November/December 2019

Concepts
Why Diversity Matters: An Engineer’s Perspective

KARL REID, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY OF BLACK ENGINEERS, SAYS, “EVERY SYSTEM IS PERFECTLY DESIGNED TO GET THE RESULTS IT GET.” IT’S THE REASON SYSTEMS CHANGE IS REQUIRED IN HOW THE PROFESSION FILLS THE ENGINEERING PIPELINE.

Like goldfish that don’t have a concept of the water they live in, most people don’t understand the culture they’re immersed in.

It’s an analogy that Karl Reid, executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers, uses. His point: Even though many engineers may be at the top of their organizations, they don’t notice the culture they swim in because the environment is just right for them. “We don’t know that that organization has a culture that is shaped by us,” he says.

In Reid’s presentation on July 18 at NSPE’s Professional Engineers Conference, he explained the benefits of creating an environment where everyone feels like they can thrive and why engineering would benefit from greater diversity.

Here are some highlights:

The Frozen Middle

“Senior leadership generally gets the idea and the value proposition of diversity…. Even if they don’t get it internally, they get it rhetorically, they understand, they know the language associated with diversity. And I think the incoming employees tend to understand it as well. They’re more likely to have a diverse growing-up experience, whether it’s their schools, their college or university, their first job…[they’re] more likely to live in communities that are diverse, in the inner cities and others as well. They tend to get it.

What I’ve found is the frozen middle of most organizations don’t really understand the value of why everyone is talking about diversity.”

Defining the Problem

In 2015, the percentage of engineering bachelor degrees earned by women was 20%; underrepresented minorities earned 14%.

“We’re not deploying the best talent in this country to solve some of these complex problems [like the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges]…. That’s the problem we have to solve.”

What the Data Say

• Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.
• Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians.
• Every incremental percentage point in African American and Hispanic representation is linked to a three-percentage-point increase in revenues.
• Companies with above-average diversity on their management teams report higher innovation revenues by 19 percentage points than those with below-average leadership diversity.
• Decades of research shows that socially diverse groups—those with a diversity of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation—are more innovative than homogeneous groups.
• Diverse teams focus more on the facts, process those facts more carefully, and are more innovative.

Diversity Is Not Inclusion

As Robert Sellers of the University of Michigan explains:

• Diversity: Being invited to the party
• Equity: Everyone gets to dance
• Inclusion: Everyone contributes 
to the playlist

Overlooking Talent

“If 17% of all black engineers graduate from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and we’ve never been to an HBCU to recruit [because the company’s leadership came from a Purdue, a Michigan, an MIT, et cetera], then we’re losing a significant amount of talent…. Changing this perspective and recognizing our own implicit egotism is really what this talk is all about. We do this by engineering the environment [the culture].”

What can be done to increase more inclusive settings?

• Assess expectations and unconscious biases (“De-bias” the environment);
• Be intentional about adding to and retaining diverse leadership;
• Foster vertical [with faculty or management] and horizontal [with peers] meaningful engagement throughout the organization;
• Educate leadership about racial, ethnic, sexual orientation, and disability identity;
• Examine implicit and explicit reward structures (let the data speak); and
• Align individual and collective motivations and evaluations with the rationale for change (“match the units”).

Inclusion is the optimal state, says Reid. “Inclusion requires the simultaneous experience of feeling valued for your uniqueness and having a sense of belonging on your team.”

Watch Karl Reid’s presentation on NSPE’s YouTube channel.