Tech Inclusion Journey

Building Inclusive Cultures Through NCWIT’s Tech Inclusion Journey®

Computing is one of the most powerful and influential fields shaping society today. Expanding access to the field is vital for fueling innovation, driving progress, and shaping a future powered by the full range of human potential. To further this goal, NCWIT has developed the Tech Inclusion Journey (TIJ)®, a one-of-a-kind scalable decision-support software platform designed to help organizations implement research-based, sustainable approaches to creating inclusive computing cultures.

Tech Inclusion Journey Laptop

The TIJ empowers leaders at every level with practical strategies that help them expand access, address unintended organizational barriers, and build cultures in which all can thrive and make outstanding technical contributions. In so doing, the TIJ empowers leaders to take personal and professional ownership and accountability for change. Its research-based approach helps companies avoid the typical pitfalls of piecemeal efforts by drawing upon a systemic framework and focusing on how we can collaboratively improve the culture for everyone. Resulting change is therefore effective, strategic, and sustainable.

The TIJ platform guides users through a step-by-step process for developing a strategic plan, complete with progress metrics.

  • The Map: Team members become familiar with the research-backed change model that describes the key areas of team culture that need to be addressed to improve team performance and decision-making.
  • The GPS: Team members individually take the online assessment tool and then compare results in a team “consensus conversation.”
  • The Route: Team members engage in strategic planning that helps them prioritize and make specific plans for how they will enact change.

Outcomes

Numerous NCWIT member companies, ranging from small start-ups to large corporations, have used the TIJ and reported improvement in inclusive culture development. In pilot studies, efforts guided by the TIJ improved key measures of inclusive culture. For example:

  • 91% of participants reported that their “ability to help create a more inclusive work environment has improved”
  • 96% reported “thinking more about how subtle bias might be occurring at work”
  • 83% of employees reported increased attention to whose voices are heard in meetings.

The Tech Inclusion Journey® for Undergraduate Programs (TIJ-UP) is an online tool that teams in higher education focused on engaging and supporting all students in undergraduate computing programs can use to:

  • Build a common vision
  • Identify gaps in knowledge and practices
  • Improve communication and coordination 
  • Prioritize goals
  • Develop an actionable strategic plan
  • Connect to NCWIT resources

The TIJ-UP is best suited for 4-year undergraduate computing programs. NCWIT’s Higher Ed Team recently initiated work on a multi-year grant focused on enhancing resources and tools—including the TIJ-UP—for community and technical colleges.

The TIJ-UP is based on the NCWIT Undergraduate System Model, a research-based framework that guides efforts to broaden participation and support all students in undergraduate computing. The model’s six interdependent focus areas depict the “system” of an undergraduate program, and each area includes research-based strategies and practices for implementing systemic change. 

A graphic of the NCWIT Undergraduate System Model

Testimonials from TIJ-UP Users:

  • That TIJ-UP tool is great…There were a lot of general things I knew we should be doing that didn’t have a structure around it and the tool…really helped provide a framework and a structure about how to have these conversations and to give discrete objectives that we could aim for in how to make incremental changes that don’t sound so scary that can get us to the right direction. [NCWIT] gave us the tools we needed to make the changes we wanted.
  • The structure, the TIJ setup, made it very easy for me to do [this work].
  • Our default as a department, when there’s a problem to be solved, is normally to start something new. One of the valuable things from … the TIJ-UP is … that maybe there are existing efforts that you can tap into, there are things you’re already doing that you can do more of.
  • There’s a lot of latitude, you can decide which order you want to go through the modules. There’s flexibility but enough structure that I know what to do…we know exactly what we need to do. It’s been great!
  • One of the real values in this whole process is the designation of space and time to just reflect on what it is that we’re actually doing and not what we think we’re doing. The questions made us think about what we’re doing in ways that I don’t think we would have on our own, so that was all super valuable.

Start Your Journey Today

Tech Inclusion Journey for the Academic Workplace (TIJ-AW)® – Coming Soon!
Tech Inclusion Journey for Graduate Programs (TIJ-GP)® – Coming Soon!

Start Your Journey Today

 Numerous NCWIT member companies, ranging from small start-ups to large corporations, have used the TIJ and reported increases in recruitment, retention, and advancement of underrepresented technologists, along with improvement in inclusive culture development, an often overlooked but essential element for sustained change. In pilot studies, efforts guided by the TIJ improved key measures of inclusive culture:

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