Diversity, what it means to me.

Diversity. It means many different things to different people. In this time of political excitement, I think the word has garnered even more attention. At RedSky, I truly believe that the diversity in our staff brings unique viewpoints and solutions both internally and for the benefit of our clients.

Experience. Somewhere in between “been there, done that” and “out of the mouths of babes” comes innovation. One example is how we incorporated the concept of geo-fencing (new) with our MyE911? softphone client (old). This allows us to not pester the user for a new, self-provisioned location, when they are pretty much in the same area. In the same vein, grabbing the GPS coordinates from a smart device allows us to provide a suggested street address with the ability to add the sought after dispatchable location in terms of floor and room. The ideas came from people who grew up with a smart device in their hands and Java in their cups where the operational designs came from those in the office who remember when cell phones only existed on the Jetsons.

Skill sets. It was actually a discussion on the flight into Chicago this morning that led me to write about this. We talked about three legs on the technology stool skill set: technical, logical, and people. Over the last six years, it has been especially gratifying to watch our sales teams help our support learn how to deal with “challenging” clients. Our developers and testers have steadily improved their abilities to listen and translate requirements in plain English. Sales and marketing people have learned how to consume highly complex concepts and solutions and adapt them into clear and concise marketing materials. When all of this is combines, RedSky has done things like launching our own YouTube channel, expanding our social media presence, and improving our on-line presence. With the input from all parts of the company, in a collaborative environment, everything is better.

Attitude. This may be one area that we lack diversity. When I started here, a member of the leadership team told me that we “couldn’t” build a feature I thought was key to both the market space and to the people who use our products and services to get help by dialing 9-1-1. I replied that I could accept “It will take a long time” or “it will cost a lot” or even that “we have to create new technology.” All valid. Can’t and couldn’t were not acceptable, not in 9-1-1. Everyone here understands that now. As part of the onboarding process, everyone, no matter their role or level or experience, gets a few sessions of 9-1-1 101. The “why” is just as important as the “how”.

When you hear the term in the future, I hope it makes you think in different terms where you can see the benefits of bringing different people from different backgrounds and different levels of experience to your table.

Note: We have new leadership since that day six years ago.