Diversity starts early

My Friday Thought: Ensuring acceptance and understanding from childhood in non diverse communities can easily be achieved through the amazing books out there. Not only are they fun and child friendly they show the differences in the world, so children grow up understanding this is the norm.

Diversity is vital in technology to permit us to see a problem from different angles which will provide us a better overall solution. Tech diversity isn't ideal with a significantly less women to men ratio, however to me it does appear to be more accepting of the diver world in which we live.

Diversity is easy to see when it is gender, race, religion and for me it is important that we get these basics right to provide the foundations our teams can build upon. However, it is just as need to ensure socioeconomic, neurodiverse and other non-visible diversity exists to match our society.

Then there is diversity of thought and for me this is really the aim to get to. I love the teams with all the above, but also different opinions on what tech is use, the methods to undertake to resolve a problem, differing views on what should be our highest priority. Yes this creates a team where we have numerous conversations on the ways forward, but it allows for unique solutions to become blended as an approach.

This is why, with my five year old, we have books covering different genders, race, religion, LGBTQ to show her the beautiful diversity within our world (and also learn new things ourselves). We talk about the diversity you can't always see and we ensure discussions of differences on views and preferences as a good thing.

I want diversity, inclusivity and psychological safety within my teams, but I also want more of this in our world. Continuously educating myself to understand the diverse nature of our world more, and helping ensure the future of our world just accepts this from the start is how I hope to achieve a better tomorrow.