When you jump on a city bus or roam the streets off the major thoroughfares you'll quickly learn that we have as many differences as similarities. And therein lie the greatest opportunities for innovation - our different ways of viewing the world and coming up with solutions!

I'm obsessed with efficiency. And there are some tasks I need to just leave alone. And there are others - like an evening with one of my daughters or my wife - where I need to toss efficiency aside and simply be in the moment.

The very ability to empathize with a user requires that I have an understanding of that user's value and needs. This is what leads to many product fails. The individuals developing the innovation don't actually use it.

Clashing expectations are what most consistently derail any team, and especially a culturally diverse team. So if you take the time to "define" the goal carefully upfront, you've addressed one of the most difficult and important parts of the innovative process.

The most important part of aligning various expectations is to clearly describe the problem you are trying to solve and identify at least three different ways diverse users experience this problem. The more diverse your team, the better you'll be at doing this.

Given the increasing diversity among customers and employees, organizations that attend to cultural intelligence are more successful.

Culturally intelligent leaders will not assume they know what will build trust with clients or staff. Instead, they'll discover what's most important for communicating and building trust.