Triche Guenin //January 5, 2015//
If A=B and B=C, then A must = C. This is the rationale being employed by the PRIME collaborative in its latest strategic drive to facilitate Colorado becoming one of the top three digital health care markets in the nation. In this case, A represents diversity, B equates to innovation and C is the Colorado Digital health marketplace.
In a recent joint PRIME/Colorado Health Foundation initiative to identify and jumpstart the current players in Colorado’s digital health care community, it became painfully obvious that these organizations were predominantly headed up by white males. And since there is documented proof that diverse teams produce more innovative products/services, there is now a concerted effort to provide opportunities and encourage those representing the diverse segment of the Colorado population with this homogenous group.
PRIME contacted NCWIT (National Center of Women & Information Technology) to support this cause and provide education/awareness to the Colorado business environment. Lucy Sanders, an engineer/inventor/VP and longtime employee of Bell Labs, is co-founder/CEO of NCWIT. She shared data to support the notion that diverse teams do, in fact, produce more innovative products/services. Her focus happened to have a gender/technology lens, but the same holds true for other groups (for example, men in nursing).
“Societal bias negatively impacts many people and especially women in computing,” Sanders says. “It’s a fundamental part of leadership to understand the causes of such bias and take steps to address it.”
Some facts shared at the last joint PRIME/NCWIT meeting included the following (for specific sources, please contact NCWIT):
The bottom line: U.S. organizations are losing opportunities in developing innovative technology solutions by failing to utilize diverse teams in their product/service development. Colorado can learn from this and can lead the national charge by focusing on this basic element. Technical women aren’t broken and technical men aren’t the enemy. The culprit is societal bias (shared by both women and men) that manifests itself in technical cultures.
We all bring unconscious biases to the work place. But these “shortcuts” sometimes make us misinterpret or miss things. These biases also wreak havoc in the organizational environment by impacting subtle dynamics (via perceptions and/or stereotypes) and institutional barriers (e.g. within the hiring process).
A number of studies prove this:
So, now that we know these biases exist and prevent the optimal use of technical talent, what can organizational leaders do to overcome this issue?
Pam DeBellis, Principal of Mackie DeBellis Associates and meeting attendee, called it a “painful reminder of how far our society still has to go…..when we have leadership that is committed to diversity, inclusion, and best outcomes, then we will truly make progress.”
Essentially, inclusivity improves the environment for all genders/ethnicities. And ultimately, the organization that embraces this will benefit with the most innovative products/services. PRIME’s challenge to the Colorado business community is to focus on diversity so as to put Colorado on the map regarding innovation, specifically in the area of digital health care.
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