Diversity makes the rockets fly faster!
This annual event is dedicated to bringing together Australia’s deep tech innovation ecosystem. Though connecting ON Alumni and Mentors with the national network that supports them, this exclusive event provokes conversation, knowledge-sharing, and networking.
iLAuNCH CTO, Dr Joni Sytsma hit the stage in Sydney in early December, celebrating diversity and the power of storytelling – It was a day spent with over 300 of the ON Program’s community who passionately believe in translating big ideas into real-world impact for Australia.
Alongside Joni, were Luli Adeyemo from Best Case Scenario, Scott Allen from Nallawilli Group, with moderation by CSIRO’s Torres Webb. Joni shares her discussion:
This panel was about Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) in innovation, and I wanted to impart the flavours of the workplaces I have experienced. From an engineering lens, these were mostly homogeneous male-centric organisations, where women, people of colour, and LGBTQIA+’s inevitably self-selected out, starving these workplaces of skilled workers.
During my university days, my aerospace engineering cohort started at 50/50; but by graduation, it was almost 10/90, and fortunately for me, my career went between places that prized diversity rather than the others described earlier. Of those two workforces, the heterogeneous ones were mired in groupthink and solved problems slower and at great expense because deviation from the norm was generally not acceptable. Norm was whatever the leader at the top said it was.
Diversity of appearance leads to acceptance of ‘out there’ ideas, leading to faster solution times at less expense. It’s the difference between operating under the expectation of harsh judgment for operating outside of the norm, and with possible persecution. The likelihood of a judgemental workplace might just be written on the faces of the workforce, and if you see that at first glance, diverse folk will take their skills elsewhere. If I and the diverse crowd walk into a workplace and see a stunning lack of diversity, I also see hostility from the leadership towards people like me and my ideas, and who wants to work in that environment? If it’s a good D&I environment, there’s a lot more smiles, and that inclusivity drives workforce participation to make the rockets fly faster. In 2023, there’s a worker shortage. Carefully think about what you want your workforce to look like because traditional heterogeneous workplaces will cause you to lose out on talent that doesn’t quite look like that person in the mirror. It’s as simple as expanding your talent pool, but it must be done purposefully and starting with leadership from the top.
Read more about CSIRO’s ON Core Program.
