Why your leadership team can’t think ‘outside the box’
Your leadership team may look diverse around the conference table with different ages, backgrounds, and expertise. But what if the real diversity that drives performance is invisible? Harvard Business Review research using the AEM cube assessment reveals a startling disconnect: while managers may see themselves as outside-the-box problem solvers, employees perceive them as remarkably similar in how they actually think and approach challenges.
Sources: "Teams solve problems faster when they're more cognitively diverse" by Alison Reynolds and David Lewis, Harvard Business Review, March 2017; "How people contribute to growth-curves" by Peter P. Robertson and Wouter Schoonman, using AEM cube assessment data from 7,983 self-assessments and 21,605 feedback assessments.
The AEM cube methodology measures two critical dimensions of cognitive diversity. In this data visualization, the horizontal axis captures whether people are more exploration-oriented (comfortable with uncertainty, drawn to new possibilities) versus stability-oriented (preferring proven methods and structured approaches). The vertical axis measures matter versus relationship orientation: whether someone naturally focuses on content, data, and technical issues or prioritizes people dynamics and stakeholder concerns. When researchers plotted 32 managers across these dimensions, managers saw themselves scattered across the full spectrum. Their employees saw them clustered in a narrow band.
This perception gap isn't just a workplace curiosity but directly impacts business performance. Consider a biotech R&D team that failed spectacularly at a strategic execution challenge despite being diverse in gender, age, and ethnicity. These PhD scientists, all attracted to biotech for similar reasons, were cognitively homogeneous. They lacked the thinking style diversity needed to navigate complex problems that require both exploration and stability orientations, both matter-focused analysis and relationship management. In pharmaceutical companies, this cognitive clustering becomes particularly costly when teams must simultaneously manage scientific complexity, regulatory hurdles, market access strategies, and multi-stakeholder relationships.
Organizations that systematically cultivate true cognitive diversity by mixing exploration-oriented innovators with stability-focused implementers, pairing matter-oriented analysts with relationship-savvy collaborators, consistently solve complex strategic challenges faster. The key is recognizing that meaningful diversity goes far beyond demographics to encompass fundamentally different ways of processing information and approaching problems. Smart leaders are learning to map their teams' cognitive profiles and intentionally design collaboration processes that surface and leverage these invisible but powerful differences.