I believe the fault lies with our brain. It consists of over 180 billion neurons, each processing information through 15,000 synapses per second. So as to be efficient and save energy, the brain “cheats” and creates shortcuts for processing information. Imagination, and consequently innovation, requires for the brain to break from past experiences, and to experience new visual stimuli as well as be forced to think in a different way. Neural cheating, also called Predictive Coding is what leads us to make quick assumptions about others, and is the basis of stereotyping. This is where I believe the crux to overcoming barriers to gender stereotyping in business lies.

From a scientific perspective, the brain structures of men and women are different in a number of ways. Women, in general, tend to have mental preferences that utilise the right brain, and men the left. As a result, we see some of the typical “masculine” behaviours and values around hierarchy, rationality, logic which pre-dominate the world of business with typical “feminine” values of flat structures, community support and inter-personal management lagging behind.

Crucially, experiments in innovation undertaken both by MIT and London Business School, have identified that teams with equal representation of both genders are more likely to create innovative solutions for specific business issues, reflecting the importance (and complimentarity) of this heterogeneity.

Research in the University of Columbia has taken this one step further. Individuals who were able to positively re-affirm their multi-culturality (an African American in the US, or a woman in a male-dominated Engineering environment), and had higher levels of “identity integration” (they are comfortable in integrating their multiple social identities), displayed higher levels of creativity when problems require that they draw on their different realms of knowledge.

This is where tapping into our mental flexibility is important in overcoming gender stereotyping for the benefit for greater innovation and ultimately business performance. We need to encourage neurogenesis, the creation of new synaptic connections through experience. So, if you want your organisation to leverage the best of your people for enhanced productivity and sales generation, whilst at the same time address the diversity agenda, consider:

Your Organisation’s Mental Map

What is the overriding mental structure of the organisation? Like people, the way we do things is dictated by our wiring. So, an organisation or department is likely to have its own “mental map”. We work with Whole Brain Technology^TM because it is a validated and highly reliable tool for organisational development. Is your culture, and thus the expected over-arching behaviour, focused on metrics and numbers – are sales, closing quarters, revenue and profit margins the key drivers in your business? Do you see some “blind-spots” in the way the business is run such as in the failure of recognising and appreciating differences? Perhaps even dealing with employee feelings/concerns and engagement are low on the priority list because they are not perceived to contribute to the bottom line? This focus is typical of an organisation driven by the rational, logical and highly analytical A-quadrant, the part of the brain that finds meaning in situations upon sequential analysis of rational facts.

Are there differences in Mental Preferences?
Are there group average mental preferences that may differ to the norm of the organisation? Over 1million men and women that have used the Whole Brain Technology tool, women, on average, have a greater preference for the lower-right quadrant, the parts of the limbic brain that encompass Expressive and Emotional processing. Men, on the other hand, veer towards the model above, focusing on rationality and logic. So, in a number of organisations that we have worked in, we have seen this dichotomy between the genders. This is why Women’s Networks or Affinity Groups exist – they represent the spaces for this expressiveness and inter-personal rapport-building to take place.

What are the implications of these differences?
If you were in a foreign country, say in China, and were from the UK, you would no doubt pick up how behaviourally different Chinese were to you and the values that guide them. It is the same for women in a very male-dominated organisation. Whilst women’s networks provide a channel for this cross-cultural education for women to learn how the mental preferences, and thus, behaviours play out in a male-dominant organisation (through skills building seminars), this is very much still one-way….

There are always exceptions to the rule….

Whilst the mental preferences highlighted above are based on the law of averages, there are, as always, exceptions to the rule. How is your business tapping into those exceptions? Just because you are a woman does not immediately imply that you have the average mental preferences mentioned above; and vice -versa; we have worked with men whose strongest preference where the primarily right brained, with a strong sense of intuition.

Celebrate Individuality

We have created our Individual Leadership model precisely to enable the appreciation individual mental preferences and differences in the way values and beliefs manifest themselves. From an individual and organisational perspective, it is critical to set up processes and ways to remind ourselves when we are letting our brain cheat, and confirming stereotypes.

I believe our focus needs to lie on offering experiences within business to break stereotypes, particularly to “educate” BOTH genders. However, it is uncomfortable to have to remind ourselves that we have blind spots and that we need to find ways to overcome them. The power of neurogenesis, creating new mental paths for our brain to process information in areas that are not our individual or organisational strength is not easy. It requires commitment from the business as well as tolerance for doing things in a way that has not been done before.

The model and details of my approach will be the subject of a future blog.

In our experience, this becomes even more important if your customer is female. In both the B2B and B2C spheres, women are becoming the major purchasers of products – ranging from cars, to computers to computing systems. Whilst traditionally these purchases were made by men (and hence this is why car show-rooms are still the most un-attractive places for a woman to walk into), some of the metrics are interesting: 60% of new car purchases are dominated by women in Japan; in Europe women make up about 47% of PC users.

So, what are some of the ways that your organisation can delight your female customers?

Deliver an Interconnected Offering

Neuroscience has dictated that the male and female brains are different. Women have 20 million more neurons than men, largely in the Corpus Collusum, the interconnecting highway between left and right hemispheres. Consequently, on average, of course, women are experts at Integrative Thinking: according to the anthropologist Helen Fisher, “they want to explore multiple interactions, the multidirectional paths, all of the permutations of the puzzle*”. So, when considering your company’s product or service delivery, have you considered the myriad of applications that it may be used for, and how each can be relevant for the user? If something goes wrong, have you considered looking at non-traditional ways of finding the solution? If, for example, you are delivering IT systems and something unexpected goes wrong, did you consult the breadth of the team delivering the service to come up with the solution? This process is part and parcel of what your female stakeholder is likely to be looking for, in order to see that your business is using all the knowledge base available to obtain a (novel) solution.

Seek to understand…. to obtain the ultimate brand ambassadors

The best brands in the world understand that a loyal female customer, is the best customer in the world. Her innate need to communicate (the hormone Oxytocin has been proved to be responsible for her need to connect with others), means that she is very likely to share her positive experience with a friend or colleague. When loyal, women are the best ambassadors to your company or service. So, how do you obtain that loyalty?
You have to prove you understand and care for her as a person, her business, and her world wider world. You have to satisfy this innate sense of personal and community altruism. We are working on a number of projects with our clients in the IT and Financial Services sector whereby client-supplier activities focus on constructing connections on a personal and socially responsible context. How are you expressing your commitment to a stronger client-relationship? How is your organisation making a difference in the worlds where your client may have an interest or presence in?

Flexibility leads to Creativity and Innovation

As an extension on the point above, women embrace flexibility. The worst thing to say to your female customer is to insinuate that there is no other way to solve her problem/or issue with your product or service. Surely, if she is such an important customer as you make her out to be, then being creative in solving any problems is part and parcel of your offering? In fact, you will let her use her innate creativity (remember, point 1 above about Integrative Thinking), and you will let her work with you in identifying the appropriate solution. This is why women make excellent relationship managers – they, on average, tend to utilise this skill in solving problems for their customers. So, ask yourself, how flexible are you and your team being when your disgruntled customer contacts you over a problem? How are you showing her this flexibility?

Genuine Delivery of Promise

One of the most critical value-systems that guide women is that of authenticity. Delivering your service or product with a genuine, authentic desire for her or her company’s success is critical. Make sure your strategy engages her in dialogue – ask her frequently what would make a difference to her, and adapt your product or service accordingly. Remember one important point – deliver what you promise. If you do take the time and make the genuine effort to understand what she requires, then act on it. The female hippocambus, the part of the brain that never forgets a conversation, is larger and more active in women than in men. So if you say you will amend your processes so that she receives the reports with the frequency she wanted, do so. If you don’t, then the disappointment is greater. So, consider how are you communicating and delivering that authenticity? How are you servicing that undeniable claim that you are in business to serve her business?
I suspect you are thinking this makes sense good business sense, as well as being common sense. We ask ourselves why does most of the business world, however, overlook this market and these basic premises?

*  The First Sex: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World, Dr Helen Fisher