Survey: Creatives struggle with insularity and unconscious bias

According to a Ketchum/Fast Company survey of 500 creative staffers, there is a pervasive sense that diverse viewpoints are lacking in their place of work and that conformity is thwarting original thought. Eighty-five percent of respondents said that companies must do more to seek out, consider and promote “diversity of ideas.”

The homogeny of creative workers’ backgrounds and experience is not a new concern, nor is it a small matter. Far beyond just an inequality problem, lack of diversity is bad for business. It’s a survival issue, even. Yet nepotism, cronyism and hesitance to hire people from different cultures or outside the network are preventing the promulgation of fresh ideas.