Virtually all companies regardless of sector, competitive strength and market growth depend on innovation. Greater productivity may boost earnings, but in today’s competitive global economy, it is serial innovation that drives and sustains growth. The relationship between diversity and innovation has been the subject of a vast amount of research. Research conducted by the Centre for Talent Innovation shows that companies with multicultural workforces are capable of growing and sustaining innovation. They discovered that “innovative capacity resides in an inherently diverse workforce where leaders prize difference, value every voice, and manage rather than suppress disruption. If innovation is the Holy Grail, then diversity should be a company’s unrelenting quest.”

Business agility is about cultural changes – it enables and transforms people personally, professionally and culturally. It might seem ironic to look for ways to approach the tech industry’s diversity problem in the methodologies used by the industry itself. But, can Agile be the mechanism for diversity to unlock innovation? Recognition and appreciation of diversity is aligned with the guiding principles within the Agile manifesto: Individuals and interactions over Processes and Tools. This talk will focus on how the principles of agile project management can be easily applied to maximize the value of diverse teams.