Some Questions Regarding Diversity in Tech

Diversity in tech has become one of the most talked about topics in the tech community over the last several years, and rightfully so.  An overwhelming amount of evidence suggests that organizations function better when the decision-making process includes a diverse set of stakeholders.  Beyond corporate self-interest I, like so many others, believe that at the end of the day fostering diversity is also the right thing to do.  With that said there are still some questions I have yet to see answered: 

  1. At what point does a company become sufficiently diverse?  Basically when can a company be looked at as a shining example of a diverse organization?
  2. How are we qualifying diversity?  Do you have to be a woman or black to make an organization more diverse?  It seems like some people want a specific type of diversity.    There are a ton of great engineers coming to the US from eastern Europe, do they count even though they're white?  What about Asians and Indians? I'm stealing a little bit from Marc Andreessen here.
  3. How should tech companies balance all of the stakeholders involved in the diversity process?  Each cause (women, African American's, minorities, etc) has their own agenda and are pushing companies for more inclusion.  How does a company strike a balance?
  4. For all of the criticism the tech industry faces when it comes to diversity are we giving the leaders of these organizations enough credit for both admitting there is a problem and being much more open about their diversity statistics relative to other industries (think financial services)?  

I guess what I'm struggling with is for all the data points being tossed around to prove how homogeneous tech companies are it seems like very few people have come out and said "this is where we want companies to be when measuring diversity." 

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I appreciate your raising a few questions, let me take a few swings at points one through four: 1) instead of sufficiently or some other measurement of time (per say), I'd encourage all that are serious about D&I to make the effort ongoing. Treat diversity as one treats the overall buoyancy of building a thriving environment/team. Diversity should simply be part of what we do - like getting dressed to start our day. As for shining examples, I look at companies like Yelp for instance that have made major improvement year over year. And are still committed. 2) Diversity is broadly categorized, but more often than not, too narrowly. When the media approaches a story, it is often based on race or gender, ignoring the more than handful other ways to explore diversity. It is mandatory that we have alternative voices sharing the narrative and not just the usual suspects. 3) Striking a balance is hard to describe/measure - real talk. Like trying to quantify work life balance, which we sorta know when we experience it. You get my point. In the end, it really comes down to the reality of the situation, the location of the company, the stage their in, brand awareness, and I can go on and on and on. Simplest answer: just do the right thing - refer to #1 above. 4) Hell yeah, Financial Services and many others could use a brush up on their efforts. They are far from immune to the need. This is an across the board issue. One that once addressed, will have huge and positive ramifications on the bottom line. Appreciated your post.
— torin
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