London Business School professor Lynda Gratton has called diversity an “inevitable consequence of business strategy”.

She told delegates at Tuesday’s Future of Work consortium on diversity and inclusion that organisations needed to widen the conversation around diversity so that it is about more than just gender and ethnicity.

“Diversity is such an important area right now,” she told the meeting. “The sheer speed of transformation is beyond anything we’ve ever seen. Diversity and inclusion are rising up the CEO radar screen.”

Gratton identified four main drivers that are making diversity strategy crucial for organisations: increasing globalisation, more generations at work, more women in senior positions and the increasing importance of specialism.

“Companies have more nationalities working for them than ever before,” she said. “And even if people aren’t physically migrating, they are still connecting with each other virtually. If you think diversity is at the end of its path, it is really only beginning. Your next talent pool is going to be even more diverse.”

Organisations now exist in a time where “generations are defined by the age at which they start using technology”, said Gratton. “Intergenerational cohesion is a problem. Your diversity agenda needs to include generational differences.”

She added that the increasing “specialisation” of working life, which can lead to silo working, was also an important diversity issue presenting both opportunities and challenges. “Diversity is all about getting different people in the organisation to talk to each other and work together.” 

Gratton said research shows that diverse teams often underperform, and that managers need to think differently and exercise inclusive leadership. “If you want your diverse teams to do well, you have to manage them differently,” she said.

The Future of Work consortium on diversity and inclusion, which includes organisations such as Ernst and Young, BT Global Services and RSA, will be discussing best practice and innovative thinking over the next year.

It is part of the Hot Spots Movement, a research and development-based community that brings together academia and management practice, and is addressing the question, ‘What will work be like in 2030’?

Professor Gratton, who comes second in HR magazine’s most influential UK thinker list this year, is founder and leader of the Hot Spots Movement.