''Moral imperative aside, diversity yields greater outcomes'' - Jason Henrichs

Today's feature on men supporting @womenoffintech is from a very inspiring source, Jason Henrichs.

In addition to 20 years in fintech, gender equality became a part of his personal mission 7 years ago and in that time he has made some incredible railroads for equality. He is Chairman of FinTEx (a non profit building the Midwestern fintech ecosystem), which led him to be part of the driving force to create our FinTechWomen::ForTheWin initiative.

 @womenoffintech: What are your reasons for supporting equality?

 Jason: Moral imperative aside, diversity yields greater outcomes. Academic research shows that diversity produced greater returns from an investment perspective. Without the academic rigor, I see as an angel investor and advisor that teams that value diversity do a better job of listening. Teams that listen do a better job at being responsive. Teams that are responsive rather than bullheadedly pursuing an idea have a greater chance of building products that the market values enough that they will pay for them. 

Women represent over half the wealth in the US. To create products that match their needs, we need teams that are diverse. There is a misguided notion that gender equality = everyone is the same. That isn't to say that one sex is better at one thing or the other (like men are more prone to be good at STEM or women are more emotion driven) but there are some characteristics that can be generalized like men tend to be more risk seeking and women tend seek greater understanding. When these perspectives are represented and given voices on product teams, it doesn't matter if it is a risk seeking female or a questioning male that uses it, the benefit of that diverse view point is represented in the product. 

  @womenoffintech: There is a lot of talk about equality, but what do we need to actually DO in order to put words into action?

Jason: It's easy to get on the Twitter bandwagon or voice support around the water cooler. That doesn't effect much change however. I think there are three things men can do to make an impact. 

a. Open yourself to feedback. In a post-Weinstein era, it is easy to self-justify "well I don't do that." The reality is that everyone does things that inadvertently reinforce status quos, stereotypes and social awkwardness. When it comes to Gender Equality, I think men need to step up and start asking women to give them feedback. What do I do that makes it hard to succeed on my team (regardless of gender but give me your perspective as a female)? Do you see any habits or actions I take that make others uncomfortable? What can I do to be more approachable if something does happen? I've learned amazing things about myself by asking these questions. I love getting feedback as a tool towards self improvement, but my wife can attest my instant response to explain WHY I did something isn't helpful to generating a dialogue. It takes conscious effort to be vulnerable and really listen. 

b. Question why you do somethings the way you do / actively incorporate feedback. It took me 35+ years to realize I am a white male and that being a white male colored my perspective despite all of my efforts to be egalitarian. Once I excepted that it is OK that I am a white male but that doesn't forgive me from uncovering my unintended biases, things got much more productive. I started taking the feedback I received, coming up with next steps and then creating accountability partners. One of my favorite examples is that I won't speak at events that aren't committed to diversity; a female conference organizer was recently stunned that I said I wouldn't be a host unless the fixed the diversity across the entire event. She explained time frames and availability. I explained that I've publicly committed to this because I believe it is important and there a many amazing women to speak on fintech so not having representation because of lack of qualification or availability is a fallow excuse. I committed to it and I'm not dealing with the Twitter barrage of me with a bunch of white dudes on stage.   

c. Hold others accountable. I wrote a piece for Code Like a Girl called " It's a Man's Job" because I believe unless the root cause (men) acknowledge and address the issue, it cannot be solved. The most highlighted phrase of the article is this:  An unimpacted party, particularly of the same sex, making the observation is both more likely to be productively received and minimizes the potential residual awkwardness. I can tell you from personal experience that telling another guy "that's not cool" can range from awkward to flat out heated. However, I can say the results are remarkable. I can't speak for all those that I've held accountability talks with, but I can speak to the impact its had on me. Friends and co-workers are much more likely to hold me accountable and it makes a huge difference. You don't join Weight Watchers because you think the food is going to be better. You join because people committed to you and your goal will help you get there faster. 

 @womenoffintech: I have been to a lot of events recently to promote women in FinTech and at each there have only been a handful of men attending. Why do you think men don’t attend such events and what could be done to entice them in the future? 

 Jason: We have an explicit goal at FTW to have 50/50 participation. We aren't there yet but we are doing far better than a handful A few things make a big difference. Ensuring this isn't a hostile / take it out on the men session is critical. Just as Gender Equality is promoting the female voice in male dominated sectors, giving voice to men in this female centric dialogue is important. I left the board of a large female in entrepreneurship organization because I was sick of hearing that "a man shouldn't be part of our group." If we aren't up to dialogue, on both sides, we can't make change. Which leads me to my next point. Men are very much outcome oriented. Groups need a path towards changing outcomes not just discussing and building empathy. I don't think most groups intentionally shirk this, it is just that creating change is hard. Inviting women and men into that iterative dialogue can be productive but it always needs to be held up to the standard of what have learned and how do we apply it. 

Jason is the founder of the FinTech Forge, a managed service provider helping financial institutions transform in the era of digital disruption, and host of the FinTech5 podcast which is part of the Provoke / Breaking Banks Media Group. He is also the co-founder and Chairman of FinTEx, a non-profit growing the FinTech cluster across the Midwest, and Currency, a FinTech Center of Excellence in partnership with the University of Chicago, Northwestern and DePaul University. Jason is a frequent speaker on financial innovation, regulation and compliance as competitive advantage. He is on the FinTech advisory boards for the City of Chicago, the AARP, the Center for Financial Services Innovation Lab, and the SXSW Accelerator.

Jason stumbled into financial services in the early 90’s as a manufacturing engineer for Deluxe Corporation. Since leaving paper checks for the digital world, he’s been an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and head of innovation for a public company. In 2008, he co-founded PerkStreet Financial, one of the first challenger banks, helping pave the way for new partnerships between traditional financial service firms and startups.

Jason and his wife are active angel investors in companies that include mobile savings, B2B payments, international payments, investment management, fraud detection, analytics and back office tools. 

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