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Adel Smee

Resilient, effective teams are diverse teams, teams that feel safe throwing around ideas, teams that look out for each other, teams where the needs of the individuals in the team are (mostly) met, teams that can learn and grow with your company. Nurturing environments in which such teams can form and flourish is an endlessly challenging and rewarding task that belongs to everyone in the company. And yet, a lot of the work to identify issues, champion change and improve a company’s culture and the diversity of its workforce is done by the same few people, or left entirely to HR. These folks could do with a hand. A hand from you! This talk will lay out (some) of the work that’s already being done, provides a handy how-to guide to getting started in diversity and inclusion and extends an invitation to anyone who cares about the issue to lend a hand.

Adel Smee is an Engineering Manager at Zendesk where, for the last four years, she has led innovation projects across a variety of technologies and grown a number of high performing teams. Her career in tech started with teaching people to code, before she decided to break out and get paid to do it commercially at a startup, then at Lonely Planet, and then at Zendesk. Along the way she realised that her main implicit motivator is delight in the success of others, which turns out to be a really useful quality in a manager. She is obsessed with what makes people (and herself) tick and loves to hear how she is getting it wrong so she can do better. Adel is an incurable optimist who believes that one day we’ll live in a world where everybody likes their job as much as she does, but isn’t naive enough to think that day is coming any time soon.

Produced by NDV: https://youtube.com/channel/UCQ7dFBzZGlBvtU2hCecsBBg?sub_confirmation=1

#ruby #rubyconf #rubyconfau #rubyconf_au #rails #programming

Fri Feb 21 09:15:00 2020 at Plenary Room

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In her talk titled 'Inclusiveness - It's In Your Hands' at RubyConf AU 2020, Adel Smee emphasizes the shared responsibility of fostering diversity and inclusion (D&I) within tech teams. She highlights that effective, resilient teams are rooted in diversity and that creating a nurturing environment demands collective effort rather than being delegated solely to HR or a handful of individuals. Smee introduces several key points throughout her presentation:

- **Defining Diversity and Inclusion**: Smee reinterprets the common analogy regarding diversity and inclusion, suggesting that diversity is akin to being invited to lunch, while inclusion means actively enjoying the meal.
- **The Importance of Diverse Environments**: She argues that a varied workforce is crucial for adapting to change and addressing future challenges within the tech industry, sharing her belief that teams lacking diversity may be fragile in the long run.
- **The Exhaustion of Being a Diversity Representative**: Smee discusses the fatigue experienced by individuals often placed in roles as diversity representatives, calling for broader participation from all employees, including those within privileged demographics.
- **Concrete Actions for Inclusiveness**: She offers practical steps for individuals to aid in inclusivity, including self-education, establishing trust, listening actively to others, and recognizing personal biases. Smee underscores the significance of fostering genuine connections and learning from mistakes made in D&I efforts.
- **Addressing Gender Disparity in Tech**: Smee points out the alarming decline in female enrollment in tech courses and the higher attrition rate of women in the tech workforce, advocating for transformative involvement to halt this trend.
- **Shared Responsibility**: Finally, she encourages everyone to take action in promoting inclusiveness, positing that involvement can range from small daily efforts to larger initiatives, and calling on allies from privileged backgrounds to support these efforts.

Adel Smee’s main message resonates with the idea that achieving inclusiveness is an ongoing journey that requires active participation from all levels within an organization. Her optimistic worldview stresses that genuine, collaborative efforts can lead to a more equitable and fulfilling workplace for everyone.

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