This is why Iran could be the best place to be born today

These are among the topics that several LinkedIn Influencers weighed in on this week. Here’s what two of them had to say.

Ian Bremmer, president at Eurasia Group

"In Tokyo last week, I got a left-field question: Knowing what you know and believing what you believe, if you could be born today anywhere in the world, where would you choose?,” wrote Bremmer in his post Where Would You Want to Be Born Today? He came up with three answers.

"It’s hard not to choose the US, and not just because it’s my home,” he wrote. Bremmer doesn’t come from a privileged background, he grew up in the housing projects south of Boston and his father died when he was 4-years-old. The family had little money.

"But my mother made sure I got a good education. On that foundation... I invented my future,” Bremmer wrote. "Even the most patriotic of us knows that America continues to have real problems, and equality of opportunity remains an aspiration. But if you are born female, if you are born to an ethnic minority group, if you are born gay, if you are born with some sort of disability, you’re likely to meet fewer obstacles.”

Bremmer’s second choice might be more surprising: Iran. "Maybe you want to be part of a nation that is building its own future. The coming end of sanctions lifts legions of young Iranians on a wave of hope. For the first time in their lives, their creativity and ambitions matter,” he wrote. "This is a diverse country with a diverse economy… with a lot to look forward to. Being part of that is an awfully attractive possibility.”

His final selection: the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, a place he sees as filled with a quest for wisdom and happiness. "When I visited there a few years ago, I saw people with time and space to think, breathe, and engage one another,” Bremmer wrote.

Josh Bersin, principal and founder, Bersin by Deloitte

If you’re looking for a workplace where you really fit in then next year could be the best time to find it. Will 2016 be the year of diversity in business, asked Bersin in his post Why Diversity and Inclusion Will Be a Top Priority for 2016. His answer is yes.

"In today's working world, your ability to attract and engage people of all ages, cultures, backgrounds, and types is paramount to your business success,” he wrote. "Research proves that companies with great diversity outperform their peers by a significant margin.”

Firms with strategies that are integrated with inclusion and diversity, for instance, had "2.3 times higher cash flow per employee [and were] 1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders in their market”, Bersin wrote.

Of course, some strategies have more impact than others. "The two most important areas, those that correlated with the highest impact on business performance, are all about inclusion and diversity.  Inclusion is the goal… and diversity is the measure of success,” Bersin wrote. "This requires embedding inclusion and diversity into hiring, performance management, succession management, leadership development, learning, and specifically measuring diversity and holding leaders accountable for inclusive behaviours and diversity results.”

Why is this? Perhaps it’s obvious but, "people perform best when they feel valued, empowered and respected by their peers,” Bersin wrote.  When that happens, "in today’s global business environment, companies that build a truly inclusive culture will outperform their peers”.

(BBC)