Mental Models (How to Think)

• Diversity is a fact
• Inclusion is a practice
• Equity is a goal

Neutral

Growth

Inertia

Integration

Segregation

Privilege

Oppression

Let's play a game...

This is the definition of bias

Diversity Defined

• Demographic diversity
• Experiential diversity
• Cognitive diversity

Captain Janeway

Keep your shirt tucked in; go down with the ship; and never abandon a member of your crew.

Am I open to unorthodoxy?

IQ

• Intelligence Quotient
• Ability to learn, not what you know
• Doesn't change much after childhood

EQ

• Emotional quotient
• Ability to recognize one's own emotions and others
• Changes over time

Emotional Intelligence of Groups

• Source (HBR): bit.ly/ei-hbr-2001
• Teams who develop greater emotional intelligence (EQ) boost their overall performance
• EQ: Trust among members, a sense of group identity, and a sense of group efficacy
• At the heart of these three conditions are emotions, like the ability to listen

Tuvok

On the contrary, the demands on a Vulcan's character are extraordinarily difficult. Do not mistake composure for ease.

What is the logical solution?

What do you hear about great groups? Not that the members are all really smart, but that they listen to each other.

Anita Wooley, Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon

Women Are Key to Smart Teams

• Published in HBR 2011: bit.ly/women-hbr-2011
• High correlation between number of women in the group and high collective intelligence
• Carnegie Mellon and MIT
• Group satisfaction
• Group cohesion
• Group motivation

Why do diverse teams outperform?

• The Out-group Advantage (Northwestern 2010)
• Teams focus on facts
  • Alter the behavior of a group’s social majority
• Facts processed more carefully
• More innovation
  • Dodge the costly pitfalls of conformity, which discourage innovative thinking

B’Elanna Torres

If I sprain my ankle, at least I feel something […] I'm not trying to kill myself! I'm trying to see if I'm still alive.

How do we evaluate talent?

The Difference

• Scott Page
• Professor of Complex Systems, Political Science, and Economics
• Published 2007
• bit.ly/scottpage-difference

I want to hire the most qualified

How do you define
most qualified?

Consider this...

Seven of Nine

But that is irrelevant.

Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem

Conditions

• The problem must be hard
• Each solver has a local optima to the problem
• An improvement can be made to a non-optimal solution
• Large pool of solvers to form a decent-size collection

Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem

Counter

https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/20375/

http://www.ams.org/notices/201409/rnoti-p1024.pdf

Counter-Counter

http://bit.ly/1juIvFI

http://www.ams.org/notices/201501/rnoti-p9.pdf

What the model tells us

Consider this...

Problem solvers with diverse perspectives may have trouble understanding solutions identified by other agents.

Dr. Scott Page, Professor at Univ. of Michigan

EQ

What if...

Open source could make the world a better place by requiring

equity and emotional intelligence

integral to its interoperability

Mental Models

Inversion

Prove me wrong vs. What am I missing?

The Map is not the Territory

There will always be flaws and nuance

Circle of Competence

Being right vs. Being successful

In Conclusion...

Additional Stories

• Bring on the female superheroes
• We got it from here, thank you for your service
• The gender ambition myth
• Better Decisions Through Diversity

Thanks for listening

IDIC

slides.com/fmitchell/drupalcon2022-math-science-diversity

Sources
Groups are smarter with women - http://hbr.org/2011/06/defend-your-research-what-makes-a-team-smarter-more-women/ar/1
EQ (HBR link) - http://www.mindsetmatters.com.au/Portals/0/dox/building%20emotional%20intelligence%20of%20groups.pdf
Group Intelligence Correlates More with Social Aptitude than IQ - http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/10/collective-intelligence-and-th/
Being an Ally as a Person with Privilege - http://www.scn.org/friends/ally.html
Risk of Speaking Up - http://www.ashedryden.com/the-risk-in-speaking-up
21st Century Talent Spotting: Potential Trumps Brains, experience, and competencies - http://www.egonzehnder.com/files/_b_77ddd4d.pdf
Mathematical Model of Diversity - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/science/08conv.html
Scott Page: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Schools, Societies - http://vserver1.cscs.lsa.umich.edu/~spage/thedifference_content.html
Diversity Trumps Ability - http://www.crowdsourcing.com/cs/2008/05/chapter-6-the-m.html
Scott Page, Lu Hong Research - http://www.pnas.org/content/101/46/16385.full
http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/now-voyager-the-least-beloved-star-trek-offered-some-of-the-franchises-strongest-feminist-messages
http://www.startrek.com/page/star-trek-voyager
https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/20375/
https://www.knightfoundation.org/articles/having-uncomfortable-conversations-a-new-communications-imperative