These findings are consistent with Ms. Edmondson’s research on the performance advantages of “psychological safety,” the cultural underpinning of inclusion. More diversity is not always better – from a performance standpoint, diversity without the inclusion can actually make things worse. Among other payoffs, organizations that get inclusion right at scale seem to be smarter, more innovative and more stable. It can be tempting to put in place superficial fixes to achieve the optics of inclusion — a primary concern of D.E.I. It is not to scale back investments in inclusion, which would restrict our ability to build healthy, dynamic organizations.

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Persons: Erik Larson’s, Larson, you’ve, Amy Edmondson, Mike Roberto, Edmondson, Henrik Bresman Organizations: Harvard Business School, Everest