Foreword
by Joel A. Barker

For centuries people assumed that economic growth resulted from the interplay between capital and labor. Today we know that these elements are outweighed by a single critical factor: innovation. Innovation is the source of U.S. economic leadership and the foundation for our competitiveness in the global economy.

That’s what Bill Gates wrote in the Washington Post in early 2007. Without a doubt, leaders around the world understand the leverage of innovation and want a share in the wealth it creates.

Debbe Kennedy has written a book that approaches innovation leadership in a unique way. It focuses on the power of bringing differences together to create new products, services, and new levels of contribution. It is based on her work of the last fifteen years, and every idea has been tested and proven. In a world in which diversity is becoming more important every day, knowing how to use that diversity for innovation is a huge competitive advantage. That’s what Putting Our Differences to Work offers.

Debbe has developed and refined three themes she uses to create the change that results in increased innovation:

Theme 1. The world and your organization are getting more diverse so you must understand how to deal with diversity at all levels—in the boardroom, in the organization, in the field, in the marketplace.

Theme 2. Leading a diverse organization is very different from leading an organization with high homogeneity. Twenty-first-century leadership is going to be about leading diverse followers. Those who can apply “diversity leadership” have a huge advantage over those who cannot.

Theme 3. If you know how to utilize diversity, you can rapidly reap continuous benefits in innovation—both internal innovations that will make your organization better, and external innovations that your customers will clamor for.

What Debbe has done is create a series of easy-to-follow guidelines, instructions, and suggestions for your organization—and every leader in it—on how to utilize diversity to increase innovation. Every one of her ideas has been tested by her in multiple settings. She’s also included a special section referencing key studies, tools, and other resources for you to do your own explorations.

She has simple strategies that work for organizations of all sizes. She has thoughtful guidelines for dealing with the people issues and the “Not in my backyard” issues. And she has wonderful stories of success told by the “succeeders” in their own words.

And scattered throughout her book are wise observations, some two thousand years old, some fresh off the Internet. They illustrate the depth of thinking and experience that has gone into this book.

While Putting Our Differences to Work has something for everyone, it is particularly important for those who would be leaders. Debbe pulls no punches about how bad leadership behavior in a diverse world dramatically damages an organization’s ability to innovate. But, after pointing out the bad behavior, she offers clear, thoughtful instructions on how to overcome the past and develop a leadership style fit for the twenty-first century.

This is a book that you will read and then find yourself going back to again and again, to access its many ideas on innovation, on leadership, and on productivity that results from good leadership and constant innovation.

It will change the way you think about diversity. It will show you how to leverage diversity. It will help you become a better leader.

What I like best about Putting Our Differences to Work is that Debbe teaches us how diversity accelerates innovation to everyone’s advantage. This is a win-win-win book in which you and your people win, your organization wins, and the world wins.

Joel Barker

Futurist, filmmaker, author

Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future

Note: Also see Chapter 10, “Innovation at the Verge of Differences,” by Joel Barker.