ANTHONY MAYS: Hi, I'm Anthony D. Mays--
software engineer at Google.
And I'm here to talk to you on the topic of one
to more-- why sharing our narrative matters.
Again, my name is Anthony Mays.
I'm a software engineer at Google-- just a software
engineer, but I also happen to be a DEI advocate.
And I think it'd be interesting to start off
by just talking about how I became a DEI
advocate in the first place.
I started off my life as a foster kid
in Compton, after being exposed to physical and sexual abuse.
And throughout that journey, I learned how to be a programmer,
and learned how to code when I was very young.
Began to become very interested in computer science,
and went to the University of California, Irvine
to get a degree in that area.
Went throughout my career not thinking that I was good enough
to reach a place like a Google or one of the other big tech
companies.
But I always wanted to work for Google.
And so after failing the interview process
and then succeeding on my second try,
I now find myself a Googler.
And it's been the culmination of a lot of things
and a dream come true for me.
And I didn't anticipate becoming a DEI advocate.
By the way, DEI stands for diversity, equity,
and inclusion-- if you didn't already know.
And these are things that are very important to me, which
is one of the reasons why I've become
so passionate about advocating for more diversity, equity,
and inclusion in tech.
Championing more belonging in this space that
has traditionally been challenged
with not having enough representation
from various individuals.
And so I want to talk to today about how I do this.
How I advocate for better DEI through something
that I like to describe as sharing your narrative.
Now, there's three things that enables me to do
what I do as a DEI advocate.
First is just having a strong company culture that
enables me to do what I do.
Second is having the support and participation
of people from throughout all levels of the company.
That's been very important for me,
as others have championed and supported me in my work.
And then, lastly, this idea of sharing your narrative.
So I'm just going to break each of these down to be more clear.
So when we talk about having an empowering culture,
there's really four things that I think work well
about the culture at Google.
First of all, the culture is strong and well-defined.
There's things that make Google's culture unique.
The people that we hire tend to be very intelligent.
Tend to be quirky.
We describe it as googliness Googliness
is a description of the culture that we seek to have.
One where innovation is encouraged.
Where people work hard, but are also able to collaborate.
A culture where you can have fun and enjoy what you do,
but at the same time, tackle very deep and hard and meaty
problems.
And that kind of culture is well-suited for someone
who is working in the DEI space because there are so
many challenges.
There's a lot of obstacles to overcome.
And having a culture that champions and supports
the best and brightest is important.
As part of that, trust in leadership is important.
And I don't mean managers and managers of managers.
What I mean is leaders.
People who are naturally inclined to find a problem,
and see it, and want to tackle it.
You want to find people who can be leaders,
even if they don't have the formal title-- as I don't.
You want to support them in leadership.
And it's important that when you find leaders
that you trust them to be leaders and support them
in their journey.
One of the other things that's important about Google's
culture is the emphasis on results.
So it's not just about saying cool things.
It's about doing cool things.
And as a DEI advocate, one of the things that is important
is that I'm held accountable for showing the results of the work
that I do.
And making sure that we're moving in the right direction.
Measuring results is important, too.
So having regular surveys that gauge employee sentiment,
and really understanding how people are thinking and feeling
is a very important part of ensuring that the culture
remains strong.
And then last, but not least, there are enablement tools.
And in order to be a DEI advocate,
there are a lot of tools that I need.
Everything from scheduling and calendering,
to social media tools, to templates, to program guides.
You name it, there's a lot of tools that are used in the work
that I do to help me be effective.
And it's important to have quick and ready access
to those tools.
Oftentimes, I'm not needing to ask for permission
to use these tools.
I'm just encouraged to use them, and to use them responsibly.
And having that kind of freedom enables
me to be very effective as a DEI advocate.
Now in addition to the culture, another thing
that's very important is making sure
that everyone is helping to drive change.
You know, a culture it's not just up to one or two people
to decide how that culture is going to be.
Every time you add a new person to the company,
every time you add in the person of the culture,
it impacts the culture.
And it's important that everyone understands
that they have a role and place in this discussion
and in this change.
It's not just up to black people--
such as myself, for instance.
And when you don't have a culture in which everyone feels
encouraged and empowered to participate
it places the burden on those who really seek and desire,
maybe even need change to do the work.
And that's not healthy.
One of the challenges of being me--
being a person who happens to identify as a black man
and as a Christian-- is that there aren't that many of me
in tech.
At least, not yet.
And it's unfair to place all of the burden on change
on the people who are the least represented
or who aren't well-represented.
Furthermore, it's important for everyone
to understand why you want more representation.
Why you want more inclusiveness and belonging.
So that everyone can buy into the same vision
going in the same direction.
Now, one of the things that I believe
is very important towards helping us achieve this goal is
the idea of the narrative.
And it used to be called diversity narrative.
You can call it that or belonging narrative.
However it is.
But the idea of the narrative is that it is a story that
fleshes out who you are.
It really fleshes out not just who you are,
but why you care about diversity, equity,
and inclusion.
And I would like to think that the narrative reflects
the things that don't show up on your resume.
A lot of us have skills and qualifications
that we know make us suitable for executing the business
tasks that we are assigned to execute.
But there are other things that inform
how we are the way that we are.
These are attributes and qualities
that we gain over our lifetime that
inform the technical aspects of what we do.
And it's really about, as Martin Luther King said once,
the content of your character.
And we want to have a good understanding of how
our character is shaped the way that it is,
and how it is that we relate to other people.
And how the differences that we bring,
most importantly, inform how we make decisions,
whether in a team or on a project,
so that we're able to build one another up.
And this is really about making sure
that we've got a culture of belonging.
Where everyone feels like they have a part in the discussion.
Where everyone feels like they have a part and a role to play.
And that they feel like they're part of the team in helping
to achieve the right results.
In today's climate, where you have such underrepresentation,
it's common for people like me who
come from a nontraditional background
to sometimes feel excluded or to not feel
like we belong as we should.
And I've talked to many people who
have had that narrative over the years, whether it's
a woman who's a software engineer,
but is treated as though she's a project manager.
Or whether it's a black person who is misidentified.
Or any of those other things.
Those kinds of interactions cause people to not
feel like they belong, and as a result of that,
sometimes when we chase diversity before inclusion,
we end up making this revolving door effect.
Where the people from diverse backgrounds that we hire
end up walking right back out the door
because they don't feel like they're
part of the organization.
And so narratives can help build more representation and more
belonging, more specifically, within the organization
so that people who are hired and new talent that comes along
know that they are part of the organization.
That they're part of the team.
And that they belong and can do productive work.
And so one of the things that I think
I do more than anything else as a DEI advocate
is to empower other people to share their narrative.
To open up about what makes them them.
And how they contribute to the culture and to the team
and to doing the things that they do in a more holistic way.
And so, this is what brings me to a special initiative
that I started within Google, and I'd like to share with you.
Because I think you may be wondering, well,
how do you share your narrative?
How do you encourage other people
to share their narrative, and to talk about who they are,
and what they bring to the table,
and why DEI matters to them?
I think that once you understand how
to encourage other people to do that,
it can have a very powerful and transformative effect, as we'll
talk about shortly.
So I started the thing called Share Your Narrative
within Google.
And what it does is it provides a platform and a framework
and a space for people to talk about their narratives.
And I think that it's one of those things that
really helps to scale my impact as a DEI advocate.
Because I'm just one person, and I
want to have as much impact as widespread as possible while
I'm sitting in my seat.
And I believe that the Share Your Narrative initiative
has helped me to do that.
As I mentioned before, the Share Your Narrative initiative
really is three components.
One is a platform that is built and used
in order to encourage people to, first of all,
understand what a narrative is, and then, two, how to share it.
Two, there's a framework.
And so there's specific things that make up a good narrative,
and we talk about that And then, lastly, we
provide an environment where you can explore
what that narrative is, and understand how it works,
and how you can improve it and make it better.
So first thing, the platform.
When I built the Share Your Narrative site,
it was very simple.
It was just a Google Sites site.
And it linked to a Google+ community,
which is now Google Currents.
And that's really all I needed.
Google Currents was great for providing
a place where folks could post video, articles, images.
As they're sharing a story from their life,
they're able to show a picture of maybe that time
of their life to help folks visualize
what's going on or maybe pointing to a helpful video.
Having rich multimedia on a social media platform
is very important for helping people
to really share parts of themselves
that maybe they wouldn't otherwise
share if they didn't have that kind of a platform.
On the website that we have for Share Your Narrative,
it's just a static page.
It includes some instructions and FAQ.
Really very simple, but it's an one-stop shop
for finding out what a narrative is and how to share it.
And at Google, we make it very easy to share websites.
We have special links.
And so I crafted a special link that points to the site
and made it very easy and memorable for people to get to.
Next comes the framework.
And I'll admit that I didn't invent the diversity narrative
framework, but more than hardly use it.
Now a diversity narrative really is formed of three parts.
First, there is the reason why you care about DEI.
And so you talk about, what are the things that
are meaningful to you about improving representation
or more belonging or those things,
and you'll just briefly touch on that theme.
And the theme will set up for the second part, which
is a story that helps illustrate why
you care about that aspect of diversity, equity,
and inclusion.
It should be something real, something that happened.
It can be something that relates to a business situation
that you've encountered, where you
saw an optimal result achieved because of DEI or the opposite,
if the lack of representation didn't result in the outcome
that you were hoping for.
So there's that story.
And if there isn't a story that you feel comfortable sharing
about yourself, perhaps there's something
that you've noticed in another situation that didn't directly
happen to you that made you think
about why DEI is important.
Certainly, the events pertaining to George Floyd
has caused many to not just hear about, but also
see some of the reasons why this work is
important and impactful.
And so you can talk about that in your narrative and share,
maybe, a moment from your life where it really
hit home for you.
And then, the last thing that I'll
talk about in the framework is a call to action.
So you'll have the purpose--
why DEI matters to you.
You'll have the story that connects to that purpose.
And then, lastly, some call to action.
And the call to action is super important.
In the call to action, you want to make sure
that you're inviting people to join you in the work.
Because hopefully, in parts one and two,
you've inspired people to understand why they, too,
should care about DEI.
And if they're ready to act, you can provide them
a way to join you in the work.
The last thing that the Share Your Narrative community does
is provide a safe environment for people
to share their narrative and to feel supported.
And so it manifests in two ways.
Number one, there's someone who reviews
the narratives for spelling and grammar
and just to make sure that things
are cohesive and succinct.
Then once someone decides to post within the Google Currents
community, other people can like on those narratives
or share their comments or support
the people who are writing.
And from what I've seen, it's always been positive.
It's always been good when people post these narratives
and are able to say, hey, I connect with that.
One of the other unique things about specifically using
Google Currents is that in our community
we're able to sort posts by a number of different factors.
And so if you were writing a post that
focused on why age representation matters,
you could categorize your post that way.
Or if you're talking about race or gender,
you could categorize those.
And then it gives the community a great way
to be able to see the narratives from these various axes
of diversity that one may care about.
Now our community is rather small.
It's just 156 community members and growing.
And I'd say that's not bad for a software engineer.
But if those numbers seem small, I
want you to think about the multiplicative effect
of sharing your narrative.
See, a narrative isn't just shared within our community.
Oftentimes, it can be included in an email link.
It can be shared during a team meeting.
It can be spoken in an offsite.
Used during a speech before a very technical presentation.
There's any number of ways that you can do that.
Even just sharing with your own family or friends.
By sharing your narrative, you connect with other people
and help them to understand why it matters to you.
And if they care about you, why it
should matter to them, as well.
And so, the narrative has a multiplicative effect.
My own story about my journey to Google from Compton
was featured in a BuzzFeed video that had over 5 million views.
And certainly, it's probably safe to say
that hundreds of thousands of people all around the world
have heard my story and narrative,
and have been encouraged by my journey,
as I've given of myself to talk about how it is
that I came to be in the space.
And how I encourage other people to do the same.
And so there is this multiplicative effect of each
and every single one of those individuals.
Some of who are engineers, like myself.
Others are executives, some are in sales.
They come from all different parts of Google
and all around the world, and they
participate in this community.
And also share their own narratives in places
that we may not be able to see.
And so there's a great positive benefit
of being able to see these narratives grow
and be shared widely.
This really is about scalability.
There's only so much that I can do as an individual.
But I want to make sure that I can empower the next generation
to do what I'm doing and to do it even better so that we
can encourage more inclusiveness and belonging in the space.
Now I just want to end with a couple of final thoughts
that I think are important.
First of all, understand that knowledge isn't power.
Not knowledge by itself.
Knowledge rightly applied is powerful.
And that's really what this is about.
A lot of us have been learning over the past few months
about why the conversations about race, about inclusion,
about belonging--
not just the tech, but in the world--
why these things matter.
It's not enough just to sit on that knowledge
and not do anything.
It's important to do something.
And sharing your narrative can be
one of the easiest ways for you to be impactful in terms
of inviting other people to the conversation,
inviting other people to the work.
Now even though it's one of the easiest ways,
it's still not easy.
And I know that it takes you sharing a bit of yourself
that maybe you didn't plan on sharing at work, and that's OK.
You're not alone.
And one of the best things about the Share
Your Narrative program is that it has shown people
that they're not alone.
I'm not alone as a person who has struggled
through a rough upbringing to become a software
engineer, beating the odds.
There are other people like me across all
different backgrounds and all different shades.
And that's really what belonging is all about.
At the end of the day, I know that,
as a result of this program and other things,
that I belong just as much as anyone else,
because I'm a Googler.
And so, I hope that this time has been encouraging to you.
Thank you for tuning in to watch this presentation.
And the best of luck to you as you
pursue greater diversity, equity,
and inclusion in your company or organization.
Thank you.