This is brilliantly stated. There are some people out their doing mental gymnastics to deny the necessary evolution in the inclusivity of our industry.
The analogy I keep running Through my mind when I hear about "lowering the bar" is a Major League Baseball team that wants to win by signing top players from non-US markets like Dominican Republic and Japan. In order to attract these players and help them fit in, a team has to jump through a lot of hoops to provide translators, train the players on the nuances of the American game and wait for them to get accustomed to the shocking culture. Does that mean the bar is being "lowered"? In a very naive sense, yes. An American college kid from Florida is going to be prepped to fit right in and know how to contribute from day one. But as we've seen, teams capable of being welcoming and leverage the capabilities of foreign-born players are the ones succeeding. At this point it would be considered moronic to not bend to the specific needs of a player who comes from a "different" culture and language.
So when people complain that companies need to go out of their way to support candidates and employees from diverse backgrounds and think of it as "lowering the bar", I think "Okay, you go start the company that lets 5% of the world's population do their best work, and I'll go start one that shoots for 100% and goes out of its way to do so."
Good analogy Ben! I think that makes a lot of sense. The way I see it is I t's not about lowering the bar, it's about bringing the bar as many people as possible.
Here's one last thing that's been on my mind: It seems like me that the same people railing on Google for firing an employee for dissenting in this way over free speech are the same general crowd that backed Yelp's right to fire an employee for writing about her crappy pay/treatment. That's completely anecdotal, but it's what I've observed.
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This is brilliantly stated. There are some people out their doing mental gymnastics to deny the necessary evolution in the inclusivity of our industry.
The analogy I keep running Through my mind when I hear about "lowering the bar" is a Major League Baseball team that wants to win by signing top players from non-US markets like Dominican Republic and Japan. In order to attract these players and help them fit in, a team has to jump through a lot of hoops to provide translators, train the players on the nuances of the American game and wait for them to get accustomed to the shocking culture. Does that mean the bar is being "lowered"? In a very naive sense, yes. An American college kid from Florida is going to be prepped to fit right in and know how to contribute from day one. But as we've seen, teams capable of being welcoming and leverage the capabilities of foreign-born players are the ones succeeding. At this point it would be considered moronic to not bend to the specific needs of a player who comes from a "different" culture and language.
So when people complain that companies need to go out of their way to support candidates and employees from diverse backgrounds and think of it as "lowering the bar", I think "Okay, you go start the company that lets 5% of the world's population do their best work, and I'll go start one that shoots for 100% and goes out of its way to do so."
Good analogy Ben! I think that makes a lot of sense. The way I see it is I t's not about lowering the bar, it's about bringing the bar as many people as possible.
That's a great analogy, Ben!
Gonna steal it for my next conversations on the subject. 👮
Here's one last thing that's been on my mind: It seems like me that the same people railing on Google for firing an employee for dissenting in this way over free speech are the same general crowd that backed Yelp's right to fire an employee for writing about her crappy pay/treatment. That's completely anecdotal, but it's what I've observed.