Look ‘Outside the Echo Chamber’ for better inclusion practices

‘May you live in interesting times.’  

Thought to be an ancient curse, the sentiment delivers bleak resonance as the COVID-19 pandemic stretches out as the backdrop to a ‘new business as usual’. In such a short period of time, the unthinkable has become reality, resilience has become a currency and reliance on digital infrastructure less luxury than an indispensable utility. 

‘May you live in interesting times.’ 

While the enormity of the global coronavirus health emergency has delivered an impact on human liberty, behaviour and working habits not thought possible, seismic shifts in the ways we recognise difference in our communities have also become a global concern.  Challenges to our accepted ‘business as usual’ due to the pandemic have also highlighted broader considerations of how we recognise, embrace and advance inclusion of diverse (and often under-represented) groups in our organisations.

It’s long been known that the digital infrastructure sector has a diversity problem. As Haidee Gonsalves noted, images from DI events “provide a pretty damning snapshot of the demographic of the data centre industry”.  Clearly a lack of diversity of the sector extends beyond gender as one of the most obvious, but it is by examining gender disparities that we can begin to recognise the depth and breadth of implicit barriers to inclusion of broader communities more generally.

The digital infrastructure sector is in a perfect place to reimagine the how inclusion practices become the ‘glue’ that binds a revised culture together

The DI sector is one that has been one of the few to reap rewards from the pandemic. Never before has the capacity to access resources delivered by digital infrastructure (and all that they afford) been so important. This may be the catalyst for data centre firms to reimagine how they access talent from a more diverse pool of candidates. At a time when root and branch revisions of organisations may bring a change to operations, mission, corporate vision and values, DI as a sector is in a perfect place to reimagine the how inclusion practices become the ‘glue’ that binds a revised culture together. 

Just prior to the lockdown, Portman Partners launched an ongoing research activity to better codify the experiences of women in the DI sector. The ‘Outside the Echo Chamber’ event aimed to look closely at the ways in which business practices supported or denied inclusion to women.  Much less a ‘moanfest’ than an important snapshot into the current DI landscape from operations to leadership, the outcome is a deep and rich tapestry of insight into the reality of minority group experiences in the DI sector.

Findings illustrate not only what the barriers to inclusion might be, but also what the DI sector should look like and how it might make inclusion practices work as they should. After all, the benefits of a diverse workforce (for organisations and individuals alike) are only enabled by embedded inclusion principles, practices and behaviours. 

Reimagining DI workplaces; recognising the value of diverse voices

One of the most profound and entrenched issues preventing the DI sector from moving to a more inclusive culture is the ‘lack of will’ stemming from a lack of diverse voices in positions of leadership. While there are certainly pockets of better practice in the sector, respondents suggested that a clear sector-wide equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policy must be adopted.

At a time when the DI sector is primed for greater community visibility, growth and prosperity, disproportionate success will be afforded to those organisations who re-envision their value to consumers, their communities and their people. We will come to our post-pandemic lives with different expectations, preferences and behaviours. This is includes a reinvention of our work lives, relationships and interactions with community. This has been profoundly illustrated by global responses to the Black Lives Matter movement for example; we will expect to see diversity of our ideas and backgrounds reflected and respected in our workplaces. 

...disproportionate success will be afforded to those organisations who re-envision their value to consumers, their communities and their people

Navigating through this emergent organisational landscape demands an inclusive approach and those who deserve, and rightly now demand access to greater opportunity must be heard. Those who may have been locked out due to gender, disability, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, or social background and those who bring different, more creative, status quo-challenging ideas can only be included with reimagined approaches to how our DI organisations are built.

If there was a time when diversity of thought, action and behaviour in the DI sector was at a premium, it is now. If there was ever a place for effective inclusive practices, it is in DI organisations that seek to innovate and to reinvent themselves for the ‘new business as usual’. 

To bring insight to the sector, the findings of the ‘Outside the Echo Chamber’ initial project will be serialised here by Portman Partners.  While focussing on the experiences of women, many of the fundamental insights cut across various populations and will offer organisations an opportunity to compare their current practices with those brought to the table by our research participants.

If our communities and DI organisations are to emerge into a ‘better business as usual’ rather than just a ‘new normal’, DI leaders and managers must consider which bits of the ‘old normal’ we want to replicate and which bits should be retired as a legacy of an era rightly left behind.

CALL TO ACTION - While the invitation-only follow up event to the first Outside the Echo Chamber report was postponed by the COVID-19 lockdown, we aim to deliver this in the near future as an online event. We’ll be announcing that soon. If you’d like an invitation, please contact Peter Hannaford and details will be forwarded in due course. We look forward to seeing you soon. 

Contact Peter Hannaford - [email protected]