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Learning about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Bangalore meetup

Reimagining Agility with Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Reimagining Agility with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

August 2, 2021

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The discussion at Business Agility Meetup - Bengaluru on June 26, 2021 was centred around the white paper published by the Business Agility Institute (BAI) about “Reimagining Agility with Diversity, Equity and Inclusion". Dr Ashay Saxena and Deanna Spowart, senior professionals of Agile community who conducted this research, presented the findings of this research to the audience. Gautam Shetty, Head of Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding at Maersk, presented his findings as a HR professional the practical scenarios of cultural adaptations of DEI at work places. This session was an eye opener towards multiple facets of DE&I that were expressed in Agile organisations. 

Story behind the start

The idea of conducting this research emerged when Evan Leybourn (Founder of Business Agility Institute) met Mark Green - founder of Agile Inclusion Revolution when Mark expressed his not so great experiences in Agile organisations. Thus started the research project with Mark as the Scrum Master along with Deanna and Ashay as participants. 

Research & Participants

Deanna started the session by stating the two key hypotheses drawn at the outset of the research process:

  1. Despite the positive intent, mindset and values of agile, agile organisations are at risk of further excluding marginalised staff and customers
  2. Organisations who embed Diversity, Equity & Inclusion directly into their agile transformations outperform those organisations who don’t

Decoding the difference between equity and equality, Deanna explained how equity becomes an enabler in getting different mix of voices at business. The research was conducted with 425 people originating from 26 countries. There were speakers of 59 languages and 33 religions (and some atheists). The diverse group of participants included men, women & non-binary groups, majority of them aged 35+, with 21.9% having disabilities and 6.8% oriented to LGBTQI+. The participants had diversity of thought as they represented different cultural, socio-economical and educational groups. 40.8% of participants had advanced understanding of Business Agility. 

Are we doing enough to welcome the DEI concepts at Agile workspaces?

Dr Ashay shared the key findings of the research and some of them were strikingly surprising.

  1. Though it is believed that Agile is more inclusive and equitable than what came before, about 17% of survey respondents expressed that the witnessed exclusion in inequity inside agile organisations and about 26% of them believed agile itself could actively create exclusion and inequity. 
  2. In case of Agile transformations, ways of working are not designed with DE&I in mind. Only about 11-20% of methods to build products and ways of working are consciously designed for inclusion and equity.
  3. Instances of bias and micro-aggressions persists inside agile organisations.
  4. Lack of trust and psychological safety in the workplace can have startling impacts to employee wellbeing. This potentially impacts employees performance, team dynamics, company culture and talent retention. 
  5. Organisations are intentionally aligning DE&I to their business strategy and values. The outcome of this has been positive with better products and solutions for their customers and communities they serve.

Ashay further narrated some of those personal stories shared by survey respondents that reflected persistence of bias, micro-aggression and exclusion within agile organisations. This could emerge from the Speed of work in agile organisations being higher which an employee with disabilities cannot cope up with OR the practice of daily stand up meetings that obstructs their religious prayers. In another case, a respondent expresses how a person who needs time to think is overlooked as Agile is very much “on the spot” and “who can talk”. 

Positive examples of intentionally designing for DE&I

Deanna highlighted some of those responses during the research that stated how some methods and practices in agile organisation were helpful for their better being at work and personal life. In some of those examples, people feel motivated with the culture of constant learning and concept of servant leadership that has lifted their spirits to perform at work. Some workshops designed to bring out ideas from both quiet and loud voices have been found useful to improve participation. From a service perspective, this serves an even better deal by enabling people to do things out of the box. In a specific example, Deanna narrated, a respondent explains how by including a “non-binary” option in the gender field a payroll product was made more inclusive. 

Opportunities available in an agile organisation to achieve DE&I

Ashay listed some of those points that can help agile organisations achieve DE&I at all levels:

  1. Intentionally align DE&I to business strategy, values, culture & mindset
  2. Leaders role model the desired behaviours especially empathy
  3. “Systems Thinking” approach - design inclusion & equity for all
  4. Create opportunities for to all employees to join, learn, develop and grow
  5. Diverse lived experience and thinking means better products & services
  6. Ability to serve more diverse customers & communities, new markets, revenue and social impacts

How does D&I apply in organisations?

Gautam Shetty shared a case study of how a luxury car brand found the design of their car fall short when a woman drove the car and found that there was no place for keeping her purse! This is a classic example of how inclusivity can help design better products. Padma Satyamurthy, convenor of the session, added to the example, by quoting from her experience of coaching at an automobile company where a left hander had felt excluded since all cars are designed for the convenience of right handed people.

How do you create an environment to keep practices of D&I beyond hiring? Say at non-working areas like coffee machines?

Don’t hire because a candidate has tick in the box, as it may make people feel agitated. Gautham expressed, it is important to sensitise teams about DE&I irrespective of whether you are hiring someone from the community or not. That helps employees to respond in an inclusive manner when they welcome a new member to the team. It is important to build ecosystems around DE&I; something like not making washrooms gender specific is a quintessential example. 

Does a quota system help in DE&I?

The panelists expressed that it does not help by having a quota system unless the percentage is defined and it is in alignment with keeping the quality standards intact. And also people don’t want to be seen as a part of the under-represented group. They need to be seen from their capability perspective and not from the colour of their skin or sexuality. It is more of the approach that should change in hiring managers to hire and mentor talented resources with fewer years of experience against hiring unicorns.

It was an insightful event with several questions from audience related to workplace DE&I scenarios.

  Watch 60 minute video

Dr Ashay Saxena

About Deanna Spowart

Summary Transcript

Speaker: Good morning, everyone! Thank you so much for being with us here today. I know the whole week has been spent in front of a laptop with work-from-home meetings, Zoom calls, and Webex sessions. Now, on a Saturday, we are expecting you to do the same. Yet, you have still taken the time to join us, and I truly appreciate it.

While we wait for a few more participants to join—since it’s a Saturday, I want to be a little lenient—I hope they will join us shortly. Let’s get started with the session. I will quickly introduce our speakers, give a brief introduction to the topic, and then hand it over to them. I won’t bore you too much because you see me almost every month, and my voice may already be too familiar to you. So, I will take no more than 60 seconds to do all of this.

Speaker Introductions

We have with us today Ashay. Ashay is a good friend and holds a doctorate in Information Systems from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He has extensively researched management approaches adopted by software teams to succeed with agile methodologies. That is what brings Ashay and me together—we share similar passions, frustrations, and thoughts about so-called agile organizations.

Ashay has conducted in-depth case studies at global enterprises like Infosys, Mindtree, and ThoughtWorks. If we have time, we could even pick his brain on some of the insights from his doctoral research. He has delivered talks and presented numerous research papers at both national and international conferences, including the Australian Conference of Information Systems, the Computers and People Research Conference, and, of course, Agile India Summit and SAFe Leadership Summits. Many of you must have seen or heard him before. Currently, he works with IBM as a Business Transformation Consultant. Welcome, Ashay!

Next, we have Diana Von. I hope I am pronouncing your name correctly, Diana.

Diana: Perfectly, perfectly.

Great! Diana started her career as a certified practicing accountant, working in finance and technology roles at organizations like BHP, BP, Brambles, and PwC. She has spent several years working across London, Europe, and the USA. She’s truly a global citizen, right, Diana?

Diana: Yes, and Chile as well!

That’s amazing—Chile is one of the places I have never been to, but it’s on my list when things open up. Diana eventually returned home to Australia, where she currently resides. She was first introduced to Agile back in 2010—more than a decade ago—while working for Telstra, where she led their HR, people, and culture strategy. She has since been deeply immersed in culture, leadership, performance, talent capability, and diversity and inclusion.

Diana is one of the lead researchers on "Reimagining Agile and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion," which is the paper we will be discussing today. Welcome, Diana, to this forum.

We also have Gautam, who will share some very practical insights. He is the APAC Head for Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding at Maersk. With over a decade and a half of experience in HR across various domains, Gautam brings invaluable expertise to this topic. In this discussion, while we will be presenting a lot of research-backed data, we will also lean on Gautam’s practical perspectives on hiring in the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) space. He will share insights on how hiring typically happens in this domain. Warm welcome, Gautam!

Introduction to the Topic

Now, what is this talk all about? I’ll leave the details to our experts, but in short, it will focus on findings from a year-long research project conducted by the Business Agility Institute. Ashay and Diana were part of this research, exploring how agile organizations are harnessing the power of DEI.

As participants, what will you take away from this session? A holistic perspective on the field, along with actionable insights that can be implemented in your work settings. Additionally, Gautam will provide a practical viewpoint on the topic.

Since we have an excellent blend of speakers—Diana from the HR space, Ashay from business transformation, and Gautam from talent acquisition—we are set for a well-rounded discussion. I won’t take up any more of your time, so I’ll hand it over to Diana and Ashay to begin. Later, we’ll bring in Gautam at intervals to pick his thoughts as well.

Thank you again for being here on a Saturday. I know that for some of you, half your weekend is already gone. We truly appreciate your time. Over to you, Diana and Ashay!

Presentation Begins

Ashay: Thanks for the warm introduction, Padma. Without taking up much more time, let's get started. The presentation will take about 30-35 minutes. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop them in the chat, and we’ll be happy to address them.

Let me set the stage for what this research was about and what we were trying to achieve. Many of you are familiar with Agile and its significance in organizations over the past two decades. However, in recent years, the discourse around DEI—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—has gained significant momentum. Several global incidents, such as the George Floyd case in the U.S., have sparked conversations about racial equity and social justice. These discussions have continued to grow, especially in today’s digital world where we are all connected through virtual meetings.

So, as agile organizations, are we doing enough to embrace DEI? That was the fundamental question behind this research. Over the next half hour, we will walk you through the research process, our findings, and key recommendations.

A quick disclaimer before we begin: this report is not about any specific organization, community, or region. We conducted research globally, interviewing over 400 individuals and synthesizing the data into meaningful insights.

Now, let’s look at the agenda. We’ll start by setting the stage for the research process, then deep dive into our findings and recommendations. Our goal is to leave you with key takeaways that you can apply within your organizations.

With that, I’ll hand it over to Diana to walk us through the research methodology, key terms, and examples before we dive into findings and recommendations.

Research Process and Key Findings

(The transcript continues with detailed research findings, discussions, audience questions, and expert insights on DEI in agile organizations.)

Closing Remarks

Speaker: Thank you so much for joining us today. We hope this discussion provided valuable insights that you can take back to your organizations. If you’d like to revisit this session, the recording will be available on our YouTube channel. Also, feel free to join our LinkedIn group for updates on upcoming sessions.

Next month, we have another exciting session lined up, so stay tuned for the announcement! Until then, enjoy your work-from-home setup, stay safe, stay healthy, and most importantly—don’t forget to have fun. Thank you!

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