Reading Ben Thomas's opinion piece in The Press this weekend got me thinking.
It is now ten years since Treasury warned that New Zealand faced an insufficient tax base, low productivity and an over-investment in property. More recently, questions have been raised about whether our economic institutions are generating enough bold ideas to tackle the challenges ahead.
But perhaps the more interesting question is this. What makes a true brains trust?
A brains trust is supposed to bring together experts to solve complex problems and shape the future. Expertise is important, but expertise alone is not enough.
Complex problems are rarely solved by the same thinking that created them. Over the past 15 years New Zealand has rightly embraced greater diversity in culture, gender and lived experience. These perspectives have strengthened decision making across many sectors.
But diversity has another dimension that is still largely overlooked: how people think.
At Unlock Innovation, our work has focused on cognitive diversity because we believe New Zealand's future depends on making better use of the thinking already present in our communities and workplaces.
Research by Dr. Helen Taylor suggests that different thinking styles evolved because they helped humans solve problems together. Rather than being a weakness, cognitive diversity is an evolutionary advantage.
Gartner has also highlighted cognitive diversity as an important driver of innovation and organisational performance. Meanwhile, Alex Karp (CEO Palantir) has repeatedly argued that organisations gain their greatest advantage when they bring together people who challenge conventional assumptions rather than reinforce them.
New Zealand is home to nearly one million people who think differently. If we are serious about lifting productivity, strengthening innovation and preparing for the future, perhaps the question is not whether we need more expertise.
Perhaps we need more diversity of thought in the rooms where the biggest decisions are made.
That may be one of our greatest untapped strategic advantages.
Photo AI generated by Unlock Innovation
