As a female founder, mother of four girls and passionate #STEM and #diversity advocate, I am doing what I can in my sphere of influence to drive diversity and inclusion, ignite conversation, table the metrics and push for progress. 

But diversity is indeed a very wicked problem. 

Entrenched cognitive biases, fixed cultures, diversity fatigue and too much talk and too little action mean we’ve actually still got a long way to go before D&I and gender is no longer on the agenda. (Run the numbers on the number of women in tech/STEM/funded startups/ASX or Fortune500 CEO leadership roles/government senior level positions. Not good.)

We keep talking/reading/town hall-ing about team diversity as a critical driver of innovation and problem-solving, but unless we can cultivate it/hire for it/celebrate it/elevate it/action it, our best attempts at innovation will always be constrained. 

Atlassian’s recent State of Diversity Report 2018 reveals why the D&I dial isn’t actually moving despite the conversations about cultural shift and commitment to D&I in the US and Silicon Valley right now. 

This is, of course, an endemic problem.

To effect any real change we need to sweep company-, startup- and society-wide, top to bottom, bring more chairs to the cap table, break down mindless bureaucracy, shift fixed mindsets, share our stories, build D&I skills, action inclusivity programs, push against status quo, employ empathy, and put people, values, balance and belonging before the BS of empty D&I PR rhetoric.

We also need to commit to active end-to-end processes and systems that mandate diversity as an accountable, transparent line item, and usher in a new world of work practice where we hire for diversity of not just faces but races, places and think spaces (mind sets).

What are you doing to action diversity and shift the dial? #teamup 

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At www.girledworld.com we are doing our bit to build girls up with skills and real-world knowledge so they can do their best work with values-driven passion. But the world needs to be ready for them when they unleash themselves on it. 

Join us to build the next Gen of innovators, founders and leaders at the girledworld WOW Summit 2018 at RMIT University.

A life-changing weekend of real-world learning for girls. Details here.

#teamup #girledworld #closetheSTEMdergap #womenintech