Designing for Workplace Diversity—Event Recap: WIN NYC x Doberman
In a recent report published by McKinsey in partnership with the In Organization, it was found that for every 100 men promoted and hired to manager, only 72 women are promoted and hired. Additionally, while the number of women in senior leadership has grown, women continue to be underrepresented at every level, with women holding 21% of c-suite positions compared to 79% held by men. The gap increases when you add race into the mix, with women of color holding only 4% of c-suite positions.
Fueled by a shared mission to support equality in the workplace, Women in Innovation & Doberman partnered up to help our community apply design prototyping principles to a challenge we all care about: promoting diversity of leadership within our own companies. In a workshop facilitated by our WIN Ambassador and current WIN Spotlight, Fiona O’Leary Sloan, attendees had the opportunity to prototype a solution to combat inequality in the workplace.
Here are 5 Steps you can take to prototype solutions for your own organization
Our goal
To increase diversity at our companies by breaking down barriers throughout the career journey.
Understand: Think about how you want to define “diversity”, “barriers”, and “career journey”.
Diversity might mean gender, race, sexual orientation, body size, age, religion, disability, and citizenship.
Barriers might be lack of mentorship, inadequate networks, stereotypes, life events, exclusion, lack of awareness, no role model, inadequate preparation.
Career journey might refer to any aspect of finding, having, or doing a job like awareness, job application process, Interview process, negotiating, day-to-day work, and career growth.
2. Assess: Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your organization, along with your power to drive change.
Write down your answers to the following:
Diversity: What is your company doing well, where is your company falling behind?
Barriers: What are your company’s largest problems?
Career journey: What part of this do you have the most control over?
3. Ideate: Put pen to paper and start creating solutions.
Keep in mind that a solution can be a thing, a physical environment, a digital product, a process, a meeting, a service, anything - get creative! We used one of Doberman's favorite exercises, Crazy 8’s, to get our best (and worst) ideas on paper.
Once you have your 8 boxes, draw out the following:
Worst - What’s the worst solution?
Collaborative - What’s the most collaborative solution?
Controversial - What’s the most controversial solution?
Physical Thing - What’s a physical thing you could create?
Partner - What if Google Was your tech partner?
Activity or Event - Could an activity or event be the solution?
Magical - What if you had a magic wand?
Wild Card - What else can you think of?
4. Storyboard: Draw out a storyboard for your solution.
In a small group share out your ideas with your peers, and discuss your best solutions. Pick one solution you want to pursue further as a team and draw it out.
5. Commit to Action: Think about what you can do in the next 90 days to improve your team’s idea and bring your solution to life.
Doberman handed out postcards so that attendees could write down their own next steps for turning their ideas into action. Doberman will be mailing those out in 90 days as a follow up.
A huge thank you to our partners and host for the evening, Doberman, along with our fabulous WIN Ambassador, Fiona O’Leary Sloan, who facilitated our prototyping workshop. Thank you to all the members of our community who joined us and made the commitment to bring more diversity into the workplace!
Photography: Marcela Madera
Writer: Marcela Madera
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