The Power of Difference: How to Build a Diverse Workforce to Drive Business Results

WINNER: CMI Management Book of the Year 2022
SHORTLISTED: Business Book Awards 2022 - Diversity, Inclusion & Equality category

Good intentions are not enough - real diversity is about change. This book explains why it's our differences and how we combine them that creates true diversity and generates innovation, fresh thinking and ultimately, success.

With clarity and wit, The Power of Difference brings together the author's own experiences with the latest research to explain why inclusion is more than just being nice to people, why unconscious bias training isn't the fix we need and why listening to all individual voices, not just assuming that one viewpoint represents a group, is key.

Offering insight, analysis and practical solutions, The Power of Difference is a must read for all managers, leaders and HR professionals as well as anyone looking to engage with the topic, who doesn't know where to start. Exploring how to confront bias, question assumptions and avoid generalizations, this book illustrates why diversity should be part of the overall business strategy, not separate from it. It shows how for innovation and diversity to flourish, we must create spaces that are safe for disagreement, not from disagreement.

Written in an engaging yet practical style, this book courageously tackles some of the most significant issues at work today.

Simon Fanshawe OBE is the co-founder of Diversity by Design, where he works with public, private and third sector companies to bring about meaningful change in the diversity of their talent and the true inclusiveness of their culture.
He is Chairman of Hexagon Housing and on the Board of POWERful Women. Based in Brighton, UK, he was a co-founder of Stonewall and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Sussex for his work on diversity and human rights. He has long been involved in campaigns for equality and positive social change and has served on the Board of companies and organizations in the private and charity sectors for over thirty-five years. In 2022 he was named as the second Most Influential HR Thinker by HR Magazine after placing fourth in 2021, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2023. Simon is the author of The Power of Difference: Where the Complexities of Diversity and Inclusion Meet Practical Solutions.