Moving the Dial Forward
By Polly Leung, Marketing Coordinator
Representation is powerful. Stepping into a building filled with people who have experienced many of the same struggles as you in your career journey is an inexplicable feeling. Nearly a dozen of us had the privilege of attending the Move the Dial Summit last month in Toronto. Present were a diverse group of women and men extending from entry to director-level designers, engineers, and marketers. What’s Move the Dial’s mission? To increase the participation and leadership of all women in tech.
Our mission here at TribalScale has always been to #RightTheFuture and showing up and supporting women and men who share similar missions is one of the best ways we know how. As Norie Campbell, Group Head of Customer & Colleague Experience at TD Canada said, “we can use the power of tech to enhance inclusivity in the workplace. Tech is an enabler for fostering a diverse culture.” This is a message that each of us here at TribalScale believes in wholeheartedly. We are excited to share our takeaways from our experience at the Summit in addition to how we are working to bolster diversity and inclusion here at TribalScale.
Most Memorable Moments
Starting bright and early, excitement and the smell of coffee filled the air. We had the opportunity to attend different talks and share our experiences. I asked everyone who attended what their memorable takeaways were.
Here is a compilation of our favourites:
- Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design
Kat Holmes (Director of UX Design, Google)
“I feel like design particularly has the power to completely change an experience and if I could create something that makes someone feel included then that would be incredible. Kat Holmes said something about how a disability doesn’t have to be defined as something physical, it’s rather just a “mismatch in human interaction”, and could be something like a simple language barrier. I now try to re-frame my view of design to suit that line of thought.”
— Ebru Sonmezisik, Senior Product Designer
2. Panel Discussion: The Role of Men
“I really enjoyed the panel discussion surrounding “The Role of Men”. I think that when it comes to diversity and inclusion, we often feel the burden of moving the dial for our own communities. And whilst our voices are vital to bringing awareness to our own experiences and struggles, having allies who will champion this kind of change within their own (extended) communities is incredibly important. There have been so many times that I have felt burdened to speak up for myself in situations where micro-aggressions occur, but it often becomes incredibly emotionally draining to do so. Having allies who are intersectional and willing to champion folks outside of their demographic really helps us to move the dial in a big way, and I feel incredibly privileged to have folks like this in my life.”
— Ailsa Blair, Design Manager
3. Raising HER
Rola Dagher (President, Cisco Canada)
Armughan Ahmad (President & Managing Partner of Digital Solutions, KPMG Canada)
“I love that these two leaders brought their daughters on stage. It was incredible to see the next generation up there. This was a prime example of not just talking the empowerment talk, but walking it.”
— Rachel Wexler, Head of Marketing and Operations
4. Dot Complicated: What I Learned on the Front Lines of Social Media
Randi Zuckerberg (Founder & CEO, Zuckerberg Media)
“My favourite talk was Randi Zuckerburg’s talk. Like her, there were speakers with diverse backgrounds who were presidents and CEOs, but they didn’t speak like what I’d thought a c-suite leader would need to be — outwardly perfect, reserved, and carefully polite. This implied a strong message that women of all backgrounds can be heard and lead and still maintain their core identity. Like Randi, I am a huge fan of Broadway and hackathons. She had a dramatic Broadway-esque style of telling Silicon Valley stories that had me laughing the whole time. She also gave me a look into how she thinks — when Katy Perry’s team called because they wanted to use Randi’s weekend hackathon project “Facebook Live” to announce her new tour, instead of telling Katy Perry’s team that Facebook Live isn’t real, she took that opportunity and helped build it into existence, and it became real.
I liked her approach to life: “When we put ourselves in an environment where we feel free to take our biggest wildest ideas and put them out there, feeling free from failure or judgment, every one of us is an entrepreneur sitting on a 2 billion dollar idea.” More realistically, she gave useful tips for everyday living. Work-life balance doesn’t exist, “be lopsided instead,” she said. Your priorities may differ each day, but essentially, “work, sleep, family, friends, and fitness. Pick three”.”
— Paige Sun, Agile Software Engineer
The Next Frontier for Diversity & Inclusion at TribalScale
Reflecting over the last few months since joining TribalScale, I remember the anxiousness I felt being in a male-dominated tech space. I was fresh out of leading a 38 person women’s network I had founded at my university in 2017, and suddenly transitioning into a space that was such a stark contrast was a huge shift for me. However, I was quick to notice that TribalScale truly embodied the value of transparency and moreover, had men and women alike who were open, supportive, and champions of inclusion and diversity. I was in a space where, despite its high number of male employees, also had a high number of women in executive positions unafraid to lead and create change within the tech space. We have women who actively mentor others, who seek to ensure that accessibility is at the forefront of all our projects, and are incredibly involved with women in the tech community. While women in tech are still marginally underrepresented, my workplace is an encouraging and welcoming space to come into every day.
Part of why Move the Dial is such a powerful symbol is that at its core it’s women supporting women in tech. One of the reasons I started my women’s network was that even though there was a greater gender balance at my university, there lacked a supportive atmosphere. Many women were blissfully unaware of the challenges that would be barriers for them in places such as the tech industry. However, when you begin to have this dialogue with other women who notice these gender disparities and challenge the status quo, you become drawn into the conversation and encourage others to join too. My director used to work at a company with 60 women on the marketing team, and there was little support for each other in their careers and wins. Instead, it was constant competition.
This directly aligns to the reason I started my network, and the values I carried over to TribalScale. We talk so much about men supporting us, but how can they support us if we don’t support each other? That is the essence of why I’m so excited to look forward to 2020 at TribalScale. The Move the Dial Summit left a lasting fire for many of us. We saw first-hand examples of women supporting women, encouraging us to implement diversity and inclusion practices that truly make an impact at TribalScale and in our community. We are already one of the rare companies that have first and foremost a high percentage of women in higher positions of management. But secondly, we have men who are incredibly supportive of all the women in their lives, in the tech world and beyond. We need to highlight that, celebrate it, and be the representation to show other companies that it can be done and should be done. As a tech innovation firm and a company passionate and determined to #RightTheFuture and transform companies, I once again am drawn to Norie Campbell’s words. At TribalScale, we have the power to use technology to improve diversity and inclusion. In the next two parts of this series, we will dive deeper into how we as a company are dedicated to improving the status quo in the tech industry.
This is part 1 of a three-part series discussing Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace, featuring the point of view of women in tech, and TribalScale’s 2020 goals. Read Part 2 here.
Polly Leung is the Marketing Coordinator here at TribalScale, working to define our brand and bring fresh new content into our agile transformation space. She has been deeply passionate about helping women own their talent in the world of business, starting her own women’s initiative network in 2017. When she’s away from TribalScale’s social platforms, she’s deeply immersed in learning more about cancer-fighting nutrition, strength-training, or cuddling with her slightly obese cat.
TribalScale is a global innovation firm that helps enterprises adapt and thrive in the digital era. We transform teams and processes, build best-in-class digital products, and create disruptive startups. Learn more about us on our website. Connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook!
