If I were starting a business tomorrow and needed to hire three people, the easiest thing to do would probably be to call three people I already know and trust. There are some obvious advantages to that. We already know how each other works. Communication is easier. There is probably less friction early on. That is part of what makes the discussion of homogeneous founding teams in The Founder’s Dilemmas interesting. The same similarities that make a team easier to form can eventually become weaknesses.
Research on diverse teams makes this even more complicated. Harvard Business Review has discussed how diverse teams can actually feel less comfortable while producing better outcomes because people are forced to question assumptions and process information more carefully. That makes sense to me. Agreement feels good, but agreement is not always the same thing as making the best decision. I ran into this while thinking through the management structure for Mindful Money. Most of my professional network is naturally weighted toward finance and accounting. If I recruited only people with backgrounds similar to mine, we could probably build an incredible forecast. I am less convinced that we would build an incredible consumer brand.
That is why the management team I developed has different functional strengths. I would want someone who understands financial education and customers, someone who understands marketing and growth, someone who understands technology, and someone who is strong operationally. I already bring the finance and analytical side.
There is a downside, though. Different backgrounds mean different opinions, priorities, and ways of approaching problems. A marketing person and a finance person might look at the exact same spending decision completely differently. That can create conflict. But I do not necessarily think conflict is the problem. Bad conflict is the problem. If everyone trusts each other enough to disagree without turning every disagreement into something personal, those different perspectives are probably an advantage. I would rather have someone tell me that an idea does not make sense than have a room full of people agree because we all think the same way. A team that is always comfortable might actually make me a little nervous.
References
Wasserman, N. (2013). The Founder’s Dilemmas. Princeton University Press.
Polzer, J. T. (2008). “Making Diverse Teams Click.” Harvard Business Review.
Rock, D., Grant, H., & Grey, J. (2016). “Diverse Teams Feel Less Comfortable — and That’s Why They Perform Better.” Harvard Business Review.