There's some evidence that if you're recruiting, you tend to recruit a mini-me. Then you have a very comfortable group round a table. You all think alike. You agree. People are arguing that the banking crisis was because too many of the relevant bodies were thinkalikes, and that if they'd had more diversity, maybe it wouldn't have happened.
Interpretation
Recruiting similar individuals can lead to a lack of diverse perspectives, which may contribute to systemic failures.
In this quote, Jocelyn Bell Burnell emphasizes the importance of diversity in recruitment processes, pointing out that hiring individuals who mirror one's own opinions can create a homogeneous environment. She suggests that such uniformity limits critical thinking and innovation, which may exacerbate risks, as seen in the banking crisis where a lack of diverse viewpoints could have influenced bad decisions.
In practice
In a team meeting discussing hiring strategies, this quote could highlight the risk of only hiring similar candidates.
The universe is very big - there's about 100,000 million galaxies in the universe, so that means an awful lot of stars. And some of them, I'm pretty certain, will have planets where there was life, is life, or maybe will be life. I don't believe we're alone.
A search for truth seems to me to be full of pitfalls. We all have different understandings of what truth is, and we'll each believe - or we are in danger of each believing - that our truth is the one and only absolute truth, which is why I say it's full of pitfalls.
If you look at other countries, you'll find lots of girls doing physics, engineering, and science. It's something to do with the kind of culture we have in the English-speaking world about what's appropriate for each of the two sexes.
Arguably, my student status and perhaps my gender were also my downfall with respect to the Nobel Prize, which was awarded to Professor Antony Hewish and Professor Martin Ryle. At the time, science was still perceived as being carried out by distinguished men.
When I went to my local grammar school, Lurgan College, girls were not encouraged to study science. My parents hit the roof and, along with other parents, demanded a curriculum change.
My generation was the turning point. Women older than us didn't expect to have jobs or careers; those younger did. But we were where it was changing - which is interesting but uncomfortable.
Every one of us has the capacity to lead.
An honest public servant can't become rich in politics. He can only attain greatness and satisfaction by service.
Authenticity is your most precious commodity as a leader.
I have tried in my role of being one of the first women at Google, let alone the first woman to have a baby, to really try to set the tone that this is a great place to work for diversity reasons.
I remember teaching a clinic to other coaches, and a guy raised his hand and asked if I had any advice when it came to coaching women. I leveled him with a death-ray stare, and said, 'Go home and coach basketball.'
We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.
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