Thought Diversity with Values Alignment: The Secret Recipe for High Performing Executive Teams.
I’ve sat in on hundreds of executive team meetings over the years. Some teams were steering private companies; others were running sprawling public agencies. Several managed billion dollar budgets and thousands of employees, while others oversaw far more modest operations. But across every one of those rooms, one thing was constant: the weight of leadership. These teams cared deeply about doing right by their people and their communities. They wanted to be employers of choice, responsible stewards of public dollars, and engines of innovation.
So why did some teams soar while others slowly collapsed under the gravity of their own dysfunction?
Executive teams, it turns out, are a lot like a good recipe. There are foundational ingredients that every team needs: the right size (smaller really is better), a clear decision making model, a shared purpose, and meeting routines that actually work. These basics form the sturdy base layer — the flour, sugar, and baking soda of organizational life.
But the teams that truly stand out, the ones that transform culture, crush goals, and create work so compelling that people line up to join them, all share a secret ingredient. It’s the thing that elevates a team from competent to extraordinary.
That ingredient is thought diversity anchored by values alignment.
Values as the Center of Gravity
High performing teams don’t settle for the generic values posted on breakroom walls — respect, trust, integrity. Those are table stakes. The best teams craft values that are unmistakably theirs, values that shape how they show up every single day. Think of AirBnB’s “Be a Host” or Washington State Ferries’ “Navigate.” These aren’t slogans; they’re cultural operating systems. And the teams that thrive keep their values alive in every meeting, every decision, every debate.
Thought Diversity as the Catalyst
But values alone won’t get you to excellence. To unlock real innovation, teams need thought diversity — not as a buzzword, but as a lived practice. That means intentionally bringing together people with different backgrounds, experiences, and ways of seeing the world. It means creating an environment where candor is welcomed, healthy conflict is expected, and no one is rewarded for having the “right” answer.
The magic happens when the team builds a shared container for exploration — a space where ideas are tossed in, turned over, challenged, remixed, and expanded. When everyone contributes their perspective, something new emerges. Something better than any one person could have produced alone.
A Lesson from the Diamond Dogs
I was reminded of this recently while rewatching Ted Lasso. The Diamond Dogs — a ragtag group of men barking their way through conversations about love, loss, and life — are played for laughs. But beneath the comedy is a surprisingly profound lesson. Each member comes from a wildly different background, yet they share a core set of values: loyalty, decency, forgiveness. And because of that alignment, their wildly different perspectives combine into advice that is often unexpectedly brilliant. Snarky, yes. But brilliant.
Your Team’s Choice Point
So here’s the real question:
Is your executive team more like the Diamond Dogs — aligned in values, diverse in thought — or are you drifting toward groupthink and social loafing?
If you’re not sure, that’s a signal in itself. And it’s exactly the kind of challenge that can be strengthened with a few simple, well designed tools.
Clarity can help you diagnose where your team stands and build the conditions for extraordinary performance.