This article was inspired by Rebel Ideas by Matthew Syed, a book everyone should read.

Think of the most intelligent person you know. This may be an aunt who is a doctor, a cousin with a good degree, or even just a friend who seems to always know the answer. These people will have gained their immense knowledge through the internet, schooling, and from people in their community. Their knowledge may be extensive on their favourite subjects but they will know absolutely nothing about other topics. For example, a great economist may know nothing about the inner workings of the human body, and a talented football coach may know nothing about Russian politics. This may seem obvious but it is important when it comes to solving the complex problems that we see in the world today. 

Take the late 1990’s American CIA. They were known for being the best in America, as only the most intelligent and savvy could work for the American intelligence service. And this was true! They were all excellent in their given fields and worked together to solve issues. Some question how such a seemingly amazing team could not have forecast the catastrophic events of 9/11. The issue arises in the fact that they were great individuals, but potentially not a great team. This is because a team needs diversity to be excellent. It needs people who can cover all different fields of knowledge and can offer varied insights to come at problems from all angles. The members of the CIA had vastly similar backgrounds, well-off white males, educated at a select few elite universities. They may have been the best in certain areas but their identical perspectives mean that they all may have had similar subjects that they knew nothing about. For example, had there been a Islamic Scholar on the CIA team at the time, they may have been more alert to the threat that Al-Qaeda posed. But there wasn’t one. There was not a single muslim person on the team or anyone who spoke the language Pashto or Arabic, some of the commonly spoken languages by Al-Qaeda members. It’s difficult to predict how a society or group will behave if you have no understanding of their language or customs. It is well known that Osama Bin-Laden dressed in a humble manner, and delivered his recruitment speeches in a poetic like manner, in a rural cave. To the western eye, this may seem somewhat savage and primal, nothing compared to the strength of America. But these were techniques, used to resemble the Profit, become respectable and seen as a good religious citizen within their society. Had the team had a better understanding of the Islamic culture and languages spoken they may have better understood the threat of the terrorist organisation.

It’s easy to become used to thinking a certain way, confirmed by those around you, and forget that there are things you might not even realise that you don’t know. This creates gaps in knowledge that go unnoticed, especially if your team is all similar to you. Besides my clear message of the importance of hiring diverse people into your teams when dealing with complex issues, you can also become more diverse in your own thinking. An excellent way for you to personally combat this issue and give yourself a different perspective is to learn a foreign language. This gives you a different point of view and opens you up to understanding a whole new collection of people who may think differently to you, have different customs and insights. For me, I have always found languages fascinating, the different ways of communicating a message through strange vocabulary and grammar constructs. But I think it is essential to diversify your own brain through learning a second language, because it allows you to be exposed to more problems to solve, and be better at solving them that you may have never even thought of.

By SOPHIA BLUM