Technology companies are often held up as open, forward-looking enterprises capable of quickly adapting and moving on innovations. Indeed, many do function as autonomous sets of creative teams, with little formal management to hinder their progress.
Still, there’s a crisis that has been bubbling within tech culture that often derails such innovative spirit. That is, they tend toward “bro cultures,” closing off more diverse points of view and possibilities for innovation.
In her latest book, Rebooting Tech Culture, Telle Whitney provides a cautionary tale of how technology companies often derail themselves with such closed cultures or even hubris. It’s important that mainstream businesses – of whom many are becoming or seek to become technology businesses in their own right – understand the “gotchas” of pursuing a tech culture that closely mirrors Silicon Valley.
Whitney, a Silicon Valley startup veteran herself, and co-founder of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, says tech has long had a culture problem – it is still dominated by white males, which tends to shape the data and insights delivered through machines and software. “As tech firms grow, their processes and hierarchies become hardened, limiting the freedom to experiment or bring new ideas to the table.” Whitney observes. They are also subject to the “lone genius archetype.”
“Most business leaders do not doubt the value of an inclusive culture.” However, “the hard truth is that most leaders don’t want to fundamentally change their workplaces.”
To overcome this, Whitney urges leaders to take positive steps to promote respect, manage conflict, and develop employee skills early and often, to promote greater diversity of thought and innovation. Importantly, this is not an HR challenge – every executive, a manager, and team leader can take relatively simple steps to open up their organizations:
- Share your company’s vision. “Regularly talk about the impact your products have on the market and the world. Discuss the importance of the mission with job candidates and new employees.”
- Clearly articulate success. This includes “the problems that need to be solved to accomplish the mission. Frequently remind your team what success looks like. Regularly emphasize the opportunities and excitement in doing something that has never been done.”
- Be an example. “Demonstrate with your behavior how ideas are listened to, challenged, and carried forward. Regularly review your product development thought processes and the evolution of ideas.”
- Don’t shy away from challenging conflict. “Communicate that negative, aggressive, and disrespectful behavior is not tolerated, emphasize respect instead. Call out microaggressions and aggressive behavior.”
- Actively invite everyone to share ideas. All voices need to be heard. “Host forums, hackathons, and discussion sessions for employees to present new and novel perspectives and discuss new product and feature ideas.”
- Ensure there is a diverse group of role models for employees. This can be encouraged through sending “employees to conferences, local meetups, or virtual events where they might meet role models. Solicit advice from staff as to external events they would like to attend.”
- Be suspicious of traditional methods that are are considered sacrosanct. “Challenge assumptions of ‘how things are done.’ Regularly evaluate the success of your processes and consider alternatives. Consider whether your approaches serve all needs, meet all objectives, or work for only certain populations or types of problems.”
- Question traditional views of success. “Re-evaluate your organization’s preconceived notions of what talent and high potentials look like. Consider which traits and behaviors that you look for in employees might exclude talent from certain groups.”
