Why is the Idea of Inclusivity so Complicated?
Within the span of a few weeks I had the opportunity to attend the Social Capital Markets conference in San Francisco, and speak at the penultimate AlterConf in Portland. SOCAP’s annual meeting consistently tries and bring forward a gender and inclusivity lens to work in social impact field. AlterConf’s sole mission is to create a space to discuss issues around diversity and inclusivity in the gaming and tech industry.
I attended one of the few discussions around racial equity — a sessions called “International Context” — slated as the last session on the last day at SOCAP. Rather than a packed room, we were a small circle of primarily women. SOCAP requires women and ethnic minorities to be represented in every panel, but there still seems to be a lack of adequate representation from low and middle income countries, or even low and middle income sectors in the US— where much of the social impact work is actually taking place.
I was left wondering that if inclusivity is at the top of mind for everyone, why does it seem so hard to push from theory to actuality?
I think I found the answer in the Overton window. This is a concept Kara Sowles discussed during the opening talk at Alter Conference. The Manager of Community and Evangelism at a local tech org, Sowles spoke about effective ways to change things and referenced the concept as a scale of public opinion used to measure left and right wing opinions. The theory is a great visual representation that explains many complex sociological situations: like how the current political thinking in the US is so slanted right, that even a moderate opinion looks to be radically left (or outside of the window).
Applying this window to organisations, it makes sense why so many organisations’ windows are currently constructed is such a way that inclusivity policies feel starkly different from the status quo — outside the window. The idea of inclusion feels like an “approach” or an alternative way of thinking. This makes me recall conversations about global warming in the 1980s. They were generally about styrofoam and recycling. The situation became dire quickly, and suddenly policies around carbon costing and household composting quickly became the norm. Sadly we had to wait until the issue was critical before we addressed it.
Are companies today doing the same? Waiting for issues of inclusivity to become critical before acting?
We are quickly seeing how destructive homogeneous workforces can be for businesses, individuals, and the products both work on. Lacking diversity on a team creates many business — and ethical — problems, and we have seen the explosion of this recently with complaints about the discrimination and harassment of many popular digital platforms.
The Overton window is slowly moving, and perhaps — like in climate change — not fast enough. Sowles talked hopefully about being open: “Tech changes people, so be open to people growing” and the impact conversations with women and people of color have had on CEOs.
Looking at how climate change issues have become more about party politics, I come back to the advice shared at AlterConf yesterday: building allies necessitates being gentle. As we try and move the Overton window to a place where inclusivity means more than just hiring and salary parity, I think it will be essential to stay free of the “othering” that makes team work challenging.
Thankfully I work at an organisation where we have high gender parity (we have more women than men in senior management positions), an inclusivity working group, a Code of Conduct that has a zero tolerance policy around discrimination, and most of all a workforce that cares about having courageous conversations together. Our Overton window definitely leaves us in a better starting place than almost any other tech organisation I know.
That doesn’t mean we don’t have work to do. We’re just not questioning why we have to do it. In fact, we were hoping to bring AlterConf to Johannesburg this year. Sadly, the unique and valuable AlterConf will be closing after its three and some years strong run due to budget challenges. Let’s hope the Overton window shifts quickly — we need better visibility.
