Interview with Tara Robertson: We may not be a perfect organization, but we have to be respected

In 2020, the Taipei Municipal Government will launch the Workplace Gender Equality Pointer Certification, introducing seven pointers to examine the diversity and integration of businesses (Diversity and Inclusion, D?amp;I), and this year (2018) 26 public and private enterprises have been challenged to conduct a gender equality review in the workplace. (Extended reading: implementing multi-integration!) Taipei is the first city in Asia to develop a "gender equality guideline" in the workplace)

Do you think it's too early for Taiwan to talk about diversity and integration?

In order to promote equality in the workplace, women's fans have launched a d-and-I multi-integration column since July 2018, delving into interviews with companies in Taiwan to learn about the d'amp;I policies and concepts of multinational companies, and to work with local companies in Taiwan to tap into the core values of D.amp;I. Today, we have an exclusive interview with Tara Robertson, head of D.I., mozilla, USA, who has more than 10 years of experience in promoting the openness of the technology community and resources, and specializes in using data and research analytics to promote equality and inclusion.

Prior to the interview with Tara, Tara had a fireside chat with women's fan CEO Zhang Weixuan in the team to relax and chat about Mozilla's conceptual value and share the team spirit of women fans. Jean Tara says it's the best part of her trip to Taiwan. (Extended Reading:D'amp;I Direct Strikes , Mozilla' Multi-Integration Leader Tara: Free everyone and Be Himself)

Through this conversation between The Women's Fan CEO Zhang Yuxuan and Tara Robertson, head of Mozilla D and I, we also hope to bring new d-and-I thinking to all Taiwanese companies.

Finding the "best" talent: How we get rid of the high-educated myths of talent

First, he asks, how does Mozilla find people who are really right for a business/nonprofit organization?

Tara Robertson says that in Mozilla, it's no bigger than big business, so she would expect everyone to be the "best person." But how do we define what is best, education, social skills, or professional skills?

"The person a company wants to find the right person depends on how you define the job conditions and your needs, set out the conditions that need to be valued most about the position, and focus on the top." When an interviewer discusses a shortlist, there may be unconscious biases, such as "This Person Gets PhD," "He Graduated from Stanford," when the discussion is off-point, she points out that attention must begin: "Think about your key pointer (Key Criteria). 」

Most companies take culture fit into account when they are based on cultural fitness, can be integrated into team culture and value, and can increase retention and reduce the number of councillors, but Tara Robertson offers another thought - Culture Add

"Can this person bring a new perspective to the established culture from the perspective of Culture Add?" He can't fit into the team because he's different from us and there's a good chance the team needs that kind of person. 」

Think from another angle, perhaps different people, can make a business culture more full.

Because it is "unconscious", how do we "discover" prejudice?

There is no denying that everyone has unconscious bias. "The media and educational information we absorb every day contains unconscious bias, but we don't consciously," Tara says, both in the process of recruitment and in everyday life. (Extended Reading:Are you also unconscious lying about bias between D and I strategies?) True equality is not tolerance but integration .

He went on to ask the question many people will have: Since it is "unconscious," how can we "discover" bias?

Tara mentions Harvard's official Implicit Association Test, a test developed by Harvard psychologist Mahzarin R. Banaji and psychologist Anthony G. Greenwald of the University of Washington in Seattle to help unearth inner thoughts that people are unwilling and unable to speak (and have traditional versions for testing), such as when we ask people with smoke addiction "a few packs of cigarettes a day", and the other person is likely to give the wrong answer and smoke four or two packs a day. This may be because you're ashamed of smoking four packs of cigarettes, or subconsciously you really think you're smoking only two packs of cigarettes, and the implicit connection test is designed to dig into everyone's unconscious thoughts.

"Because we are in such an environment, everyone, including you and I, must have unconscious biases, such as thinking that home belongs to women, and the workplace belongs to men. Even if this is not what we consider to be value, there will be subconscious. Setting yourself clear criteria and handling methods will focus on what you value most. 」

Arousing awareness is a top priority

We mentioned to Tara that women fans have also taken unconscious bias tests, and that they perceive their problems in the "career-gender" association game, such as thinking of a teacher, a woman in the brain;

Tara nodded, then picked up a pen to draw the famous quiz "The Draw-A-Scientist" on a whiteboard, initiated by social scientist David Wade Chambers from 1966 to 1977, inviting three countries, 4807 Pupils draw their own imaginations of scientists, analyzing children's stereotypes of scientists, which will initially appear in the age of a few years. Finally, the seven characteristics of a child's eyes were analyzed for all the drawings: laboratory coats, glasses, beards, research-related symbols, knowledge-related symbols, and other scientific and technological products.

David Miller of Northwestern University further analyzed Chambers' test results: of all the drawings, only 28 were female scientists, and the people who drew the drawings were girls, and none of the boys painted female scientists.

"What does a scientist look like to a child?" When we see this result, we should think, what causes this to happen? 」

Social, media, family education indoctrination, so that our children grow up to continue to accept the same information, so Tara believes that the most important thing is to "conscious" to the problem, to arouse consciousness, we can think about the next step how to solve, all this is urgent.

Tara paints a picture on a whiteboard of what most children think of as a "scientist."

Tara paints a picture on a whiteboard of what most children think of as a "scientist."

What substantive actions can we take?

Tara says that Mozilla's core value is people, and that there is a community engagement guideline within Mozilla that clearly defines Mozilla's "Six Action Expectations" for team members, "The Five Intolerable Actions" and details where the Guidelines apply.

When it comes to talent recruitment, Tara believes that it is also important to take into account the use of words for talent, such as when recruiting engineers, companies often use gender-suggesting words such as rock stars and ninjas.

"Some companies use ninjas and rock stars to describe engineers, but what do people think when they see this ad?" What do women think? They will think they are not the people the business is looking for. So we have to use a neutral language. 」

(Editor:Rock stars and ninjas are master engineers.) The American Society for Human Resource Management says that words associated with masculinity can discourage women from posting their resumes , including " competitive " and " decisive " , while on the contrary , " teamwork " can attract women to apply . In order to establish a multi-dimensional recruitment, the term gender-suggesting must be removed. )

Despite the difficulty of achieving full diversity and integration, which must be controversial, Tara is optimistic: "It's hard, but you'll never get bored." 」

"By the standards, there's something we haven't done; Driving the change in the D.amp;I. We'll choose to start with the most challenging part. 」

Perhaps for many Taiwanese companies, the D-I is still unfamiliar and still a long way from equality, but Tara encourages: "You have to be honest about what you've done, and if you're not honest, how do you know how to change?" 」

"We may not be a perfect organization, but we have to feel respected. 」

Multi-integration is a process that cannot be stopped and constantly progressed, and change can never be achieved overnight.

We need you to start by taking the first step.

For more information on this, to find out how to move the D?amp;I, welcome to the letter charminglab@womany.net