In industries as mature as ours, many of our companies have been around long enough to see significant changes in the market, in user requirements, and in the economy generally. When big shifts like this occur, companies assess what their response should be; how they might need to change in order to compete and survive. This can be especially hard for companies who have been successful in the past; how can they make sure that, in changing, they don't change the things that have enabled them to be successful? It can be easy to see the risks of change; usually more difficult is seeing the risks of not changing, or how you might have been successful despite doing some things poorly.
One change that has been getting a lot of attention recently is globalization. The world seems to be changing at an ever-increasing rate, and those that feel threatened or excluded from the benefits of that change are more likely to resist or reject it. Emerson’s CEO David Farr was in a panel discussion on globalization at CERAWeek, an energy industry conference in Houston earlier this month (watch here). He phrased it this way: “When people aren’t being paid attention to, they get your attention.” The panel had a lively discussion on the importance of people and education: retraining those who are most affected by globalization and ensuring that skills development programs are keeping up with what companies need to be successful now and in the future. He also said, "The next competitive battleground is talented people. We need educated & talented people so we can compete."
Another change is workforce demographics. More women are studying in STEM fields (in fact STEM and business are the only fields where men earn a majority of degrees in the US), but as we’ve discussed previously in this group, many women who study STEM end up leaving engineering. If companies in our industries need to attract and retain more talented people, understanding why some are leaving and working to address those issues seems like a good way to help our companies remain successful. We've talked previously in this group about how you don't need to have studied engineering to be in a STEM field or at STEM company; this is an important source of the "diversity of thoughts and approaches" that's part of our group mission to encourage.
Companies have cultures which can be deeply held but may need to change as a company’s strategy, marketplace, or workforce changes materially. As an HBR article discussing cultural change at Aetna points out, drawing on the positive aspects of culture and hearing from people all over the company helps to identify what we may need to do differently to be successful in the future. As workplace demographics change, how much does company culture need to change (if at all) so that the individuals who comprise the company can do their best work as a team?
In global companies, we often work with people who are different from us. It can be easy to remember that someone from a different part of the world may have different assumptions than you, so you work to better understand each other, respect each other's cultures and customs, and reduce misinterpretations. A recent training I attended (called Generations in the Workplace) made a similar point about people who grew up at different times, even in the same place--that their cultures, the way they think, the styles & norms of interaction they have, and what things they think are most important can be different. Last year I read Deborah Tannen's book You Just Don't Understand, which made a similar point about women and men:
Summarizing the customs and values of groups of people is reductive and risks being offensive. No group is monolithic and it can be easy to conflate what people do or believe with who they are. In the words of Ayn Rand, “The smallest minority on earth is the individual.” People’s values can change over time and some differences will depend on that changing perspective (here’s a clip from a talk on generations showing similarities over time, some of the same points have been made about younger generations since the ancient Greeks). Having granted that, differences between groups can still be useful for remembering that not everyone is like you, and that’s usually a good thing. And hopefully in your journey to understand other people you turn some of those tools inward and come to better understand yourself.
So, what does this have to do with Women in STEM? Our group helps me understand the diversity of thoughts and approaches in our companies and our industries. Our group supports and encourages each other by sharing information and building relationships for us to learn and develop in our careers and in life. Our group engages with the community and helps show the exciting world of STEM to people who may not have otherwise considered it, felt as welcomed, or thought it was interesting to them. These are things that benefit our companies, our industries, our disciplines, and us personally. Seeing what the group was doing meant for me there was no good reason not to be involved!
Our Women in STEM group helps me to understand how people experience our company and industry culture in ways that might differ from my experience. To quote Deborah Tannen again, this time from her book Talking From 9 To 5, which is focused on communication in the workplace:
I want individuals to see the many options available to them and be free to choose the path that best allows them to flourish. To the extent that is not happening today, we can and are taking steps to address it though groups like Women in STEM.