Become More Like A Technology Company, But Eject The ‘Bro’ Culture – Forbes

ByJoe McKendrick

ByJoe McKendrick,
Senior Contributor.
Diversity: It's a good thing
Technology companies are often held up as open, forward-looking enterprises capable of quickly adapting and moving on innovations. Indeed, many do function as autonomous sets of creative teams, with little formal management to hinder their progress.
Still, there’s a crisis that has been bubbling within tech culture that often derails such innovative spirit. That is, they tend toward “bro cultures,” closing off more diverse points of view and possibilities for innovation.
In her latest book, Rebooting Tech Culture, Telle Whitney provides a cautionary tale of how technology companies often derail themselves with such closed cultures or even hubris. It’s important that mainstream businesses – of whom many are becoming or seek to become technology businesses in their own right – understand the “gotchas” of pursuing a tech culture that closely mirrors Silicon Valley.
Whitney, a Silicon Valley startup veteran herself, and co-founder of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, says tech has long had a culture problem – it is still dominated by white males, which tends to shape the data and insights delivered through machines and software. "As tech firms grow, their processes and hierarchies become hardened, limiting the freedom to experiment or bring new ideas to the table.” Whitney observes. They are also subject to the “lone genius archetype.”
“Most business leaders do not doubt the value of an inclusive culture.” However, “the hard truth is that most leaders don’t want to fundamentally change their workplaces.”
To overcome this, Whitney urges leaders to take positive steps to promote respect, manage conflict, and develop employee skills early and often, to promote greater diversity of thought and innovation. Importantly, this is not an HR challenge – every executive, a manager, and team leader can take relatively simple steps to open up their organizations:

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