Marielle de Geest

Then there’s the idea of dissatisfaction. By this I don’t mean a pessimistic dissatisfaction of the world — we don’t like the way things are — I mean a constructive dissatisfaction. The idea could be expressed in the words, This is OK, but I think things could be done better. I think there is a neater way to do this. I think things could be improved a little. In other words, there is continually a slight irritation when things don’t look quite right; and I think that dissatisfaction in present days is a key driving force in good scientists.

While many great D&I initiatives do start with small steps, asking people with multiple identities of marginalization to “wait their turn,” contributes to further inequity. So, all of our efforts must be intersectional, and deliberately focus on those on the fringes. Because unfortunately, a “focus on women” often becomes just white women. The key to remember, if we can remove the obstacles for those who are most unfairly held back by our society, then those in the middle automatically benefit, too.

“We’ve given the word “empathy” a lot of deserving fanfare in the last few years, and next we’ll need to add to that rally-cry with ‘ego-less.’ Many still find it uncomfortable to invite “non-designers” into their headspace and discover that their best design is ultimately 90% (or more) other peoples’ input and 10% (or less) their own ideas, but the most successful teams and companies have known this about design for a long time.”