#35 - COLORED EXPERIENCES: VALUABLE!

ISSUE #35

The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth. - Unknown

DREAM REALITY

She said: “I give you a million dollars and a tech team that can build anything. Can we start tomorrow?” the answer was always NO, not yet. Now I am ready for the millions and ready for the Tech team. The answer is YES, I am ready. I can now offer a tech team all the information which they need to build it. Is it 100% finished? No, probably we are at 80% but the remaining 20% is a refinement of the basics. An experienced team can handle the basics and take it from there. Ready to Rock & Roll.

DIVERSE EQUALS SMART

Peoples’ Impact is not a quantity play; it is a quality play. Recruiting the Pioneers’ team is all about finding smart people … a diverse group of smart people. Why? I will tell you why.

I want to start by using the words of Emily Goligoski, (Lead Researcher at Charter) as published in Dense Discovery (DD), one of my favorite newsletters.

DD: There has been a lot of focus on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) in the last decade, especially in the tech sphere. Are there signs that progress made on these issues is having a real impact?

Goligosky: We certainly see productive efforts toward increased employee stock ownership and board representation by underrepresented groups. We see improvement in how organizations think about their staff and leadership in terms of neurodiversity, class, and identities that extend beyond what a person looks like.

And yet,

There’s no question that organizations can be doing much more substantively – not just talking about DEI as a priority, but resourcing it with real investment – to make it possible for talent to show up and do their best work.

And yet, and yet, and yet when push comes to shove DEI is flushed through the toilet like a cat crapping on a hot tin roof. Let’s face it DEI is a feel-good marketing ploy. Am I right or am I right? I present to you content from WELL FOUND – another interesting newsletter.

WELL FOUND: Though Black Americans make up over 13% of the population, Black-founded companies receive just 1% of venture funding—and the disparity has only widened during the market cooldown over the past year.“It generally sucks being a Black founder raising today,” a Black founder told TechCrunch.It’s not just founders, either. People of color make up a tiny portion of the tech workforce, and last year’s layoffs only exasperated things. hitting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) departments hard.

DEI sounds good; It makes companies and decision-makers sound intelligent, caring, and forward-thinking but when we scrape the cosmetics from the faces, we see companies that do not believe their own (!!) promo talk.

Of course, this is just the opinion of somebody who has not done rigid research on the matter. Let's be honest, it is a gut feeling. But I am an expert on how we – at Peoples’ Impact – see things for the platform.

DIVERSITY OF OPINIONS

For us, diversity is NOT a promo-driven colored photo-op with gays, browns, blacks, Jews, aliens, and … whoever more. It is crucial to understand that diversity for us refers to …. diversity of opinions. Diversity of opinions leads to better decision-making and smarter organizations.

A so-called white person having the same opinion as a so-called gay person does not add to more diversity of opinion. A so-called brown person who imitates the opinions of a feminist woman neither.

Why is it still important to recruit black, brown, and lb+trans/other people if what matters is a diversity of opinions?

Because we are looking for people with different life experiences. Based on those different life experiences, the odds increase substantially that people might express different opinions. It is incredibly important to encourage everybody to tap into those ‘other’ experiences and use them in the conversation.

This might sound strange.

We need people who can bring diverse opinions to the table …. Even if they are not theirs to begin with or if they might disagree with the opinions they share. Adequately expressing other peoples’ opinions and motivations is just as valuable. So – in repetition - even if you disagree with an opinion, you can still add them to the conversation. You become a vehicle for ignored opinions – even if they are not yours. You would make a valuable contribution.

The PI Platform encourages everybody to tap into all kinds of life experiences and bring them to the forefront. So, your value lies not in your skin color or which side you kiss on but in your ability to bring new perspectives to the thinking process. What we need is a group of people with diverse opinions drawn from diverse life experiences. And who better (potentially) than those people who are living those different experiences?

Am I right or …..

THE END