A little action might not hurt - #heforshe

09-27-2014 by Sebastian Schürmann

TL;TR: Any gender diverse group gets a 25% price reduction for coachings and trainings becuase diverse groups yield better results and make my job easier

I guess everyone on the interwebz has seen Emma Watsons speech on gender (in)equality last week that comes with the #heforshe hashtag. Personally, I find that a very interesting movement and she has a point in inviting men to the cause of feminism. A cause that has left many of the “Boysclub” puzzled where their place will be in a world with gender equality (Hint: the same, but there will be others with you, and this is a good thing).

Gender diverse groups create better results

I like the idea behind the notion to get men into this cause. I am aware of the gender equality problem out there I thought of a thing that can be done. No not a photo, not a bucket of ice water. Done as in doing.

I know one fact: Diverse groups are more successful in accomplishing things. They are more creative, more resilent and a way more fun to work in. It is not hard to google this stuff. If you work with tech teams: Do your research.

When it comes to workshops and trainings: It is surprising how much the success of a workshop depends on the composition of the group in the room. Different world views, different ideas of how things are done and accomplished is one of the best things that can happen to me as a trainer and moderator. So I want these groups in my workshops. They are more fun to work with, have more success with the contents etc. In a nutshel: It is good for teh participants and me as a trainer to have a more diverse group in the room.

Hello Capitalism - you are about to get hacked

And yet the industry creates one male dominated team by another. It’s as if there would be no indicator for anything else than this practice. A bad practice as I find. Why is the capitalistic world (and the tech/startup scene is a part of it - no doubt) not adopting a something that would be good for the end result and created products?

I can see this in my workshops: There is maximum 15-20% quota of women attending. Maybe it just needs a little more of a incentive? It’s capitalism we live in and after all a little financial incentive could be a good thing, right? A win/win needs to be created. A thing that has more up than downsides. So why not …

25% price reduction for any training or coaching of gender diverse groups

I will make it very easy on you: If you request me to do a training for your company (or book one of the upcoming trainings for individuals) and there is a gender diverse group of attendees (60/40 female/male relation to give it a tolerance) the price will go down by 25%. For everyone. Why? Because I deeply believe that my customer base wants the best workshops it can get out there. And gender diversity is a easy “trick” to make the workshops better for attendees.

You see, in the end all this is only partly about feminism and inequality, but about application of thinking, logic and playing non-zero-sum games (win/win). I am a deep believer that doing this will solve a lot of problems out there. We just need to dissent some of the old ideas and replace them by new ones ;) Why should we continue to do clearly stupid things?

QA Section

  • Q: Are you a “do-gooder”?
    • A: I guess my friends would call me this sometimes. In this case it’s just a little hack to achieve what I think is best for me with a good end result for everyone.
  • Q: Why not 50/50 but 60/40 ratio
    • A: It is just hard to get on 50/50 especially with groups that often consist of a uneven number of people.
  • Q: Which of your offers is this applied to?
    • A: Any workshop or consulting that I do. If the team I work with has a 60/40 ratio, you are eligible for the deduction.
  • Q: How long will this offer stand?
    • A: As long as this company exists
  • Q: Is this marketing?
    • A: Yes, it is marketing. Although very expensive marketing. Attracting traffic with google ads is way cheaper than this. I personally find it way more interesting to do this than to put money in another nonprofit. If you think otherwise: there is a lot of ways you can donate for yourself.
  • Q: Why not a deduction exclusively for women?
    • A: There are a ton of reasons not to do that. The first and most important is the notion that it’s doing more of the thing we want to avoid: A benefit based on gender. Fight fire with fire wont work here.
  • Q: What is with the LGBT community?
    • A: This is about avoiding a all boys club. Make up your own mind. I am lacking ideas here, but I never had a openly trans person in one of y trainings. If this is a issue, there will be a solution. Gender is a choice, right?
  • Q: Why is this not in the bylaws?
    • A: I am moving fast here, but this will be in the bylaws of the company. A thing that will be worked on over the next weeks a little more.

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