Extract from Blair Cohen’s article “Building Diverse Teams to Thrive”
Catherine Pray is a people person. You get the feeling immediately upon meeting with her.
For some people, after being in the e-discovery industry for over a decade, some of the shine of managing teams and people may have worn off. But not for Catherine. Building and cultivating teams is her passion and the energy is simply contagious. So Stellar Women had to share the wisdom and lessons that Catherine has cultivated while managing teams throughout her career. The main theme: diverse teams are the key to success.
Now, diverse teams have consistently outperformed homogeneous teams—a 2015 McKinsey report showed that companies who were in the top quarter for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above the industry means. Make that 35 percent if the team is racially diverse as well. When we bring colleagues with different backgrounds into our teams, they bring their unique perspectives to the proverbial table.
“Having a diverse team is only half of the battle,” Catherine says. “Getting that team to share and challenge each other to think differently—that’s when the magic happens.”
Embracing Different Perspectives
In our industry, we’re all about data. When we’re in the discovery phase, we want all of the data we can get our hands on: emails, texts, voice recordings, et cetera.
“As a manager, sometimes it can feel like we’re on an island, making decisions by ourselves,” Catherine said, “but if we tap our teams to bounce ideas off, then we can make the most informed decisions.”
