Data didn't change tech's frat-boy culture. Will storytelling?
| San Francisco
Rachael Stedman doesn鈥檛 just design and build product features for a living. She also collects stories. 聽
An engineer at Lever 鈥� a recruitment software startup in San Francisco 鈥� her role includes reaching out to co-workers about life in the tech industry. She gathers hiring stories, memories from other companies, and tales about experiences at Lever. Her thesis: Every story can lead to a better, diverse workplace.
鈥淵ou listen to the story and you say, 鈥極K, how can we make sure that this doesn鈥檛 happen for anybody else?鈥� And you take action on that one story,鈥� says Ms. Stedman, who has seen storytelling transform her own company.聽
It鈥檚 a high-touch, counterintuitive approach to diversity for a data-driven industry like tech. For years, proponents of inclusive workplaces have tried to sell tech firms on the idea with data about how it boosts innovation and profits. Yet Silicon Valley remains a bastion of white males. Now, firms like Lever are turning to anecdotes and personal exchanges as bases for developing empathy 鈥� and building inclusive cultures from the ground up.
The goal is to get buy-in for diversity from workers up and down the ladder by allowing an inclusive environment to evolve organically, experts say. Giving employees the chance to share their stories and be part of the process of creating a workplace they believe in goes much further than simply laying out the case for diversity, showing workers the policies, and expecting them to obey, the theory goes. 聽
鈥淚t closes the disconnect between people,鈥� says Caroline Simard, senior director of research at the Center for the Advancement of Women鈥檚 Leadership at Stanford University in California.聽鈥淪tories create more empathy. People remember stories more than they remember statistics. That combination really is a very important part of moving people to do better.鈥�
A persistent challenge
Over the past three years, discourse around diversity and inclusion has crested in Silicon Valley. The industry has poured millions into honing recruitment practices and developing pathways for women and minorities to advance to leadership positions. Companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest annually release diversity statistics in a bid for transparency. Conferences, training and consulting sessions, and employee resource groups abound.
But the needle has hardly moved. Tech still hires more white employees than the private sector as a whole, 69 percent compared with 64, according to by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In the top 75 firms in Silicon Valley, 70 percent of the workforce is male and nearly half the workforce is white. Forty-one percent is Asian-American, 6 percent is Hispanic, and 3 percent is black. That's skewed compared with the region's nontech firms, where half the workforce is female, 22 percent is Hispanic, and 8 percent is black.
鈥淒espite rapid transformation in the field, the overwhelming dominance of white men in the industries and occupations associated with technology has remained,鈥澛� the EEOC report said.
Allegations of harassment and gender discrimination also continue to dog high-profile companies. Last month a Tesla engineer sued the company for 鈥減ervasive harassment,鈥� charging that she was paid less than men for doing the same work and was passed over for promotion while less-qualified men were not. Uber, the ride-sharing company, says it will make public next month its internal investigation of sexual harassment following blog post by a former female engineer.聽
Data suggest the problem is widespread: A聽, mostly in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area and released in 2016, found that 60 percent reported unwanted sexual advances and 66 percent said they felt excluded from social and networking opportunities afforded to men.
The issues aren鈥檛 unique to the Valley. One employee recalls that at her first job out of college 鈥� a marketing position at a tech startup in California鈥檚 Central Coast 鈥撀爀veryone who was anyone was young and male. Team-building exercises resembled college parties, she says. She remembers a game where she and her colleagues were encouraged to vote for the hottest person in the building.聽
鈥淚t was really fratty,鈥� she says.
Worse than the 鈥渂ro鈥� atmosphere was the sense from leadership that it was their way or no way, says the employee, who asked that she remain anonymous because she still has relationships with people at that company. Once, she says, someone raised concerns about working too many 12-hour days; the company鈥檚 chief executive dismissed it, saying that was just what it took to succeed.
Another time, she wrote her supervisor a long email detailing suggestions for making meetings more efficient. 鈥淚 like to have information ahead of time so I can process it, and then I like to write my opinions out,鈥� she says. The supervisor responded by going up to her desk with no warning and listing the reasons why her ideas wouldn鈥檛 work.
鈥淎nd I was like, 鈥榃ait. I get that that鈥檚 how you communicate, but I wasn鈥檛 prepared to have that conversation,鈥� 鈥� she says. 鈥� 鈥楴ow I feel like it's off the table.鈥� 鈥�
Over time, she says, she started to feel like she wasn鈥檛 cut out for work 鈥� any work. 鈥淚 was such a good student,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淚 gave my commencement speech at college. I was so ready to just go into the workplace and do so well and be a great businesswoman. And then I got into the workplace and within two years I was just crushed.鈥�
Acting on anecdotes
Lever鈥檚 offices along San Francisco鈥檚 Market Street look like a layman鈥檚 vision of a successful start-up. The walls are painted gray and white, and the sleek, modern furniture is softened with throw pillows that add splashes of color.聽On a Monday in March, people move between desks and workstations, clutching coffee mugs and discussing projects and ideas. In one of the conference rooms (all of which are named for teas), Stedman says stories like her coworker鈥檚 help inform the company鈥檚 inclusion efforts.
鈥淓very woman鈥檚 story in tech is different,鈥� she says, and it can be difficult to parse whether one person鈥檚 anecdote is indicative of broader experiences. That鈥檚 why data is so important, Stedman says. 鈥淏ut,鈥� she adds, 鈥渂y the time an anecdote becomes a statistic, you鈥檝e really lost out. So I think that one thing you have to do 鈥� is take action based on anecdotes.鈥�
At one conference, Stedman recalls, a female employee brought up some trouble she had while pumping breast milk in the ladies鈥� room. It wasn鈥檛 a fun experience, the employee had said. She had noted that a maternity room might be something to consider in future conversations.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 one small thing,鈥� Stedman says. 鈥淏ut you get a ton of those little stories and that鈥檚 something that is completely concrete that you can take action on.鈥� 聽
The ethic begins at recruitment. Job postings from the company highlight expected results over requirements. The firm runs an active blog, where employees are encouraged to share both success and horror stories about their experiences in and outside Lever. They also provide portals for anonymous feedback.
At the center of company philosophy is a set of five values, foremost of which is 鈥渃ross-functional empathy,鈥� or XFE 鈥� a willingness to 鈥渨alk across the aisle鈥� and go out of one鈥檚 way to work with others. At Monday meetings, a giant stuffed panda 鈥� the company mascot 鈥� is handed to an individual whom fellow employees feel has done an especially good job of exemplifying those values.
The point is to make employees feel like they can speak out without retaliation, and that by sharing their own experiences they can make a difference in company culture, says chief executive and co-founder Sarah Nahm.
鈥淲e weren鈥檛 going to start by hiring underrepresented minorities,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e were going to start by rethinking our culture, and making sure that it was a place that had equal access to opportunities and rewards 鈥� a place that was intentional about the things it reinforced and included or excluded.鈥�
Ms. Nahm adds that many companies pursue diversity because they want to address a need being put upon them by outside forces: advocates, business consultants, the media.
鈥淭he thing that every single company should be doing is to figure out what are their internal reasons for doing it, and to actually know them, to state them, and to lead with them,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd one way to do that is through storytelling.鈥�
As soft as Lever鈥檚 approach sounds, the company has something to show for it. Five years into its founding, Lever boasts a nearly even ratio of men and women across its workforce. More than half of management is female, and women make up 43 percent of technical roles. It鈥檚 still majority white, but leadership hopes to remedy that over time. All the while the company has grown from a core group of less than 10 to nearly 100 employees.聽
鈥淥ne argument that I hear is, 鈥業t鈥檚 either growth or all this touchy-feely stuff,鈥� 鈥� says Jennifer Kim, who heads Lever鈥檚 employee experience team. But the bottom line is important, she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about balance, right? None of it matters if we have to fold 鈥� 鈥榖ut boy, were we inclusive!鈥� 鈥�
Different strokes
About a mile southwest of Lever headquarters are the offices of Outdoorsy, an online marketplace for buying, selling, and renting recreational vehicles 鈥� what one employee describes as AirBnB for RVs. Barely two years old, with a roster of about 20 people, the start-up has yet to develop a structure for inclusion as formalized as Lever鈥檚.
But philosophy is rooted in the idea that everyone, regardless of color, creed, or gender, deserves to have great travel experiences, says co-founder and chief marketing officer Jennifer Young. That鈥檚 meant developing an active feedback loop for both clients and employees, because what鈥檚 exciting for one person could be awful for another, she says.
鈥淲e鈥檙e in the business of creating great memories and providing amazing vacations for people,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t serves this company well to have a lot of different types of people both in terms of what they think and what activities they enjoy, and who they are and what they represent.鈥�
Other companies have taken a more organizational approach. At Zynga 鈥� the company behind online games like 鈥淔armville鈥� and 鈥淲ords with Friends鈥� 鈥� a women鈥檚 advisory board acts as representatives for the interests of female employees from a variety of departments. The idea is that female software engineers will have different concerns than, say, women in sales, says Stephanie Hess, Zynga鈥檚 vice president for communications.
The board develops programs and plans events that address those varying concerns, she says.
Such efforts suggest that the 鈥渟oft鈥� approach is beginning to take root in the tech industry, notes Dr. Simard at Stanford. More firms are beginning to make inclusion a part of their founding philosophies, she says, and those tend to be the places that make the most progress in advancing women and minorities.
鈥淭hese companies bake it into their design. They have a commitment and accountability system,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey bake it into the day-to-day operations of the company, including how managers are incentivized and rewarded.鈥�
Despite a growing recognition within tech that diversity is the future, the 鈥渟oft鈥澛燼pproach remains a hard sell.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to work with people who are different than you,鈥� Simard says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 will, but the hard work of creating an everyday culture where people can contribute is easy to resist.鈥�
Back at Lever, Stedman, the engineer, welcomes the skepticism:聽鈥淭his is going to be an ongoing effort. I don't think that there鈥檚 any one milestone where we鈥檙e just like, 鈥極h, I鈥檓 done.鈥� I expect to work on this for my lifetime.鈥�
