SPECIAL FEATURE OCTOBER 2O19 VOLUME 22/ ISSUE 3 8  ABSTRACT Tis inaugural special edition on ‘Diversity in Systems Engineering’ explores the role of the systems engineering community in embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion as key enablers in the systems approach. As master integrators, systems engineers are accountable for delivering optimal afordable system solutions to complex problems. To do so requires more than an understand- ing of technology. It requires an understanding of people and social systems - culture and the impact of cultural barriers, the cost of gender inequity, the need for cognitive and idea diversity, and a path to achieve inclusivity by design to name just a few areas. Tese represent a sample of the topics addressed in this special edition, where authors share their past experiences and forward thinking on the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion in developing systems and global systems engineering leadership. From the Theme editors Diversity in Systems Engineering Special Feature Introduction Lisa Hoverman, lisa.hoverman@incose.org; David Long, david.long@incose.org; Alice F. Squires, ewlse@incose.org INTRODUCTION ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE Te articles in this special edition alternate between broad diversity-related research or thought pieces and INCOSE related examples or refections. We kick of the special edition with research focused on cultural diversity in Working across cultural boundaries – the many faces of diversity, by Cecilia Haskins. Cecilia adeptly takes us through an overview of both culture from a broad perspective and cultural diversity as it relates to systems engineering focused research. She relates the positive and negative efects of cultural diversity while pointing out the value of inte- grating multiple perspectives and revealing unconscious biases to the systems engi- neering community for problem solving, innovation, and efective communication. She closes with several recommendations for systems engineers gleaned from her review of the research on cultural diversity. Next, Alan Harding (the immediate past-President of INCOSE) and Andy Pickard (INCOSE Chief of Staf), provide an INCOSE self-refection in the area of diversity with a focus on gender diversity, in Towards a More Diverse INCOSE. Te authors investigate why diversity is im- portant for engineering and for INCOSE, how INCOSE fares from a gender diver- sity perspective, and what can be done to further the progress the organization has made to date. To this end, the authors issue three challenges to the INCOSE Board of Directors for establishing INCOSE as the lead “…inclusive and diverse engineering society in the world.” Johnny Morgan, in Harnessing the Diversity of Ideas for Competitive Advan- tage, brings us on a 50-year journey from the NASA Apollo program of 1969 to the International Space Station team of today, along with other examples, to emphasize the importance of the systems engineer- ing team to elicit and assess the merits of diverse ideas in order to deliver innovations of value. He starts with the sources of ideas and how ideas transform to innovations, then he moves to the role of generalists and specialists in an innovative organization, and he ends with behaviors that promote an inclusive environment so that individuals can share ideas that the team advances into innovations. He emphasizes the role of the systems engineer throughout the process as promoting shared ideas, advocating for required resources, and overcoming antici- pated challenges to deliver innovations that result in a competitive advantage. As an example of the power of diverse ideas, the INCOSE IS 2019 Practitioners Challenge team – Omar El-Haloush, Ste- phen Powley, Yash Kaushik, David Flanigan, and Joseph Sitomer – directly benefted from the real-time gathering of ideas across diferent domains from a variety of experts at the conference. Te stated problem was to apply systems engineering concepts to the challenge of addressing the problem of clean D iversity’ has a diferent meaning to each of us and even that mean- ing can change depending on the context in which the term is used or even the person using the term. To clarify our intent for this special edition, the ‘Call for Papers’ requested articles on topics ad- dressing the importance and value of diver- sity in enabling, promoting, and advancing systems engineering and systems approaches to address complex societal and technical challenges for a better world. Our emphases were on overcoming challenges, devel- oping inclusive policies, building diverse teams, embracing diverse thinking styles and approaches, and focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workforce – with a focus on building a better tomorrow. In recognition of the role of diversity in systems engineering, this inaugural special edition of the INCOSE INSIGHT arrives at the same time as INCOSE Technical Opera- tions introduces a ‘Cross Cutting Category’ of diversity in systems engineering for the INCOSE International Symposium (IS) 2020 tutorial, panel, and paper submissions with the following description: “5.10 Diversity (cultural boundaries, diverse engineering teams, training underserved groups, etc.).” Tus, while the term ‘diversity’ may at frst cause you to focus on events in your past, we ask you to join us in building on the research presented and lessons learned from this special edition, to look towards an open, welcoming, future.