sitting in the tension as you as you talked about it, which as we are realizing and learning from you, is an important part of the process in order to get to the resolution and the harmony.
Okorie
Yeah.
Dolly
But how does one move from tension to harmony?
Okorie
I think sometimes the tensions and work groups often are, “Well, this is how we have always done it” or, “this is how it should be done” or, “this is what makes us feel comfortable or good, as opposed to, “what is this opportunity inviting us to consider.” Maybe even another way of saying it that just feels less, high stakes is just an invitation to discover.
Dolly
A big thank you for our BrightHouse Luminary, Okorie Johnson for joining us today. And you can follow him on Instagram. He’s, “OkCello.”
Okorie
That’s me. O-K-C-E-L-L-O. Thank you so much for having me, Dolly. This has been a joy.
Dolly
Thank you. We really appreciate it.