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, yet women – diverse in race, class, ability, and other intersections – are severely underrepresented. This significantly impedes their power and influence as innovators, leaders, and researchers in shaping technologies of the future. Research clearly shows why decades of traditional diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts have failed to improve this situation. These reasons include an overreliance on “diversity training,” treatment of DEI as a “compliance” issue, implementation of isolated, “one-off” interventions, and use of approaches that imply members from under-represented groups need “fixing.” 

NCWIT has developed the Tech Inclusion Journey (TIJ)®, a one-of-a-kind scalable decision-support software platform designed to avoid traditional DEI pitfalls, enabling organizations to implement systemic, sustainable approaches to creating inclusive computing cultures. By instantiating research-based methods in an easy-to-use software platform that conveys not only what to do but how to do it, any organization can independently implement effective change efforts that positively impact outcomes for all employees, not just technical women and other marginalized groups. TIJ empowers stakeholders with practical strategies that help them dismantle organizational barriers, attend to the needs of a wide range of intersecting identities, and build inclusive cultures in which people feel they belong and can make outstanding technical contributions. TIJ upends the longstanding tendency for technical leaders to abdicate responsibility to HR/D&I divisions and instead requires them to take personal ownership and accountability for change. 

The platform guides users through a step-by-step process for developing a strategic plan, complete with progress metrics. The three basic elements of the TIJ are:

  • The Map – the research-backed change model that describes the key areas of culture that need to be addressed to achieve inclusion;
  • The GPS – the online assessment tool that helps leaders understand how their organizations are performing in each area;
  • The Route – and the action planning step that helps leaders prioritize and make specific plans for how they will enact change

Critical to the entire process are Team Consensus Building and Action Planning sessions in which team members compare results, develop a shared understanding, prioritize outcomes, and create a strategic action plan that identifies and equips change leaders at every level.

TIJ Laptop 02

Outcomes

 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:

  • 91% of participants reported that their “ability to help create a more inclusive work environment has improved”
  • 86% reported that “it is easier to bring up bias-related topics at work”
  • 96% reported “thinking more about how subtle bias might be occurring at work”

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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