DTW (Digital Transformation World)
DTWS: Inclusive design drives innovation
Empirical research finds that every 10% improvement in work culture is followed by a 10% improvement in willingness and ability to innovate. This masterclass articulates how inclusive design can drive this improvement.
03 Nov 2020
DTWS: Inclusive design drives innovation
TM Forum held a masterclass at Digital Transformation World Series on October 29 called ‘Diversity & Inclusion: How inclusive design drives innovation’ with industry leaders speaking from both telcos and vendors. The session falls under TM Forum’s The Human Factor theme.
Barbara Harvey, Managing Director at Accenture Research started the panel discussion by explaining why inclusive design matters; it boils down attracting and keeping the best talent with the most sought-after skills and the most valuable customers. Perhaps the single thread that ran through all the contributions is the inestimable value of awareness.
Harvey also cited empirical research that proves the direct link between a diverse and inclusive workplace culture and innovation: For every 10% improvement in work culture, a 10% improvement in a willingness and ability to innovate follows.
She also noted that innovation design impacts a company’s reputation, brand and viability.
Harvey provided some sobering statistics regarding where we are now, which included:
The situation has been made worse by the pandemic: According to the UK’s Institute of Fiscal Studies’ recent review: “The specific nature of the economic shock associated with Covid-19 has interacted with many deep and old inequalities”. Harvey added, “On every dimension we look at, inequality is getting worse – and we’re only nine months into what's going to be, by the look of it, a pretty long ride.”
Before the pandemic, the World Economic Forum estimated it would take 100 years to close the gender gap; now that’s looking more like 150 years or three generations of women.
Sevasti Wong, Managing Director, Global Talent & Organization Consulting at Accenture and leader of the masterclass, noted, “Keeping everyone being part of that conversation, that’s one of our responsibilities. But it’s hard, much harder, in the era of Covid.”
Rachel Higham, Managing Director, CIO at BT Group agreed, saying that her company “had to learn new ways of ensuring that everyone’s voice is included while we’re working remotely, and that changes again when some people return to the office.”
She added, “Then we started to see a hybrid mode of working: We’ve organically formed new behaviors and etiquette such as using the raised hand to prevent talking over each other, and working harder to bring those who are more introverted into the conversation.”
Higham and her colleagues now create meeting summaries and invite ideas that come after the meeting for those that are more reflective. She said, “We went out to our whole team with practical guides and training for those who chair meetings, and now we're sending out new surveys and having lots of team conversations. We continue to pick up new issues around inclusion as we continue to react to the pandemic.”
She added, “As Barbara said, we need to make the right decisions. We just launched today, an internal campaign called ‘Let's take five’, [to] really encourage everyone to create meaningful boundaries and acknowledge the differences that we have with one another, respect one another and think global and inclusive.”
Vicky Sleight, Director for TM Forum’s Diversity and Advisory Board, commented that inclusion is, at its heart, about accessibility and that an accessible workplace is, in fact, an inclusive workplace. Joe Johnson, Vice President, Product Development & Product Management at Windstream Communications acknowledged this and talked about the responsibility of leaders to realize when someone isn’t happy to speak up on a video call or doesn’t want to use their camera and to step in.
He said, “We want diversity of thought… and that is not necessarily just verbal. I want to see you roll those eyes, I want to see your disagreement…if we’re not careful, and we as leaders, don’t insert ourselves to elicit that feedback, it’s not good.” He stressed how easy it is for unconscious bias to creep into product design so that employees end up designing products for people like them, inadvertently excluding the needs of other groups, such as older people.
In her introduction to a presentation from Salesforce, which is famous for its inclusive culture, Wong noted: “We turn our attention more to innovation in product development. This is something that is gaining a lot of prominence during the crisis, how we innovate responsively, because, of course, in the crisis when we’re in a very different mode, we also sometimes might lose some of that visibility, some of that responsibility.”
Vicky Nisbet, Senior Regional Vice President at Salesforce, said she is often asked if it Salesforce is really as inclusive as it seems. “Undoubtedly yes,” she said. “Equality is one of our four core values.”
Like Johnson though, she agrees that constant vigilance is required to avoid unconscious bias, saying, “We're all talking about whether [AI] is going to take over the world and a thing that scares me are learnings that machines actually can be biased themselves [because] who’s writing these algorithms and designing this software other than white middle aged men? We have to be very conscious that we've got that in mind when we are designing these products.”
Accenture’s Harvey summed up saying, “We think we're good at measuring diversity…My challenge to everyone is to measure how inclusive your teams are. Then you can unlock the potential of all that amazing, diverse talent you've worked so hard to bring in.”
Barbara Harvey, Managing Director at Accenture Research started the panel discussion by explaining why inclusive design matters; it boils down attracting and keeping the best talent with the most sought-after skills and the most valuable customers. Perhaps the single thread that ran through all the contributions is the inestimable value of awareness.
Research that Harvey has been involved with found these two categories of people span genders and age groups, and often are what she calls “crusaders” – individuals who are prepared to speak out on issues. Harvey said that the big takeaway from the research is, “If you are going to attract the best talent and retain the best customers [and] keep these people coming to you, you have to be very careful about what you sell, how you sell it, where you sell it, and who sells it. They're looking out for how you're doing in all of those areas.”
Empirical evidence
Harvey also cited empirical research that proves the direct link between a diverse and inclusive workplace culture and innovation: For every 10% improvement in work culture, a 10% improvement in a willingness and ability to innovate follows.
She also noted that innovation design impacts a company’s reputation, brand and viability.
Harvey provided some sobering statistics regarding where we are now, which included:
- For every 100 male managers in the world, there are 34 women.
- There are fewer women working in technology in the US, down from 34% in 1984 to 32% today.
- The World Economic Forum found cloud computing is the world’s most male dominated profession with only 12% women, and women make up only 26% of the workforce in data and AI.
- About 15% of people have a disability and are not very ‘visible’ although they have a collective spending power of about $8 trillion despite suffering higher levels of unemployment.
- In the UK there are relatively low levels of unemployment among non-white people, but it is still 10% higher than for white people.
Building forward
The situation has been made worse by the pandemic: According to the UK’s Institute of Fiscal Studies’ recent review: “The specific nature of the economic shock associated with Covid-19 has interacted with many deep and old inequalities”. Harvey added, “On every dimension we look at, inequality is getting worse – and we’re only nine months into what's going to be, by the look of it, a pretty long ride.”
Before the pandemic, the World Economic Forum estimated it would take 100 years to close the gender gap; now that’s looking more like 150 years or three generations of women.
Harvey said, “This sounds gloomy, but…I believe we’ve come to a really rare fork in the road…we have a chance to create a very different kind of future. People talk about building back better, I think it's about building forward better.”
Conscious effort
Sevasti Wong, Managing Director, Global Talent & Organization Consulting at Accenture and leader of the masterclass, noted, “Keeping everyone being part of that conversation, that’s one of our responsibilities. But it’s hard, much harder, in the era of Covid.”
Rachel Higham, Managing Director, CIO at BT Group agreed, saying that her company “had to learn new ways of ensuring that everyone’s voice is included while we’re working remotely, and that changes again when some people return to the office.”
She added, “Then we started to see a hybrid mode of working: We’ve organically formed new behaviors and etiquette such as using the raised hand to prevent talking over each other, and working harder to bring those who are more introverted into the conversation.”
Higham and her colleagues now create meeting summaries and invite ideas that come after the meeting for those that are more reflective. She said, “We went out to our whole team with practical guides and training for those who chair meetings, and now we're sending out new surveys and having lots of team conversations. We continue to pick up new issues around inclusion as we continue to react to the pandemic.”
Idit Duvdevany, Head of Corporate Responsibility & Inclusion at Amdocs, noted that everyone on a Zoom call has “the same size square which actually is an advancing factor for [equality and] inclusion, because suddenly, it's not only about how loud is your voice or how senior is your position in the company.”
She added, “As Barbara said, we need to make the right decisions. We just launched today, an internal campaign called ‘Let's take five’, [to] really encourage everyone to create meaningful boundaries and acknowledge the differences that we have with one another, respect one another and think global and inclusive.”
You can find out more about Amdocs’ ongoing transformation in this case study for which Amdocs received a TM Forum Excellence Award in The Human Factor category.
Eliciting contributions
Vicky Sleight, Director for TM Forum’s Diversity and Advisory Board, commented that inclusion is, at its heart, about accessibility and that an accessible workplace is, in fact, an inclusive workplace. Joe Johnson, Vice President, Product Development & Product Management at Windstream Communications acknowledged this and talked about the responsibility of leaders to realize when someone isn’t happy to speak up on a video call or doesn’t want to use their camera and to step in.
He said, “We want diversity of thought… and that is not necessarily just verbal. I want to see you roll those eyes, I want to see your disagreement…if we’re not careful, and we as leaders, don’t insert ourselves to elicit that feedback, it’s not good.” He stressed how easy it is for unconscious bias to creep into product design so that employees end up designing products for people like them, inadvertently excluding the needs of other groups, such as older people.
AI and data bias
In her introduction to a presentation from Salesforce, which is famous for its inclusive culture, Wong noted: “We turn our attention more to innovation in product development. This is something that is gaining a lot of prominence during the crisis, how we innovate responsively, because, of course, in the crisis when we’re in a very different mode, we also sometimes might lose some of that visibility, some of that responsibility.”
Vicky Nisbet, Senior Regional Vice President at Salesforce, said she is often asked if it Salesforce is really as inclusive as it seems. “Undoubtedly yes,” she said. “Equality is one of our four core values.”
Like Johnson though, she agrees that constant vigilance is required to avoid unconscious bias, saying, “We're all talking about whether [AI] is going to take over the world and a thing that scares me are learnings that machines actually can be biased themselves [because] who’s writing these algorithms and designing this software other than white middle aged men? We have to be very conscious that we've got that in mind when we are designing these products.”
Accenture’s Harvey summed up saying, “We think we're good at measuring diversity…My challenge to everyone is to measure how inclusive your teams are. Then you can unlock the potential of all that amazing, diverse talent you've worked so hard to bring in.”
