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> In my senior-level meetings, roughly 95 percent of the participants were white, 90 percent men. If you believe diversity of experience and perspective improve

> In my senior-level meetings, roughly 95 percent of the participants were white, 90 percent men. If you believe diversity of experience and perspective improves decision making, this should worry you. At my last startup, the local "accelerator" sent in a diversity consultant. Because the CEO didn't want to deal with it, I was stuck with him. After 10 minutes of me describing how our team of six represented 3 continents including 13 citizenships; we spoke 13 languages; ranged in age from 24 to 48; ranged in education from 3 days of college to dual PhDs; included Christians, a devout Hindu, an atheist, and agnostics; single, married, and even arranged marriage; and our company dinners consisted of us bringing our families together (along with our angel investors and their families) and sharing traditional dishes, the consultant complained that we "weren't diverse" and complained for 20+ minutes on two things: - our team only had one woman - our team didn't have any LGBT representation I threw him out. If you're so closed-minded and ignorant, I don't want you around my team.

jungturk 6y ago
There's a difference between having a variety of opinions and having a representative set of opinions. The diversity counselor is likely there to identify opportunities rather than to celebrate present successes. I'm not sure whether the noted points-of-view would be relevant to your team's needs, but pointing out what's under-represented isn't necessarily closed-minded or ignorant (or something to take offense at).
drewbug 6y ago
"I identify as a male-presenting transgender lesbian" might have placated him.
OminousWeapons 6y ago
To add on, as a bi guy, the idea that who I am having sex with is somehow my employer's business is ridiculous; it shouldn't even be asked about or recorded by a company. The idea that me not being straight at all influences my decision making, reasoning skills, communication skills, aptitude at my job, or anything else having to do with my employment is incredibly offensive.
tuesdayrain 6y ago
I can't stand the notion that a group consisting of white men is automatically not diverse. It implies that people who belong to the same race or gender all behave similarly. Also for some reason the "importance" of diversity seems to only go one way. I only hear "there are too many white people, this group needs more PoC". I have never in my life heard "there are too many PoC, you need more white people".
- ivraatiems 6y ago
  > I have never in my life heard "there are too many PoC, you need more white people". You've been fortunate to never experience that kind of direct racism - but people rarely say it directly like that. It's more in who is chosen to be hired, and what kinds of "culture" and "fit" criteria are applied to candidates. > I can't stand the notion that a group consisting of white men is automatically not diverse. Like the consultant in the parent's post pointed out, there are lots of different kinds of diversity, and race is one of them. It's not wrong to say "this group of all white men is not diverse in terms of racial or gender identity" - and it sounds like that's what was being said? > Also for some reason the "importance" of diversity seems to only go one way. It only goes one way because white men are already represented proportionately or disproportinately. If the goal is representation of different groups and people's voices, hiring more white men won't do it. Unless your company is majority-POC?
tjpnz 6y ago
>our team didn't have any LGBT representation That's an incredibly ignorant assumption to be making on his part. Not everyone who identifies as LGBT is going to volunteer that piece of information (out or otherwise). Nor should anyone ever feel pressured into doing so. You were absolutely right to throw him out.
ivraatiems 6y ago
I'm not sure I understand what you expected. This reads to me like somebody came in with the job of identifying ways of being diverse that your company didn't have, they did their job, and then you thew them out for doing it. Maybe you didn't want them there in the first place - that's fair - but if so, that's something to take up with your accelerator, not with the consultant. Was it just that they said you "weren't" diverse, rather than "you could be more" diverse? If the whole message was just "hey, you should consider having more representation of women and LGBT people", I'm really struggling to understand what's offensive about that. It's a good idea to have representation of those groups. I don't think that means you need to go out and immediately hire a whole bunch of totally unqualified people to meet a diversity quota. What was this person proposing as a solution - did you ask them? And if you're comfortable with/confident in the diversity of your team, what did you have to lose by listening to him?
- OminousWeapons 6y ago
  > I'm really struggling to understand what's offensive about that. It's a good idea to have representation of those groups. I can't speak for women, but why exactly is it a good idea to have representation of LGBT for the sake of representation? You seem to be implying that LGBT are somehow different than straight people from a job performance perspective which comes off as discriminatory even though your intentions are clearly positive. If there is active discrimination against LGBT at a company, that needs to be immediately addressed. If you are making a product which is specifically catering to LGBT then you probably should have some on your team for design purposes and requirements generation. Otherwise, someone's sexual orientation has no bearing on job performance and really shouldn't be a factor for or against hiring them.
  - ivraatiems 6y ago
    > You seem to be implying that LGBT are somehow different than straight people from a job performance perspective which comes off as discriminatory even though your intentions are clearly positive. That's not what I mean to imply, nor the basis of the recent push for more workplace diversity as I understand it. The goal is not using people's diverse status to determine whether they'd be good at their jobs. Rather, it's to find people who are diverse as well as meeting job criteria, and hiring them preferentially if there aren't enough people representing their viewpoints. But even so, merely pointing out that a company didn't have a certain kind of representation doesn't seem, to me, to be a cause for offense. Editing to add: Yes, there is a tension between hiring on the basis of innate characteristics and trying to be meritocratic. But I view that as a balancing act, not something that always comes down on one side or the other.
jessaustin 6y ago
Do you really think this comment has something to do with TFA? The organization you describe has less than 95% whites and less than 90% men. You're better than the Pentagon!
- caseysoftware 6y ago
  Maybe. Unfortunately, the author didn't describe (or even think?) past the most superficial aspects so we don't know.

jungturk 6y ago

There's a difference between having a variety of opinions and having a representative set of opinions. The diversity counselor is likely there to identify opportunities rather than to celebrate present successes. I'm not sure whether the noted points-of-view would be relevant to your team's needs, but pointing out what's under-represented isn't necessarily closed-minded or ignorant (or something to take offense at).

drewbug 6y ago

"I identify as a male-presenting transgender lesbian" might have placated him.

OminousWeapons 6y ago

To add on, as a bi guy, the idea that who I am having sex with is somehow my employer's business is ridiculous; it shouldn't even be asked about or recorded by a company. The idea that me not being straight at all influences my decision making, reasoning skills, communication skills, aptitude at my job, or anything else having to do with my employment is incredibly offensive.

tuesdayrain 6y ago

I can't stand the notion that a group consisting of white men is automatically not diverse. It implies that people who belong to the same race or gender all behave similarly. Also for some reason the "importance" of diversity seems to only go one way. I only hear "there are too many white people, this group needs more PoC". I have never in my life heard "there are too many PoC, you need more white people".

ivraatiems 6y ago
> I have never in my life heard "there are too many PoC, you need more white people". You've been fortunate to never experience that kind of direct racism - but people rarely say it directly like that. It's more in who is chosen to be hired, and what kinds of "culture" and "fit" criteria are applied to candidates. > I can't stand the notion that a group consisting of white men is automatically not diverse. Like the consultant in the parent's post pointed out, there are lots of different kinds of diversity, and race is one of them. It's not wrong to say "this group of all white men is not diverse in terms of racial or gender identity" - and it sounds like that's what was being said? > Also for some reason the "importance" of diversity seems to only go one way. It only goes one way because white men are already represented proportionately or disproportinately. If the goal is representation of different groups and people's voices, hiring more white men won't do it. Unless your company is majority-POC?

tjpnz 6y ago

>our team didn't have any LGBT representation That's an incredibly ignorant assumption to be making on his part. Not everyone who identifies as LGBT is going to volunteer that piece of information (out or otherwise). Nor should anyone ever feel pressured into doing so. You were absolutely right to throw him out.

ivraatiems 6y ago

I'm not sure I understand what you expected. This reads to me like somebody came in with the job of identifying ways of being diverse that your company didn't have, they did their job, and then you thew them out for doing it. Maybe you didn't want them there in the first place - that's fair - but if so, that's something to take up with your accelerator, not with the consultant. Was it just that they said you "weren't" diverse, rather than "you could be more" diverse? If the whole message was just "hey, you should consider having more representation of women and LGBT people", I'm really struggling to understand what's offensive about that. It's a good idea to have representation of those groups. I don't think that means you need to go out and immediately hire a whole bunch of totally unqualified people to meet a diversity quota. What was this person proposing as a solution - did you ask them? And if you're comfortable with/confident in the diversity of your team, what did you have to lose by listening to him?

OminousWeapons 6y ago
> I'm really struggling to understand what's offensive about that. It's a good idea to have representation of those groups. I can't speak for women, but why exactly is it a good idea to have representation of LGBT for the sake of representation? You seem to be implying that LGBT are somehow different than straight people from a job performance perspective which comes off as discriminatory even though your intentions are clearly positive. If there is active discrimination against LGBT at a company, that needs to be immediately addressed. If you are making a product which is specifically catering to LGBT then you probably should have some on your team for design purposes and requirements generation. Otherwise, someone's sexual orientation has no bearing on job performance and really shouldn't be a factor for or against hiring them.
- ivraatiems 6y ago
  > You seem to be implying that LGBT are somehow different than straight people from a job performance perspective which comes off as discriminatory even though your intentions are clearly positive. That's not what I mean to imply, nor the basis of the recent push for more workplace diversity as I understand it. The goal is not using people's diverse status to determine whether they'd be good at their jobs. Rather, it's to find people who are diverse as well as meeting job criteria, and hiring them preferentially if there aren't enough people representing their viewpoints. But even so, merely pointing out that a company didn't have a certain kind of representation doesn't seem, to me, to be a cause for offense. Editing to add: Yes, there is a tension between hiring on the basis of innate characteristics and trying to be meritocratic. But I view that as a balancing act, not something that always comes down on one side or the other.

jessaustin 6y ago

Do you really think this comment has something to do with TFA? The organization you describe has less than 95% whites and less than 90% men. You're better than the Pentagon!

caseysoftware 6y ago
Maybe. Unfortunately, the author didn't describe (or even think?) past the most superficial aspects so we don't know.