Mental Models

@fredricmitchell

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

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Neutral

Growth

Inertia

Integration

Segregation

Privilege

Oppression

Let's play a game...

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This is the definition of bias

No way to "win" or avoid

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Diversity Defined

• Demographic diversity
• Experiential diversity
• Cognitive diversity

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Captain Janeway

@fredricmitchell

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

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Am I open to unorthodoxy?

@fredricmitchell

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

@fredricmitchell

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

@fredricmitchell

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Tuvok

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

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What is the logical solution?

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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

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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

@fredricmitchell

@fredricmitchell

Why do diverse teams outperform?

•  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

@fredricmitchell

Bold Statement #1

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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.

@fredricmitchell

How am I evaluating talent?

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The Difference

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

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I want to hire the most qualified

@fredricmitchell

How do you define
most qualified?

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Bold Statement #2

"Innovation"

• Ambien - Women are tiny men
• Apple HealthKit - No period tracking
• Harvard - Lauded admission practices
• Pockets

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Seven of Nine

But that is irrelevant.

@fredricmitchell

What makes someone care?

• Vanity
• Virtue
• Fear
• Profit

@fredricmitchell

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

@fredricmitchell

Diversity Trumps Ability Theorem

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Counter

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

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

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Counter-Counter

http://bit.ly/1juIvFI

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

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What the model tells us

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Bold Statement #3

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

Dr. Scott Page, Professor at Univ. of Michigan

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EQ

@fredricmitchell

@fredricmitchell

Talent hits a target that no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.

Arthur Schopenhauer, German Philosopher

Hypothesis

Open source will make the world a better place by requiring

equity and emotional intelligence

integral to its interoperability.

@fredricmitchell

How to grow?

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Mental Models

@fredricmitchell

Inversion

Prove me wrong vs. What am I missing?

Circle of Competence

Being right vs. Being successful

Team S.M.A.R.T. goals

• Connect various recruiting metrics to compensation each quarter
• Send a monthly "top 3 challenges and tech stack used" to a NSBE and SWE chapter president as part of 'Free code Fridays'
• Follow at least 3:
  • Devs of color, Women, Non-binary
  • Group lunch discussion monthly of one of their topics

@fredricmitchell

Subscribe to eqfordevs.com

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In Conclusion...

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Additional Stories

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

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Thanks for listening

IDIC

@fredricmitchell

slides.com/fmitchell/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

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