[Music]
so today I’m the bearer of some bad news
my generation and those before me have
set up each and every one of you in this
room to inherit one of the greatest debt
crises the world has ever known so I’m
not talking about our massive financial
debt I’m not even talking about the mess
that we made of our planet we’re on the
verge of the diversity debt crisis ok so
that’s some heavy news so let me break
this down just a little bit years ago I
started day trading stocks to pay my way
through school as a new trader I sought
advice from people much more experienced
than myself and the advice that I
received from them was to make sure that
I built myself a diversified portfolio
so well approaches to trading very
having a diversified portfolio remains a
fairly common advice so a diversified
portfolio means that you invest your
money here things in a bunch of
different places instead of putting all
of my eggs in one basket I spread my
eggs throughout a bunch of different
baskets yet for some reason this
long-standing financial advice hasn’t
found its way across all of the business
world so what happens when we start to
think about the actions and the
decisions of a company of an innovation
of a technology as building diversity
debt so do I have any snapchat users in
the room
maybe you can show me how to use it
later
well just earlier this year snapchat
accrued quite a bit of diversity debt
when they turned users selfies into
Asian caricatures and they promoted
digital blackface threw a Bob Marley
filter do I have any iPhone users in the
room yeah I found club cool well Apple
accrued some diversity debt a few years
ago when they forgot about women’s
reproductive health in the initial
launch of their health kit app they
forgot to track women’s menstrual cycles
how did snapchat bring filters that
promoted digital blackface and digital
yellow-faced to their millions and
millions of users and how did Apple
forget about women’s reproductive health
in the initial launch of the health kit
app well if we take a look at tech
startups there’s a few common reasons
why this happens so let’s look at an
example this is Bill and Ted they had a
big idea
they built a really cool dating app the
app seemed to work pretty well people
were using the app and then they realize
they needed to hire a few new people so
they hired a few of their friends the
app continued to do well people were
actually loving it and they were growing
really fast so they needed to hire a few
more people Bill and Ted hired about
four more of their friends from college
as well as a woman named Gina who had
reached out to them things were going
really well for Bill and Ted and their
team coaching
they were moving fast life was good
until a few months later Gina who was
the only woman on their team
Gina started to feel uncomfortable
because one of her male co-workers had
made a few comments to her about her
sexual preferences a few months later
Gina decided to leave the company so
Bill and Ted hired a few more women over
the course of the next few months but
they left as well so pretty quickly Bill
and Ted realized that the people who
looked felt and thought differently than
themselves didn’t want to be part of
their company so what happened well from
the start
Bill and Ted hired the people that they
knew okay they hired their friends and
and to be really clear this is this is
quite common in fact studies of the
brain indicate that we’re unconsciously
drawn to people who look feel and think
much like ourselves and so what do we do
well we build homogeneous companies
meaning we build companies where most of
the people look feel and think pretty
similarly and this puts companies at a
huge disadvantage because people like
Gina don’t want to be there they don’t
feel comfortable and this means that
without a diversity of people
perspectives and experience this is an
app like Bill and Ted’s suffered it
didn’t do well so according to the tech
levers study this whole problem of not
being able to retain diverse talent in
tech is a 16 billion dollar problem so
16 billion dollars that’s a lot of money
that’s like 16 million iPhones
and this problem of diversity debt is
even more critical for us to think about
given the rise of the innovation economy
the innovation economy is really really
exciting things are moving faster than
they’ve ever moved before we can have
more impact than we’ve ever been able to
have but at the same time if we’re not
thoughtful about what we do and how we
build this innovation economy the risks
are also so much greater right now we
can’t even predict what the world will
look like and how fast things will
continue to evolve over the next ten
years so why am I telling you this
well if we don’t have a diversity of
people perspectives and their
experiences shaping the rise of this
innovation economy we might build a
future that actually doesn’t bring us
all forward so what if we build a future
that doesn’t meet your needs what if we
build a future that everyone can’t have
access to and what if we build a future
that actually harms you or the people in
your life that you love and care for I
work with companies around the world
tech companies to help them address
their diversity debt and I will always
remember the day that I learned that I
had to do this work so it was about
seven years ago I was just starting my
PhD so I learned that car accidents are
the leading cause of fetal death related
to maternal trauma so this means that
when a person who is pregnant
gets into a car crash even a relatively
minor car crash the likelihood of that
losing their unborn child is really
really high so this really bothered me
and I had to learn more so as a page
student I did a ton more research and I
discovered that the reason this was
happening is because in the automotive
industry male body crash test dummies
are used as the norm or the default for
all of their crash-test safety testing
so this means that they hadn’t thought
about different bodies a diversity of
sizes and shapes and seatbelts weren’t
safe for everyone particularly pregnant
bodies so this was the moment when I
realized that the automotive industry
was drowning in diversity debt and I
knew that the automotive industry was
not alone in this so it was this day as
well that I also realized that a
diversity of people perspectives and
experiences needed to be around every
single table no matter what it is that
you were designing or doing or trying to
build in this world that was about seven
years ago and now things are moving
faster than they’ve ever moved before so
that means it’s going to take each and
every one of us in this room
collectively to shape the future of
innovation to manage the disruption that
comes with it and we need to think about
this through the decisions that we make
each and every day as students as
citizens as consumers as investors
whatever it may be so here’s three
things that you can do right now to
start to shift this so the first is be a
conscious consumer so whether that’s
when you’re buying a new piece of
technology or you’re downloading a new
app be critical of it is that new piece
of technology useful is it accessible to
folks
does it harm anyone does that new app
actually bring value to the world do you
need it I don’t know think about it
though the next thing you can do is
share your feedback okay so earlier this
year when snapchat found themselves
building some diversity debt they heard
about it they heard about it from users
just like you and guess what they
address the problem
they thoughtfully built out new
procedures to make sure that filters
like that
never land in your hands on your phone
ever again and Apple did the exact same
thing okay they heard their customers
they heard that feedback and in their
iOS 9 update I believe it was they made
sure to reflect women’s reproductive
health in the health kit app right and
this is because feedback of people like
you they heard it and they reflected it
okay when the last piece of feedback be
the leader that others need so be better
than Bill and Ted right so when you lead
whether you’re leading a sports team or
you’re starting your own company you
have a start-up I want you to be a
leader who values different people their
experiences and their perspectives think
about how you can be a leader that makes
certain that everyone feels included and
think about how you can lead in a way
that helps others to really really feel
that they belong so I believe that
Canada can really lead the way in this
regard I think that Canada can be a
leader and tackle all of the existing
diversity debt that we have and I think
that if we work together a diversity of
people perspectives and experiences that
we can make sure that we don’t build any
more diversity debt going forward so
they say that the best way to predict
the future is to create it so my
question to you is what will your
contribution be thank you
you
so today I’m the bearer of some bad news
my generation and those before me have
set up each and every one of you in this
room to inherit one of the greatest debt
crises the world has ever known so I’m
not talking about our massive financial
debt I’m not even talking about the mess
that we made of our planet we’re on the
verge of the diversity debt crisis ok so
that’s some heavy news so let me break
this down just a little bit years ago I
started day trading stocks to pay my way
through school as a new trader I sought
advice from people much more experienced
than myself and the advice that I
received from them was to make sure that
I built myself a diversified portfolio
so well approaches to trading very
having a diversified portfolio remains a
fairly common advice so a diversified
portfolio means that you invest your
money here things in a bunch of
different places instead of putting all
of my eggs in one basket I spread my
eggs throughout a bunch of different
baskets yet for some reason this
long-standing financial advice hasn’t
found its way across all of the business
world so what happens when we start to
think about the actions and the
decisions of a company of an innovation
of a technology as building diversity
debt so do I have any snapchat users in
the room
maybe you can show me how to use it
later
well just earlier this year snapchat
accrued quite a bit of diversity debt
when they turned users selfies into
Asian caricatures and they promoted
digital blackface threw a Bob Marley
filter do I have any iPhone users in the
room yeah I found club cool well Apple
accrued some diversity debt a few years
ago when they forgot about women’s
reproductive health in the initial
launch of their health kit app they
forgot to track women’s menstrual cycles
how did snapchat bring filters that
promoted digital blackface and digital
yellow-faced to their millions and
millions of users and how did Apple
forget about women’s reproductive health
in the initial launch of the health kit
app well if we take a look at tech
startups there’s a few common reasons
why this happens so let’s look at an
example this is Bill and Ted they had a
big idea
they built a really cool dating app the
app seemed to work pretty well people
were using the app and then they realize
they needed to hire a few new people so
they hired a few of their friends the
app continued to do well people were
actually loving it and they were growing
really fast so they needed to hire a few
more people Bill and Ted hired about
four more of their friends from college
as well as a woman named Gina who had
reached out to them things were going
really well for Bill and Ted and their
team coaching
they were moving fast life was good
until a few months later Gina who was
the only woman on their team
Gina started to feel uncomfortable
because one of her male co-workers had
made a few comments to her about her
sexual preferences a few months later
Gina decided to leave the company so
Bill and Ted hired a few more women over
the course of the next few months but
they left as well so pretty quickly Bill
and Ted realized that the people who
looked felt and thought differently than
themselves didn’t want to be part of
their company so what happened well from
the start
Bill and Ted hired the people that they
knew okay they hired their friends and
and to be really clear this is this is
quite common in fact studies of the
brain indicate that we’re unconsciously
drawn to people who look feel and think
much like ourselves and so what do we do
well we build homogeneous companies
meaning we build companies where most of
the people look feel and think pretty
similarly and this puts companies at a
huge disadvantage because people like
Gina don’t want to be there they don’t
feel comfortable and this means that
without a diversity of people
perspectives and experience this is an
app like Bill and Ted’s suffered it
didn’t do well so according to the tech
levers study this whole problem of not
being able to retain diverse talent in
tech is a 16 billion dollar problem so
16 billion dollars that’s a lot of money
that’s like 16 million iPhones
and this problem of diversity debt is
even more critical for us to think about
given the rise of the innovation economy
the innovation economy is really really
exciting things are moving faster than
they’ve ever moved before we can have
more impact than we’ve ever been able to
have but at the same time if we’re not
thoughtful about what we do and how we
build this innovation economy the risks
are also so much greater right now we
can’t even predict what the world will
look like and how fast things will
continue to evolve over the next ten
years so why am I telling you this
well if we don’t have a diversity of
people perspectives and their
experiences shaping the rise of this
innovation economy we might build a
future that actually doesn’t bring us
all forward so what if we build a future
that doesn’t meet your needs what if we
build a future that everyone can’t have
access to and what if we build a future
that actually harms you or the people in
your life that you love and care for I
work with companies around the world
tech companies to help them address
their diversity debt and I will always
remember the day that I learned that I
had to do this work so it was about
seven years ago I was just starting my
PhD so I learned that car accidents are
the leading cause of fetal death related
to maternal trauma so this means that
when a person who is pregnant
gets into a car crash even a relatively
minor car crash the likelihood of that
losing their unborn child is really
really high so this really bothered me
and I had to learn more so as a page
student I did a ton more research and I
discovered that the reason this was
happening is because in the automotive
industry male body crash test dummies
are used as the norm or the default for
all of their crash-test safety testing
so this means that they hadn’t thought
about different bodies a diversity of
sizes and shapes and seatbelts weren’t
safe for everyone particularly pregnant
bodies so this was the moment when I
realized that the automotive industry
was drowning in diversity debt and I
knew that the automotive industry was
not alone in this so it was this day as
well that I also realized that a
diversity of people perspectives and
experiences needed to be around every
single table no matter what it is that
you were designing or doing or trying to
build in this world that was about seven
years ago and now things are moving
faster than they’ve ever moved before so
that means it’s going to take each and
every one of us in this room
collectively to shape the future of
innovation to manage the disruption that
comes with it and we need to think about
this through the decisions that we make
each and every day as students as
citizens as consumers as investors
whatever it may be so here’s three
things that you can do right now to
start to shift this so the first is be a
conscious consumer so whether that’s
when you’re buying a new piece of
technology or you’re downloading a new
app be critical of it is that new piece
of technology useful is it accessible to
folks
does it harm anyone does that new app
actually bring value to the world do you
need it I don’t know think about it
though the next thing you can do is
share your feedback okay so earlier this
year when snapchat found themselves
building some diversity debt they heard
about it they heard about it from users
just like you and guess what they
address the problem
they thoughtfully built out new
procedures to make sure that filters
like that
never land in your hands on your phone
ever again and Apple did the exact same
thing okay they heard their customers
they heard that feedback and in their
iOS 9 update I believe it was they made
sure to reflect women’s reproductive
health in the health kit app right and
this is because feedback of people like
you they heard it and they reflected it
okay when the last piece of feedback be
the leader that others need so be better
than Bill and Ted right so when you lead
whether you’re leading a sports team or
you’re starting your own company you
have a start-up I want you to be a
leader who values different people their
experiences and their perspectives think
about how you can be a leader that makes
certain that everyone feels included and
think about how you can lead in a way
that helps others to really really feel
that they belong so I believe that
Canada can really lead the way in this
regard I think that Canada can be a
leader and tackle all of the existing
diversity debt that we have and I think
that if we work together a diversity of
people perspectives and experiences that
we can make sure that we don’t build any
more diversity debt going forward so
they say that the best way to predict
the future is to create it so my
question to you is what will your
contribution be thank you
you
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