What I, a White Male CEO, Have Learned About Being a Woman in Utah's Tech Industry

Yesterday afternoon, TaskEasy hosted its first ever Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) “Harkness Roundtable” (Workshop) with 12 of our female managers and amazing female employees. The whole experience was so terrific I couldn't help but sit there and ask myself, why on earth have I never done this before? And how can we make an even greater impact?

To begin with, I need to clarify how our event was structured and the purpose of the meeting, as I believe this contributed, in large part, to what I believe were overwhelmingly successful results. So, here's the background. TaskEasy recently took the "Parity Pledge," which is an agreement to "commit [our] organization to simply interview and consider at least one qualified woman for every open role, VP and higher, including the C-Suite and the Board. That’s it. No quotas. No deadlines" (https://www.parity.org/take-the-pledge/).  As I was contemplating this pledge I was reminded of the nearly identical "Rooney Rule" in football that may have single handedly increased minority hiring in football coaching positions from around 6% before the rule to nearly 22% as of the writing of this article, in just a few short years (https://operations.nfl.com/media/2619/2016-nfl-diversity-and-inclusion-report.pdf). "Wow," I thought, “if something as small as the Parity Pledge might make a difference as big as the Rooney Rule, then I'll bet we can take additional steps to do even greater things.” But what are those steps and ideas?

I realized immediately that I was not qualified to come up with ideas on my own, and needed some help. Our company already has a culture of using a method developed by the Phillips Exeter Academy (a private school in New Hampshire) called the "Harkness Method" for exploring solutions to problems, teaching and learning. Harkness involves students (in our case employees) seated in a large, oval configuration to discuss ideas in an encouraging, open-minded environment with only occasional or minimal teacher (in our case manager) intervention  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harkness_table).

I asked members of my executive leadership team (admittedly, and in full disclosure, all white males before this event--we have just named two talented females to join our executive leadership team) to please identify a total of 12 female employees and managers (somewhat at random for a good representation of the entire company) to participate in this Harkness Roundtable. I asked my head of Human Resources (an amazing female leader) if she would please interview each of the possible participants, one-on-one, to let them know the nature of the Harkness Roundtable conversation we wished to have, ask them if they were willing to participate (non-mandatory with no repercussions of they chose not to participate), and let them know that we would be having a very frank, and potentially very difficult, candid, and potentially uncomfortable conversation about issues such as female harassment in the workplace, work/life balance with children, gender bias, and females in STEM/management/leadership. I asked her to specifically let each person know that they needed to come prepared to be very forgiving about the way we might talk about and grapple with these issues--as surely words would elude us and be tricky, and we might have to stumble on our own words before we could successfully communicate an emotion or thought that's been weighing on us related to these topics. I also asked her to solicit their input on how the event might be successful (out of which came the idea that my head of human resources and not me, the CEO, should be the moderator of the conversation, which was a terrific improvement to the format). She also communicated to them that their personal stories and anecdotes would be kept confidential within the participating group, but that the ideas for improving our company's best practices would be shared more broadly and we would try to put into effect as many of them as possible.

As we sat around the table (we held the Harkness Roundtable offsite so as to not be distracted), a group of equals coming together to work on very real problems and struggles, I was thrilled at some of the ideas that emerged (after much tears and laughter).

To begin with, we identified three augmentations to the Parity Pledge that when discussed, were so obviously impactful and so easy to implement, that we agreed to move forward on them immediately.

Augmentations to the Parity Pledge:

1. We should interview interview and consider at least one qualified woman for every open role, not just VP and higher as stated in the Parity Pledge.
2. We should have a least one of our female employees interview each potential candidate for every open role (male and female candidates).
3. We should have a least one of our female employees be involved in the hiring decision for every open role (male and female candidates).

Other ideas that we're now exploring feasibility and/or the best ways to implement, include:

1. Instead of avoiding mixed gender travel or mixed gender lunch/dinner meetings (either intentionally/unintentionally or because of some unspoken bias), come up with a format where people can (and should) candidly (and as a matter of company best practice) ask questions like: "Are you comfortable traveling with him/her?" "Would you prefer to drive the rental car?" "Are there any concerns of perceived impropriety being alone with a member of the opposite sex?" Everyone recognized that it was far worse to feel like you were being excluded because of your gender than it was to have a candid, and potentially even difficult conversation about it.
2. Encourage or even require employees to take gender/racial bias testing to help people get over their ingrained denial that no such bias exists and understand that although these biases may be common, people need to be aware of their own biases and actively work on reducing and eliminating them.
3. Build a culture, beyond just basic training, that is aware of sexual harassment and is comfortable discussing difficult, but very real and present, topics often (daily, if needed). That way, when issues do arise, it's not about "oh, I remember that in my training" and more like "oh, we talk about this often because the company culture prides itself on safety/diversity/inclusion and as a result I know what's expected, and I know exactly what to do if anything to the contrary arises, and I know I have the continual support and respect of my leadership and managers and peers."  
4. Make sure that resources exist (e.g. a hotline) that allow an employee to "talk out" possible solutions to a potential workplace problem (if desired) without involving the offending person or their manager or the company they work for (anonymity). This could include the availability of discretionary coaching, encouragement and a listening ear if and when an employee is uncertain about their options to resolve an issue.
5. Foster a culture of open, constant, and continuous communication about all of these topics and issues. Small things, like flirty behavior, silly jokes, strong language, inclusion/exclusion, alcohol consumption, can either fester as sources of discomfort, or bring people together in a spirit of comradery, on an individual-to-individual basis. The only way to determine the many-to-many boundaries that exist between every individual in a company and every other individual in a company is to be very quick to have empathy and conversations about what each person prefers and enjoys, and then overlay that collective understanding on our group interactions.
6. There was a strong desire to have worktime flexibility for child care (and, as many were quick to point out, non-child related personal commitments like school, hobbies, pets, sicknesses, etc).  There was a very constructive, albeit somewhat inconclusive, conversation about how to provide flexibility fairly, both to the company and to other employees, on a gender neutral basis. There was also a candid conversation about the opposite possibility of unfairness when accommodations or even pay decisions are made, or even just perceived to have been made, based on the fact that someone has a family or kids (e.g. culture of making the single or childless employees work later or harder or for less pay just because "they don't have a family or kids to worry about.")
7. Start to explore on-site child care options, even if it needs to be at the employee's expense (if the employer is at a stage of profitability where they aren't yet positioned to subsidize or cover the expenses), to help improve productivity, time management, allow parents to be with children during breaks and lunch, and generally reduce the stress and even feelings of guilt associated with trying to balance raising children with wanting to have a career.
8. Offer weekly or periodic and voluntary coding classes to women, taught by volunteers from engineering. Establish from the beginning that this isn't an effort to turn someone into an experienced coder, but instead, just to expose them to coding in a way that demystifies the field, makes it more approachable, and causes more women to consider the time and financial investment necessary to turn it into a career, or help to qualify them for roles that lead to engineering roles.

This event may have been the most rewarding of my professional career.  I was more nervous about hosting it than any public speaking engagement I've ever done.  But the strong sense of love, empathy, mutual respect, and feeling of being completely heard, in a world where it feels like nobody is listening and everyone is shouting, was its own reward for me personally, and I believe for the participants (who, by the way, I asked to review this story before posting, and they helped me to soften my words and clarify my thoughts).  Additionally, I believe we made some decisions that will result in positive change, and started the dialogue for many more ideas that can begin to change the world--one employee, one company, one city at a time.  I challenge my CEO peers to take some personal risk and hold a Harkness Roundtable of their own.  If you want to hear more about how my team made this all happen, reach out to me.  And after you're done, reach out to me again to trade good ideas, as this is only the beginning, we have a long ways to go.

Ken Davis (CEO, TaskEasy)