Coursera

Cognitive and Experiential Diversity (Coursera)

Offered by IE Business School,

In this course, we explore the nature of cognitive and experiential diversity, as understanding these invisible forms of diversity is essential to meet the needs of an organization. Cognitive and experiential diversity is needed to drive innovation and disruption. To address the challenges of the future, we must understand the cognitive and experiential backgrounds needed to tackle every challenge that comes our way.

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During the course, we will build models to guide us in measuring these different cognitive and experiential backgrounds and how we can leverage each in an organization.
Course 2 of 4 in the The Journey to Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
New Waves of Diversity: Dealing with Our Future
Welcome to this course on cognitive and experiential diversity. In this module, we will introduce these two types of “invisible” diversity and discuss the need for organizations to nurture a diverse team in order to tackle challenges related to innovation and uncertainty.

WEEK 2
Experiential Diversity
In this module, we will explore experiential diversity as the first tool to deal with the challenges of the future. We will define the sources of experiential diversity: education, industry, and organization. We will also propose a framework that captures a diverse combination of these three factors.

WEEK 3
Foundations of Cognitive Diversity
In this module, we will look at the second component of diversity that will help us tackle the unique challenges of the future: cognitive diversity. We will explore how cognitive diversity can be mapped individually and collectively; we will also discuss how individuals with different cognitive profiles can add value to an organization in various ways.

WEEK 4
Cognitive Diversity in Practice
In this final module, we will put into practice the models we learned about in the past module. By applying these models in an organizational context, we will reflect on how to build ideal cognitive profiles to meet the needs of distinct areas within an organization.

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