Diversity at Google

Google

30 Jun 201602:27

Summary

TLDRThe video script highlights the importance of diversity and inclusion in shaping a successful society and workplace, exemplified by Google's commitment to reflecting this in its workforce and leadership. Personal stories underscore the journey from standing out to blending in, emphasizing the value of varied life experiences in product design. Google's transparency in sharing workforce data and dedication to increasing representation are underscored, along with the recognition that fostering diversity is an ongoing, challenging, yet essential endeavor for the betterment of the company and society.

Takeaways

🌐 Immigrant Experience: Sridhar Ramaswamy reflects on his journey as an immigrant, noting the change from standing out to blending in with the diverse landscape of the country.
🌈 Valuing Diversity: Chris Genteel emphasizes the importance of a diverse range of people, experiences, and perspectives for the success of a company like Google and a society.
🗺️ Inclusive Product Design: Jen Fitzpatrick highlights the significance of having a diverse team when designing Google Maps to ensure the product meets the needs of a wide range of users.
🔍 Assessing Workforce Diversity: Nancy Lee discusses Google's initial steps to understand and improve workforce diversity by sharing data with employees and the public for accountability.
📈 Increasing Representation: Efforts at Google are focused on increasing the representation of diverse groups within the company to better reflect the desired diversity.
💪 Commitment to Hard Work: Valeisha Butterfield Jones acknowledges the difficulty of addressing diversity issues but stresses the importance of persistence and commitment to long-term results.
👩‍💼 Leadership Tone: Ruth Porat describes the tone set by senior leaders at Google to prioritize diversity, aiming to have more women and underrepresented groups in senior leadership positions.
🌟 Prioritizing Diversity: The leadership's stance on diversity is seen as a starting point that becomes infectious, making it clear that diversity is a priority for the company.
🚀 Striving for Possibility: Torrence Boone speaks to the company's goal of unlocking unexpected possibilities through the amalgamation of diverse perspectives.
🔑 Unlocking Potential: The script suggests that diverse perspectives are key to unlocking innovation and achieving the company's goals.

Q & A

What has been the personal experience of Sridhar Ramaswamy as an immigrant in the U.S. over the past 25 years?
-Sridhar Ramaswamy has experienced a transition from standing out as an immigrant to blending in with the surrounding society, acknowledging that this change is not something to be taken for granted.
How does Chris Genteel view the importance of diversity in a company like Google?
-Chris Genteel believes that a company like Google cannot be successful without being inclusive of diverse people, experiences, and perspectives, as they contribute to the company's success.
What role does diversity play in the development of Google Maps according to Jen Fitzpatrick?
-Jen Fitzpatrick emphasizes that having a diverse team around the table when designing Google Maps helps in considering the everyday moments of life for people from different backgrounds, ultimately aiding in the product's inclusiveness.
What was the first step Google took to address diversity in its workforce?
-Google's first step was to understand the composition of its workforce and assess whether it could be more diverse. They shared this data with both employees and the public to hold themselves accountable.
How does Nancy Lee describe the efforts made by Google to increase diversity?
-Nancy Lee explains that Google's efforts are now focused on increasing representation and diversity, using the shared data as a foundation to drive these initiatives.
What does Valeisha Butterfield Jones believe is the nature of the work required to solve industry and societal problems?
-Valeisha Butterfield Jones views the work as hard and acknowledges that the problems in the industry reflect those in society, emphasizing the importance of commitment to long-term results.
What tone does Ruth Porat say is set by senior leaders at Google regarding diversity and inclusion?
-Ruth Porat indicates that senior leaders at Google have set a tone of wanting to attract the greatest talent and emphasize the importance of having more women and underrepresented groups in senior leadership positions, as it makes the company better.
How does Torrence Boone define the goal of striving for diversity at Google?
-Torrence Boone describes the goal as striving for possibility, aiming to unlock the unexpected by bringing together diverse perspectives.
What impact does setting the right tone from senior leadership have on the company culture, according to the transcript?
-Setting the right tone from senior leadership makes it clear that diversity and inclusion are priorities, and this clarity becomes infectious, spreading the importance of these values throughout the company.
How does the transcript suggest that a diverse workforce contributes to the success of a company like Google?
-The transcript suggests that a diverse workforce, with its range of life experiences and perspectives, is crucial for innovation and problem-solving, ultimately contributing to the company's success.
What is the significance of being held accountable for diversity, as mentioned by Nancy Lee?
-The significance of being held accountable for diversity is that it ensures transparency and a commitment to change. By sharing data with employees and the public, Google demonstrates its dedication to improving diversity within the company.

Outlines

00:00

🌍 Immigrant Journey and Integration

Sridhar Ramaswamy shares his experience of immigrating to the United States 25 years ago. He reflects on how he transitioned from being someone who stood out to blending in with the community around him. He emphasizes the importance of not taking this integration for granted.

🌐 Embracing Diversity in Life and Business

Chris Genteel talks about his life being enriched with diverse people, experiences, and perspectives. He stresses that companies like Google and societies thrive by being inclusive of diverse viewpoints, which is essential for success.

🗺️ Designing Google Maps with Diverse Perspectives

Jen Fitzpatrick discusses the development of Google Maps, highlighting the importance of including people with varied life experiences and backgrounds in the design process. This diversity helps in creating a product that serves the needs of a broad range of users effectively.

📊 Transparency and Accountability in Workforce Diversity

Nancy Lee explains Google's initial steps to address diversity by analyzing and sharing workforce data both internally and publicly. This transparency aimed to hold the company accountable and drive efforts to increase diversity representation at Google.

💼 Commitment to Long-Term Diversity Goals

Valeisha Butterfield Jones acknowledges the challenges in addressing industry-wide and societal problems related to diversity. She emphasizes the importance of perseverance and long-term commitment to achieving meaningful results.

👩‍💼 Leadership and Diversity Priorities

Ruth Porat highlights the role of senior leaders in promoting diversity. She mentions the focus on elevating talent within the organization and the importance of increasing representation of women and underrepresented groups in senior positions, which ultimately strengthens the company.

🔓 Unlocking Potential through Diverse Perspectives

Torrence Boone talks about striving for possibilities by bringing together diverse perspectives. He believes that combining different viewpoints unlocks unexpected innovations and opportunities.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Immigrant

An immigrant is a person who moves to a country other than their native one, usually for permanent residence. In the video, Sridhar Ramaswamy shares his personal experience of immigrating to the United States 25 years ago, highlighting the change in societal acceptance and inclusivity over time. This concept ties into the broader theme of diversity and how different backgrounds contribute to societal and corporate progress.

💡Diversity

Diversity refers to the inclusion of different types of people (such as people of different races, cultures, or genders) in a group or organization. Chris Genteel and Nancy Lee emphasize the importance of diversity in their personal lives and at Google, arguing that it is essential for success and innovation. They discuss Google's efforts to increase representation and accountability in its workforce.

💡Inclusion

Inclusion involves creating environments in which any individual or group can feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued. Chris Genteel mentions that a successful society and company like Google require inclusive perspectives. Inclusion ensures that diverse viewpoints are not only present but actively contribute to decision-making and development processes.

💡Representation

Representation refers to the presence of diverse groups of people in a given context, such as a workforce. Nancy Lee discusses Google's initiatives to understand and improve its workforce diversity. By sharing demographic data, Google aims to increase the representation of underrepresented groups, aligning its workforce more closely with its diversity goals.

💡Life Experiences

Life experiences are the unique events and circumstances that shape an individual's perspective and actions. Jen Fitzpatrick explains how diverse life experiences among team members enhance the development of products like Google Maps. By incorporating various viewpoints, Google can create solutions that better serve a global user base.

💡Accountability

Accountability is the obligation to accept responsibility for one's actions. Nancy Lee describes Google's approach to diversity by sharing workforce data publicly, allowing both employees and the public to hold the company accountable for its diversity initiatives. This transparency is meant to drive continuous improvement.

💡Long-term Commitment

Long-term commitment refers to a sustained effort over an extended period. Valeisha Butterfield Jones speaks about the enduring nature of diversity work, acknowledging its challenges but stressing the importance of persistent efforts. This commitment is crucial for achieving meaningful and lasting changes in diversity and inclusion.

💡Senior Leadership

Senior leadership includes the top executives and leaders in an organization. Ruth Porat highlights the critical role of senior leaders in setting the tone for diversity and inclusion. By prioritizing these values, senior leaders influence the entire organization to follow suit, making diversity a strategic priority.

💡Underrepresented Groups

Underrepresented groups are populations that have less representation in certain contexts compared to their proportion in the general population. Ruth Porat discusses the need to increase the presence of women and other underrepresented groups in senior leadership positions at Google, arguing that this enhances the company's overall performance and innovation.

💡Perspectives

Perspectives are the particular attitudes or ways of viewing something. Torrence Boone emphasizes the value of bringing diverse perspectives together to unlock unexpected possibilities. This concept is central to the video's message that a variety of viewpoints leads to better problem-solving and innovation.

Highlights

SRIDHAR RAMASWAMY: I am an immigrant in this country. I came 25 years ago.

The country has moved from a place where I was somebody that stood out to somebody that in a strange way, blends in with what is around.

CHRIS GENTEEL: My life has always been filled with a diversity of people and experiences, perspectives.

It's hard to imagine a company like Google, or a society like ours being successful without being inclusive of all that perspective.

JEN FITZPATRICK: When we're building Google Maps, we're really looking at how do we help people in the everyday moments of their life.

Having people around the table when we're designing the product who've had different life experiences, who come from different types of neighborhoods, from different places in the world, really makes a difference.

NANCY LEE: One of the first things that Google did to try and decide what it needed to solve in terms of diversity was understanding what did its workforce look like, and whether it could actually be more diverse.

We shared that data both with Googlers as well as with the public so that we could be held accountable for the fact that we didn't look like we wanted to.

Many of our efforts now are built around increasing that representation of diversity at Google.

VALEISHA BUTTERFIELD JONES: This is hard work. If you look at the problems that we'd like to solve as an industry, they also reflect the problems of our society.

It's so important that we do the work, even when it's tough, and that we're committed to the long-term result.

RUTH PORAT: Having that tone from our senior leaders-- which is, we want to be able to pull up the greatest talent we have around the organization and make it really clear, we want to see more women in senior leadership positions, we want to see more people from underrepresented groups, because it makes us a better company-- really, to me, is the starting point.

Once you set that tone, it becomes really clear. This is a priority, because it makes sense to be a priority.

TORRENCE BOONE: What we're striving for is possibility. We want to unlock what is unexpected.

You're going to get that when you bring all of these diverse perspectives together.