[Applause]
so I found myself at a Scottish wedding
recently and was delighted to find that
there was a whiskey tasting when I went
over to find out about the whiskey I was
quickly dismissed by my Scottish male
host as a woman and God forbid
Australian how could I have any whiskey
knowledge or appreciation this was a bit
of a first for me and I’m not one to be
dismissed so I found myself in a fairly
colourful exchange demonstrating my
extensive whiskey knowledge the next day
we chatted and he actually apologized
saying he’d underestimated me I think it
was kind of a compliment whiskey yes
whiskey I know a lot about it from the
science of distilling to flavor profiles
in the most remote part of Scotland but
unless I shared this with you how would
you know this is a challenge we face in
the workplace we can’t always see the
value that people can bring or the
knowledge that they have and often our
blind spots can be holding us back three
years ago I was sick of hearing there
was a lack of women leading companies
because there was a pipeline issue
so basically no women at the top because
they weren’t moving through an
organization to that senior position I
thought this was a lazy excuse and quite
frankly a cop-out having spent a number
of fantastic challenging and
enlightening years in these businesses I
was pretty sure I knew why women were
not staying I also felt that technology
could change their experience so I spent
my time meeting with business leaders
around the world in their head offices
trying to get to the bottom of what
worked what didn’t what were the real
issues and could I help solve them could
we maybe build something that dealt with
the issue of women moving through the
pipeline and if women just needed better
sponsorship which was often an area of
discussion maybe we could help with that
and then in 2016
heaven’s gates opened and poured gifts
upon the earth
academics consultancies and banks
release some of the strongest and most
conclusive evidence to date it turns out
the more women and diverse talent you
have leading your business the higher
the profits finally finally it seemed
like an absolute no-brainer earlier this
year I met with a global leader who told
me he didn’t think people believed the
business case for diversity
he had a big job and a big remit um so
you’re telling me you don’t think that
your leaders and your colleagues believe
there’s a business case for this nope
nada nothing it was mental it was a bit
like saying 2+2 doesn’t equal 4 and you
know at first I was dumbfounded but then
I felt rage what business leader or CEO
would not want to deliver more profits
isn’t that better for everyone and
whether you work in a corporate or not
there is always a knock-on benefit these
returns impact pension funds which can
benefit even the smallest freelancer
right through to more taxes being paid
which benefits all of society the rage
it actually started to subside and I
started to feel grateful for this rare
moment of honesty because it allowed me
to go deeper I had certainly bought into
these powerful marketing messages
believing that with this new evidence it
would be the change needed but to be
fair after years working in these
corporates deep down I knew the cultural
and behavioral change it was hard I had
experienced the best and worst of humans
in these workplaces I mean sometimes I
had felt like an 80s rock star the
teamwork the music the lights the air
guitar other times
stuck in some tribal homogeneous group
think like a scene from Lord of the
Flies without the wall painting Spears
and what was clearer to me than ever
before was that as humans we don’t just
do something because it is good for us I
too am human and I actually recently
took my parents to Provence now I have
this particular
leaning towards cured meat cheese and
fine French wine now every day my mother
would helpfully remind me that I needed
to have two and a half cups of
vegetables a day now even though I was
on holidays and my holiday diet does not
reflect my normal diet and I have closer
to the age of 40 than I am five mum now
I know I should have two and a half cups
of vegetables a day I know what is the
right thing to do I know the health
benefits of a long life then healthy
clear skin but because I’m an adult and
I generally do what I want sometimes I
don’t feel like this so I get busy and I
don’t eat this just being aware does not
make me apply this knowledge you know
what I’ve been preparing for this talk
I’ve been pumping out Beyonce’s who run
the world girls and then only to read
that there are more men named John
leading US companies than women CEOs in
total and then I start to hear who run
the world John and I gotta say it look
it just doesn’t have the same ring to it
the good news is there’s never been a
better time for this change even as our
political environments are radically
changing and not always progressively
the corporate world is coming together
we have leaders John’s Jim’s vivexx
Jorge’s signing up for the UN’s he for
she campaign holding up signs on social
media to signal their support for
hashtag gender parity now this is
powerful stuff and a real public
commitment it is progressive and an
important part of the journey but how do
we take this beyond the hashtag hashtag
real action hashtag getting it to work
hashtag starting with gender how do we
hack the workplace use everyday
technology to change everyday behavior
use everyday technology to help us see
past the blind spots use everyday
technology to help change who corporate
leaders see and what they do how do we
do with it the human parts of that
change well we need to make it
how do I get that two and a half cups of
vegetables deliciously prepared and in
my belly
smartphones they’re changing our
personal lives and our working lives now
I’m not saying that being on all the
time is necessarily a good thing however
I do believe we can be smarter with the
devices we literally have to hand so
here’s something I prepared earlier meet
John John is a general manager of a
corporation with about 10,000 people now
he is committed to supporting female
talent at his firm but you know
sometimes John gets busy and he only
sees the people that are in front of him
the company also has talent programs so
surely someone else is looking after
this corporate commitment anyway right
meet Zoe Zoe is a computer science
graduate in the same organization fresh
to the corporate world in her day to day
she does not meet with John but if we
can get her access and visibility to
senior leaders not only will she develop
her skills she is more likely to stay
and move up through the organization
into a leadership position so here’s
John getting a little nudge to help him
do the things that he’s actually signed
up to do so take him along to the next
senior meeting he’s having over to Zoe
she’s being notified what’s been set up
this is an example of a bot where we’ve
used geo location gender data and
calendar availability what we’re doing
here is it’s an experience that feels
familiar so we’re helping John see the
world and the people in it a little
differently by getting John to do
something we’re broadening and
positively reinforcing his neural
pathways and his association with Zoe
this is not a training program where you
take a box when it’s done this is a real
action and visibility we’re changing who
John sees and what he does so many times
I’ve had leaders tell me that it’s the
frozen middle of an organization that’s
stopping
change and it’s not that winter is
coming it’s that it is here technology
can take us to a brighter warmer and
fairer workplace we can use technology
so that the best and different people
get that next promotion we also need to
be able to point to more than a few or
the same role models technology can help
us with that trickle-down effect through
the organization my work plays half not
only shines a light on blind spots it
makes it easier to manage measure and
scale this change and in this case
gender balance but how do we hack our
way to evolution you and the people you
work with are already using technology
in this way last month I met with a
chairman of one of the world’s biggest
banks and during our discussion we spoke
about innovation and in particular
startup accelerators where they
basically work with a third party to
support startups when I asked him did it
change the culture at the bank his
answer was no not really but it did make
them cool cool
banking cool oh yeah I pondered this as
I left the meeting and walked out into
Canary Wharf running into a group of
about a hundred people and you know at
first I thought someone must have been
giving something away maybe doughnuts I
mean who doesn’t love doughnuts but then
I realized there are in small groups
moving between each other and
frantically tapping their phones they
were in fact catching pokémon and as I
walked past this group what really
struck me was the diversity old young
black white male female that suited in
the booted and even the hipsters Pokemon
had enabled online to offline and had
brought together an incredibly diverse
group of people this change it’s not
just for gamers it’s time to tool up and
help help our corporations evolve we
know the stuff it works all too well
smart technology and our mobile phones
helps us buy things we don’t really need
get to the bus on
time and meet new people which can be
very fun we a single we need to take
this hack this and use it in our
workplaces
let’s change who really runs the world
[Applause]
so I found myself at a Scottish wedding
recently and was delighted to find that
there was a whiskey tasting when I went
over to find out about the whiskey I was
quickly dismissed by my Scottish male
host as a woman and God forbid
Australian how could I have any whiskey
knowledge or appreciation this was a bit
of a first for me and I’m not one to be
dismissed so I found myself in a fairly
colourful exchange demonstrating my
extensive whiskey knowledge the next day
we chatted and he actually apologized
saying he’d underestimated me I think it
was kind of a compliment whiskey yes
whiskey I know a lot about it from the
science of distilling to flavor profiles
in the most remote part of Scotland but
unless I shared this with you how would
you know this is a challenge we face in
the workplace we can’t always see the
value that people can bring or the
knowledge that they have and often our
blind spots can be holding us back three
years ago I was sick of hearing there
was a lack of women leading companies
because there was a pipeline issue
so basically no women at the top because
they weren’t moving through an
organization to that senior position I
thought this was a lazy excuse and quite
frankly a cop-out having spent a number
of fantastic challenging and
enlightening years in these businesses I
was pretty sure I knew why women were
not staying I also felt that technology
could change their experience so I spent
my time meeting with business leaders
around the world in their head offices
trying to get to the bottom of what
worked what didn’t what were the real
issues and could I help solve them could
we maybe build something that dealt with
the issue of women moving through the
pipeline and if women just needed better
sponsorship which was often an area of
discussion maybe we could help with that
and then in 2016
heaven’s gates opened and poured gifts
upon the earth
academics consultancies and banks
release some of the strongest and most
conclusive evidence to date it turns out
the more women and diverse talent you
have leading your business the higher
the profits finally finally it seemed
like an absolute no-brainer earlier this
year I met with a global leader who told
me he didn’t think people believed the
business case for diversity
he had a big job and a big remit um so
you’re telling me you don’t think that
your leaders and your colleagues believe
there’s a business case for this nope
nada nothing it was mental it was a bit
like saying 2+2 doesn’t equal 4 and you
know at first I was dumbfounded but then
I felt rage what business leader or CEO
would not want to deliver more profits
isn’t that better for everyone and
whether you work in a corporate or not
there is always a knock-on benefit these
returns impact pension funds which can
benefit even the smallest freelancer
right through to more taxes being paid
which benefits all of society the rage
it actually started to subside and I
started to feel grateful for this rare
moment of honesty because it allowed me
to go deeper I had certainly bought into
these powerful marketing messages
believing that with this new evidence it
would be the change needed but to be
fair after years working in these
corporates deep down I knew the cultural
and behavioral change it was hard I had
experienced the best and worst of humans
in these workplaces I mean sometimes I
had felt like an 80s rock star the
teamwork the music the lights the air
guitar other times
stuck in some tribal homogeneous group
think like a scene from Lord of the
Flies without the wall painting Spears
and what was clearer to me than ever
before was that as humans we don’t just
do something because it is good for us I
too am human and I actually recently
took my parents to Provence now I have
this particular
leaning towards cured meat cheese and
fine French wine now every day my mother
would helpfully remind me that I needed
to have two and a half cups of
vegetables a day now even though I was
on holidays and my holiday diet does not
reflect my normal diet and I have closer
to the age of 40 than I am five mum now
I know I should have two and a half cups
of vegetables a day I know what is the
right thing to do I know the health
benefits of a long life then healthy
clear skin but because I’m an adult and
I generally do what I want sometimes I
don’t feel like this so I get busy and I
don’t eat this just being aware does not
make me apply this knowledge you know
what I’ve been preparing for this talk
I’ve been pumping out Beyonce’s who run
the world girls and then only to read
that there are more men named John
leading US companies than women CEOs in
total and then I start to hear who run
the world John and I gotta say it look
it just doesn’t have the same ring to it
the good news is there’s never been a
better time for this change even as our
political environments are radically
changing and not always progressively
the corporate world is coming together
we have leaders John’s Jim’s vivexx
Jorge’s signing up for the UN’s he for
she campaign holding up signs on social
media to signal their support for
hashtag gender parity now this is
powerful stuff and a real public
commitment it is progressive and an
important part of the journey but how do
we take this beyond the hashtag hashtag
real action hashtag getting it to work
hashtag starting with gender how do we
hack the workplace use everyday
technology to change everyday behavior
use everyday technology to help us see
past the blind spots use everyday
technology to help change who corporate
leaders see and what they do how do we
do with it the human parts of that
change well we need to make it
how do I get that two and a half cups of
vegetables deliciously prepared and in
my belly
smartphones they’re changing our
personal lives and our working lives now
I’m not saying that being on all the
time is necessarily a good thing however
I do believe we can be smarter with the
devices we literally have to hand so
here’s something I prepared earlier meet
John John is a general manager of a
corporation with about 10,000 people now
he is committed to supporting female
talent at his firm but you know
sometimes John gets busy and he only
sees the people that are in front of him
the company also has talent programs so
surely someone else is looking after
this corporate commitment anyway right
meet Zoe Zoe is a computer science
graduate in the same organization fresh
to the corporate world in her day to day
she does not meet with John but if we
can get her access and visibility to
senior leaders not only will she develop
her skills she is more likely to stay
and move up through the organization
into a leadership position so here’s
John getting a little nudge to help him
do the things that he’s actually signed
up to do so take him along to the next
senior meeting he’s having over to Zoe
she’s being notified what’s been set up
this is an example of a bot where we’ve
used geo location gender data and
calendar availability what we’re doing
here is it’s an experience that feels
familiar so we’re helping John see the
world and the people in it a little
differently by getting John to do
something we’re broadening and
positively reinforcing his neural
pathways and his association with Zoe
this is not a training program where you
take a box when it’s done this is a real
action and visibility we’re changing who
John sees and what he does so many times
I’ve had leaders tell me that it’s the
frozen middle of an organization that’s
stopping
change and it’s not that winter is
coming it’s that it is here technology
can take us to a brighter warmer and
fairer workplace we can use technology
so that the best and different people
get that next promotion we also need to
be able to point to more than a few or
the same role models technology can help
us with that trickle-down effect through
the organization my work plays half not
only shines a light on blind spots it
makes it easier to manage measure and
scale this change and in this case
gender balance but how do we hack our
way to evolution you and the people you
work with are already using technology
in this way last month I met with a
chairman of one of the world’s biggest
banks and during our discussion we spoke
about innovation and in particular
startup accelerators where they
basically work with a third party to
support startups when I asked him did it
change the culture at the bank his
answer was no not really but it did make
them cool cool
banking cool oh yeah I pondered this as
I left the meeting and walked out into
Canary Wharf running into a group of
about a hundred people and you know at
first I thought someone must have been
giving something away maybe doughnuts I
mean who doesn’t love doughnuts but then
I realized there are in small groups
moving between each other and
frantically tapping their phones they
were in fact catching pokémon and as I
walked past this group what really
struck me was the diversity old young
black white male female that suited in
the booted and even the hipsters Pokemon
had enabled online to offline and had
brought together an incredibly diverse
group of people this change it’s not
just for gamers it’s time to tool up and
help help our corporations evolve we
know the stuff it works all too well
smart technology and our mobile phones
helps us buy things we don’t really need
get to the bus on
time and meet new people which can be
very fun we a single we need to take
this hack this and use it in our
workplaces
let’s change who really runs the world
[Applause]
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