Cognitive and Experiential Diversity

Overview

Class Central Tips

"Cognitive and Experiential Diversity" is the second course in the specialization titled "The Journey to Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging." This course takes a novel approach to understanding diversity by exploring the nature of cognitive and experiential diversity. Understanding these "invisible" forms of diversity is essential for an organization to thrive, and fostering this diversity among members of an organization will drive innovation and disruption. Join us on this course to expand and challenge your understanding of diversity.

Syllabus

New Waves of Diversity: Dealing with Our Future

Welcome to this course on cognitive and experiential diversity. In this module, we will introduce these two types of “invisible” diversity and discuss the need for organizations to nurture a diverse team in order to tackle challenges related to innovation and uncertainty.

Experiential Diversity

In this module, we will explore experiential diversity as the first tool to deal with the challenges of the future. We will define the sources of experiential diversity: education, industry, and organization. We will also propose a framework that captures a diverse combination of these three factors.

Foundations of Cognitive Diversity

In this module, we will look at the second component of diversity that will help us tackle the unique challenges of the future: cognitive diversity. We will explore how cognitive diversity can be mapped individually and collectively; we will also discuss how individuals with different cognitive profiles can add value to an organization in various ways.

Cognitive Diversity in Practice

In this final module, we will put into practice the models we learned about in the past module. By applying these models in an organizational context, we will reflect on how to build ideal cognitive profiles to meet the needs of distinct areas within an organization.