Echo-chambers: The sound of SILOS

Who are you? Our nuanced identities, and our own consciousness around our identities, is a complex tapestry. And it blankets us with comfort as we find our “tribes” — like-minded people who either share much of our background, our experiences or our views. As for me, I am a STEM professional. I am a parent. I am an American of Indian origin. These are a few of the key descriptors that are a big part of my identity. To a casual observer in the US, perhaps I am seen as a woman of color in a male-centric profession. The voice in my head tells me I am a well-educated, fairly privileged, South-Asian immigrant. And when among Indians, I am further identified by my language, region, religion, etc.

Weaving all that with my strong personality traits, my rich professional journey and my diverse life experiences creates the fabric of my being — the backdrop for my mindset — and gives color to my world views. I have been fortunate to find kinship, a few tribes with much diversity, but 2020 has shown that we constantly need to stretch and make sure we think outside our bubbles, hear outside our echo-chambers and look for an outside-in perspective. We all do need our support systems and the sense of community with a “safe zone,” but at the same time we have to be open to connect with others, seek new connections and realize that we mutually benefit from that connectedness.

Currently, there is a great realization of the systemic and structural inequities that exist in various aspects of our society and the need for equality, and, an awakening to be inclusive, given all aspects of our complex identities, our intersectionality. The word lends itself to the ability to knit together a pattern of experiences based on the many vectors of diversity and the privilege and discrimination that each may entail. It offers a thought-provoking lens, as individuals, groups and organizations spend considerable time and effort, trying and toying with different ideas and initiatives, in an attempt to understand how we address the seemingly elusive goal of true equity and inclusion. This, especially in view of our intersectionality in the broader sense, and, given the draw, familiarity and validation our own silos can often provide. It may sound simple but it’s not easy, simply because as humans we often do struggle to easily relate to others who we see or perceive as different.

Whack-a-silo

The screening at 3M of the recent documentary “Picture a Scientist,” that chronicles the challenges of women scientists has led to much reflection and discussion. It is a stark reminder during Women’s History Month, that despite the progress that has been made, there is still a lot of room for open discussions and meaningful action to achieve gender parity and STEM equity. The issue of the “leaky pipeline” is unlikely to be resolved if we don’t adopt a holistic strategy, conscious of systemic and structural changes for supporting women in STEM – across the spectrum of lived experience. We need all the diversity and creativity we can muster to unlock the secrets to a sustainable future. At home, in school, as well as in society and throughout our general social conditioning, implicit bias and related issues are keeping talent away precisely at the time we need all the creative ideas and scientific solutions to solve the global challenges we face.

The film prompts all audiences regardless of gender, to question and acknowledge their own implicit bias, especially as the stories implore us to drive change. These include behavioral, ideological and organizational changes that need to be made to address the problems that have deterred women from STEM education or from STEM careers, despite having a STEM education. Moreover, the intersectionality as shown in the film further compounds the issue. Of course, like many complex and intertwined issues there is no easy or one-size-fits-all solution which falls neatly into boxes to be checked. Taking a simplistic view and assigning labels and categories can often lead to a never-ending game of whack-a-mole in dealing with pervasive bias and inner prejudice as we solve one problem and create another. But acknowledgment and acceptance are key as we move forward towards action, devising informed solutions with a heightened sense of urgency, and, a need for transparency.

Trickle-me-Silo

Lately, many organizations are doing just that – listening, learning and re-evaluating their diversity and inclusion goals, strategies and culture. It makes perfect business sense, not just from employee engagement, retention, recruitment perspective but it also serves to increase customer loyalty and brand presence. In addition to grassroots efforts and employee affinity groups, executives have been visible and made clear statements about their commitment and action plans, which trickles down through the organizational hierarchy. Although progress on this front is slow, the appointment of women to Board and Executive positions can further promote the trickle-down effect. The hope is that the concept of equity, is not dealt in a diversity silo, but becomes a guiding principle in everything we do – with clear mandates and accountability.  

It was particularly important and energizing to have many of our male colleagues at 3M participate in viewing the film, and in subsequent workshops to discuss thoughts and feelings after watching the real-life struggles of the women scientists in the film. Many men admitted being shocked and surprised, women much less so. It is critical to foster these interactions and interconnectedness to avoid silo mentality in the framing of the problem, and in arriving at solutions. Recently we also had many men step forward and hail women in their organizations as trailblazers, changemakers, advocates, builders and mentors through our #YearOfLift campaign facilitated by the 3M Women’s Leadership Forum. I am particularly appreciative of the Men as Allies efforts that invite all to engage in this initiative highlighting women leadership. It is important to see men embrace the concept of gender parity and show up and speak up. Gender equity and parity in the sciences is not a women’s issue alone, women scientists are not role-models for women alone, and we need women to be rightfully pictured as scientists, not men alone. As the film showed, sometimes men may be simply unaware of the inequalities or the hidden toll they take. We have to work collectively to understand the issues and break down silos. We need frameworks for action that instead of creating isolated, stagnant entities, rely on connections, sharing and flow.

G.I. Silo

Organizational strategies and goals go a long way, but individuals have a very strong role to play to accelerate much-needed change, by forging connections across silos and taking action to change the culture. These shifts eventually cascade but can start with one person at a time. To win this game we do need action figures — the kind we had in the film. The brave trailblazers, the three women scientists highlighted – all at different stages in their careers. But all, whose feeling of injustice and the strong desire to change things for themselves and for future generations of women compelled them to take action. Whether it was through collecting data and building solidarity with others to drive action against long-standing inequalities, or quest for justice years later to right a wrong or through questioning the systems that are often designed to keep people out — their heroic actions made it happen.

When we are too accustomed to gravitating to those who look and act like we do, at work or in our lives, we feel satisfied and risk becoming complacent. It may be comfortable, but we inadvertently shun people and we become closed to new experiences and end-up deterring change or progress that it can bring. Progress requires listening, learning, and increasing our cross-silo awareness by reaching out to people outside our circles and expanding our sphere of influence, and helping them improve theirs. As shown in the film we all have biases, we need to scrutinize our own prejudices and all the assumptions or excess baggage we carry knowingly or unknowingly. Most of us don’t even realize how our implicit notions and entrenched beliefs buried deep within our identity at some sub-conscious level impact our subliminal thoughts and overt actions - who we connect with, what we support and how we judge. Although this may be unconscious, it profoundly impacts our habits, assumptions, values, and in essence how we show up in the world. And, as pictured in the film it impacts the world.

As organizations work towards dismantling systems and building ecosystem wide solutions, we as individuals can take action to avoid echo-chambers and break our own SILOS by paying close attention to the many elements in our lives, at home, at work and in the community. I have had ample opportunity in 2020 to examine, study and reflect — I am committed to taking small steps and intentional action across these various aspects to make changes.

S ocial circles & spheres

I nformal & formal connections

L ocal community & culture

O pportunity creation & context

S ocietal constructs & classifications

It’s a journey. Maybe the question isn’t who are you but who do you want to be and what are you going to do about it?

We can all move closer to the goal by implementing changes at an individual level to impact change at organizational level and societal level.

Picture this. We are, after all, connected — inextricably so.

(Look forward to hearing your thoughts after viewing “Picture a Scientist,” on how we can all help to break the SILOS)