Un Muted and Cognitively Diverse
Today marks six months since the launch of “Mute Off Thursdays”, a weekly gathering of arbitration practitioners to share thoughts on substantive arbitration related issues. The group is now 370 women strong and the image below is a compilation of the women who have led discussions in the past six months.
I have commented in the past on the need to have ‘diversity within diversity’ and how women are often in such a tiny minority that there is not the strength in numbers to fully display the diversity of thought that really advances discussions. This is where Mute Off Thursdays comes into its own. Although the Mute Off group is not diverse in terms of the sexes, in every other way the group is truly diverse: in experience, in culture, in ethnicity, in background, in political views, in geography and in attitude. It is a huge step towards achieving cognitive diversity in a discussion on international arbitration, where, so often, we are presented with homogeneous views of individuals hailing from a narrow sector of society.
International arbitration, like so many industries, suffers from homophily (the tendency for people to form ties with similar people), however, studies overwhelmingly show that successful groups are ones that include participants with different life experiences, so ‘affinity bias’ is even more damaging than we had thought. Of course, it is comforting to be surrounded by people who reflect our thoughts and perspectives back to us, but as international arbitration wrestles with how to be relevant in the next decade and beyond, increasingly there is an argument that we should be actively widening the circle and amplifying the voices we haven’t heard in the past.
Reasearch shows that homogeneous groups love working together, but do not succeed. Diverse groups have more friction, but acheive far more in terms of measurable success. In my experience, this rings true. The most diverse arbitration tribunal I chaired was the most challenging in terms of managing the dynamics, deliberating and finalizing the award. The tribunal ticked every box you can think of in relation to diversity. Do I think the resulting award was better for it? Absolutely.
Mute Off Thursday’s value is in its diversity in thinking, which comes from the range (and number) of individuals coming together to debate international arbitration issues. Happy Anniversary.
