Engineering and DEI

Background

I understand why you might dislike DEI...

I understand why some of you might have reservations about DEI. It's partly due to the disruptive actions of some radical minorities. The recent move to abolish DEI in the U.S. is fresh in memory, and there may be engineers who inwardly applauded this decision. In fact, some tech companies have removed mentions of DEI from their websites.

But DEI is important

From the standpoint of a Knowledge Architect, I must say that DEI is actually crucial for engineers.

This is not about accepting the radical actions of a minority. It's a more fundamental and forward-thinking issue. It helps protect you and is especially pertinent, if not essential, for those in roles like engineering managers or staff engineers who have a broader organizational perspective.

We live in a VUCA world, and our standard of living and literacy have increased. To navigate this challenging era, the perspective provided by DEI is necessary, however troublesome it may seem.

Pitfalls of organizations that can't consider DEI

This is what happens:

• A shortage of talent
  • This is straightforward: you end up having to continue hiring or matching until you find someone who fits the organization. You could say there's a strong preference, which is justified using terms like culture matching. It's akin to a child with a severe case of picky eating.
• Quiet resignation occurs
  • Employees who don't fit the organization will superficially align themselves to avoid being dismissed. It's hard to notice, but their performance isn't as high as you think because they are quietly resigning. It's natural, given the mismatch.
• Time is wasted on engineering and personal life
  • Without DEI, a group resembles a religious congregation dominated by a "single way of being." There's a high communication cost for belonging to such a group, and a lack of adaptability to change. Of course, for the individual, simply switching jobs could solve the issue, but job transitions are also quite challenging.

What is DEI?

I would like to provide a fundamental explanation that is easy for engineers to understand.

Diversity

Diversity refers to the coexistence of multiple ways of being.

Let's take work styles as an example.

Consider a scenario where everyone works the same hours, reports to the office, and even their time allocation between meetings and work is constrained. This is a lack of diversity.

Conversely, if the following three modes coexist,

• 1: Morning work hours, daily office attendance, more than half the day in meetings
• 2: Night work hours, hybrid work, less than half the day in meetings
• 3: Irregular work hours, fully remote, possibly one meeting a day

then this would be considered diverse. In this case, the level of diversity is 3 since three modes of being coexist.

For coexistence, the following two points must both be satisfied:

• 1: Essential that one's mode (in this context, work style) is not violated
• 2: At higher leadership levels, each mode (work style) is equitably distributed, or at least all modes are allowed

Hence, a project or team might be diverse, but management or executive levels might not be. You can simply look at the makeup of a group. Whether they can truly coexist is key. If you can't see a coexistence, then there's no diversity.

Equity

Equity involves bringing everyone down to a uniform standard.

Though various subjects can be involved, here's a list of examples:

• Salary
• Access to adequately spec'd PCs
• Access to generative AI services (chat and API)
• Access to advisors in careers, mental health, and finance
• Literacy sufficient for autonomous remote work (access to opportunities to boost such literacy)

Every employee is guaranteed a minimum standard. Note it is very different from equality. For example, regarding salaries, it's not about equalizing everyone's salary, but ensuring a baseline is established and guaranteed for everyone.

For instance, the Japanese culture of "seniority-based pay" often results in young employees receiving only about 35% of mid-career and 20% of senior veteran pay, despite high performance. This leads to a financially challenging life where even young employees at large companies must earn living expenses through overtime. Naturally, their quality of life is poor with little room for personal investment. From an equity standpoint, this is corrected by setting a salary that allows for a comfortable living and ensuring this amount is paid to all employees. Those needing an extra $2,000 get it, those needing $300 get that amount. Those who already have enough receive not a penny more.

Inclusion

Inclusion is about accommodating all forms.

If it takes 11 different entry points to accommodate everyone, you provide all 11. It's not about having just one entry point and saying, "Align with this," but rather ensuring that everyone can take advantage by offering all 11 options.

Apologies for another Japanese example, but there's something called application-based systems. One needs to proactively apply to receive support or use a system, but this becomes a privilege only accessible to those who both know where to apply and have the capability to do so. Those who don't, fall through the cracks. From an inclusion standpoint, this scenario would involve providing a finer level of follow-up or multiple types of support for those left behind.

A more relatable scenario for us engineers might involve requesting reviews or applications approval from a manager. What if they only accept face-to-face meetings? Additionally, they're perpetually busy, so you'll need to skillfully adjust to their schedule. Is this inclusive?

Of course, the answer is "no." This method only opens the door to those who can accommodate face-to-face meetings, often requiring political maneuvering to schedule successfully. Consider a high-performing and impeccably polite engineer who can only handle text communication—how are they treated? Likely ignored without proper evaluation and potentially dismissed.

To view this from an inclusion standpoint, the manager should set up more avenues besides face-to-face meetings—like providing a method that's resolved through text communication. It's inclusive only when such methods are both available and functional.

In this example, the level of inclusion is 2. There are two options, yielding a level 2 inclusion. Inclusion necessitates a level of 2 or more. Naturally, a higher level is better.

How to Achieve DEI

In conclusion, it requires engineering.

The term level indicates the degree of DEI. Regarding diversity, it's "how many modes of being exist together"; for equity, it's "how many guaranteed standards exist"; for inclusion, it's "how many entry points exist."

Levels don't increase on their own. Raising levels requires specific concepts and tools. Only engineers can create these. While you might think of tools like software and systems, you can also develop concepts like a Knowledgineer.

This is known as the implementation of DEI. For instance, creating something to increase the level of diversity by one is an implementation of diversity. It's an aspect of engineering: analyzing requirements, articulating them, designing, executing them in software or through concepts, and testing them for efficacy.

DEI is Achievable Because of Engineers

Most people loudly advocating DEI lack productivity because they merely say, "Accept me as a minority!" While important, it's fatal from a business perspective. There's no concrete debate or progress.

Hence, engineering is crucial. Whether diversity, equity, or inclusion, pondering the necessary tools and concepts to increase levels, creating and testing them, is what engineers can uniquely accomplish.

Conclusion

I hope, as engineers, you will become conscious of DEI and work towards implementing it.

We are only human, and as such, there's a limit to one's mode of being. Aren't you tired of forcefully aligning with a singular way of being? The only ones capable of resolving this age-old issue are us engineers.