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WAYNE SUTTON: Hi, I'm Wayne Sutton.
MELINDA EPLER: I'm Melinda Epler.
We're the founders of Change Catalyst.
We empower inclusive and sustainable innovation
globally through startup ecosystem and tech inclusion
programs
WAYNE SUTTON: Welcome to this series sponsored
by Women Techmakers, Google's initiative that
provides visibility, community, and resources
for women in technology.
MELINDA EPLER: Together we're helping tech hub leaders
to develop more inclusive tech cultures, programs, and spaces.
In an ever expanding tech economy,
tech hubs are the centers of innovation for cities
and regions around the world.
WAYNE SUTTON: A tech hub is usually
a physical space or community that
provides educational opportunities, meet ups,
events, and co-working spaces.
It may also house an incubator or accelerator.
MELINDA EPLER: Inside a tech hub you'll
find a community of entrepreneurs, engineers,
investors, and community leaders building innovative tech
products and services.
WAYNE SUTTON: Tech hubs provide support to early stage
startups, access to mentorship, and new team members' skills
building and career development, shared spaces, and learning.
As well as formal and informal opportunities
for collaboration.
MELINDA EPLER: We're going to talk
about diversity and inclusion a lot in this series.
Here's how we define it--
diversity is bringing people to the table from a wide variety
of backgrounds.
But it's not enough just to sit at the table,
inclusion invites them to speak and encourages them to lead.
You need both together for your team to thrive.
WAYNE SUTTON: A fully inclusive culture
is one where everyone is welcome,
accepted, respected, supported, and able to thrive
across all genders, races, ethnicities, abilities,
religious beliefs, veteran status, geographic origins,
sexual orientations, ages, social economic backgrounds.
MELINDA EPLER: When we're all included,
we all feel happier and produce better business results.
We love coming to work, we have more confidence,
we're more productive, and we can show up as our full selves.
Our staff satisfaction increases, turnover decreases,
and we all invest in our workplace.
Tech hubs are the center of innovation for cities,
and collaboration between diverse peoples
creates the best solutions.
Inclusive teams solve problems for everyone.
Innovation must come from all of us, for all of us.
WAYNE SUTTON: Tech is the most rapidly growing sector
with some of the highest paying jobs.
Yet, right now, it's leaving people out.
This is what we call the wealth and opportunity gap.
At the same time, there are many unfulfilled tech jobs, which
is continuing to increase.
MELINDA EPLER: Yeah, tech is one of the few industries where
you can enter the workplace with the right skills
in under a year.
WAYNE SUTTON: Right now, tech is losing
out on this great opportunity by not including more people.
MELINDA EPLER: Increasing diversity and inclusion
can dramatically affect the products you make
and the bottom line for your company.
Here's the data-- diverse and inclusive teams show 22%
greater productivity, 39% higher customer satisfaction.
Gender diverse leadership teams have 15% higher
financial returns, and ethnically diverse leadership
teams have 35% higher financial returns.
WAYNE SUTTON: We all have a role to play
in solving diversity and inclusion in tech,
because we all had a role in creating the imbalances that
currently keep under-represented people out of tech.
MELINDA EPLER: There is a network effect.
WAYNE SUTTON: Access to capital and jobs in tech
both rely on networks that some people don't have access to.
Even understanding the tech culture
and how the tech industry operates
can be tough for people who aren't currently
inside the tech industry.
MELINDA EPLER: There's a tech education
gap that starts in early childhood education
and grows larger from there.
Without early digital access and role models,
kids are less likely to be interested in tech
in the first place.
And even if they become interested,
unless they attend an elite school,
they're less likely to be hired for a tech role.
WAYNE SUTTON: There's a false meritocracy
in the tech industry.
There is a belief that everyone gets
to the top due to their own merit,
and that others who aren't at the top
just didn't have the skills to get there.
But our systems are created for, and by,
a homogeneous culture that actively, and passively, leaves
out the majority of the world's population.
MELINDA EPLER: Where skills and the ability to learn
are universal, opportunity is not.
WAYNE SUTTON: There's also a lack of representation
in media, in textbooks, in toys, and in films.
If you can see it, you can be it.
But if you don't see it, you might not
think tech is a real path for you.
MELINDA EPLER: Changing behavior is hard, too,
and full of economic and emotional barriers.
We're humans with biases that affect
our judgments about people.
WAYNE SUTTON: To be more inclusive,
we must work on our own empathy for others
and acknowledge and filter our own biases.
MELINDA EPLER: And to have more inclusive tech companies
and tech hubs, we have to change a lot of individual behaviors.
This is not an easy task and takes both time and resources.
WAYNE SUTTON: But it is worth it.
When you develop an inclusive culture at your tech hub,
you will be rewarded with an innovation
ecosystem that truly thrives.
It's good for business, it's good for the local economy,
it's good for the world.
Watch the series of videos to learn how you and your team
can address these issues and become a more inclusive tech
hub.
MELINDA EPLER: It starts with measurement and accountability,
the role of leadership in diversity and inclusion,
creating an inclusive culture.
WAYNE SUTTON: Expanding your diversity goals
through external programs, and create
inclusive physical spaces in your hub.
For more information about Women Techmakers,
Change Catalyst, and additional resources, see the links below.
MELINDA EPLER: Share this series with your community,
and let's work together to create inclusive tech
hubs around the world.
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