“Not Cool.”

Aimee, thanks for posting this, I hope that it continues to get a lot of reads by men and women in Silicon Valley — and beyond. While this is not exclusively a “tech thing,” in my experience and opinion, I think that tech fosters a specific strain of bias and behavior.

One thing I found that a lot of men in tech struggle with being an “active ally,” especially when the perpetrator(s) of bias have a power role or are more alpha.

I was involved in starting a company about 4 years ago — there were about 4 men around the table, and someone said something that was gender inappropriate. I simply said,

“Not Cool.”

That led to a 5 minute discussion about workplace bias, and all of the negative ramifications “simple” comments like that could lead to — internally, externally and personally. It was a healthy teaching moment.

But, the interesting thing was that “Not Cool.” continued from that moment onward to be a “code” between the team members to simply shut down future inappropriate behavior and served as a trigger for reflection on the issue.

The frequency of “Not Cool.” moments diminished to near-zero, not overnight, but with overtime and served to be a simple technique to apply to a complex issue. It’s hardly a vaccine for the broad epidemic, but small tactics like this do add up to make a difference.

Thanks again for sharing your perspective and insight on this — and I wish you luck at Uber. Based solely from my perspective, I agree that they need you more than you need them — I hope that they appreciate that and that your efforts do help to reshape their culture to be more inclusive, constructive and professional.