Why I'm buying my daughter a Kano for Christmas
So I was reading an article today on Fortune that is focused around scaling and failure, which came from a panel at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit.
During the article I came to a line from Debbie Sterling, founder and CEO of GoldieBlox - “I am trying to innovate and not rely on these old stereotypes”; which really got me to thinking about what I've traditionally been doing to both support and encourage my now eight year old daughter Luxe to grow into a strong, independent thinker, and the barriers that she might experience as she grows up into a technically advanced and still highly patriarchal culture..
As a leader of a company, the challenges of creating a diverse environment have been something that I have been keenly aware of for a number of years now, and diversity is something that I've looked to focus on and encourage at all levels, with all evidence pointing to the fact that diverse organisations are stronger, more flexible, more creative and more able to solve problems than those that are less diverse (be it in gender, ethnicity, age, culture, background and international experience or any other type - and there are many).
Being aware of diversity and of how poorly we (and by we I mean 40-something white males, yep, that's me) as leaders have traditionally done in this area, I'm focused on trying to ensure that my thinking is as open as possible to new ideas and ways of approaching problems.
As a father I've tried to balance Luxe's toys between what she views as 'normal' girl's toys (she loves horses and dolls) and less gender-specific (lego, vehicles, video games, building things together), but the toys and activities I've loved most have always been those that allowed me to learn from her through how she thinks and approaches problems. Also as a father I've tried to help her to learn her strengths, to understand her weaknesses and to know and revel in herself as an independent person.
Back to my realisation today, which was that lately Luxe has been teaching me more about diversity of thought, different points of view and ways of seeing the world and her place in it than I think I've ever been able to teach her. That realisation has encouraged me to look for further opportunities to learn from her and get her point of view, which continues to change and mature as she grows.
We like doing projects together and she's beginning to be more and more interested in tech and software, being that she is both curious about how things work and interested in being able to change and affect the world around her - so it makes sense for me to look for things that allow us to get the best
So this Christmas I'll be buying Luxe a Kano and spending time with her building it and helping her write her first software, not only because I believe that this, amongst many other things, will help her grow into a strong, independent and confident woman. but also (and more importantly) because it is imperative that I learn from her how she approaches things, how she views the world and how she likes to learn.
And I'm certain that will help me better understand how to foster the kind of diverse, flexible, open and creative culture that I believe is imperative for business survival.
If you got to this point (thanks!) I sincerely hope that you enjoyed my thoughts here - if so please like and share with others who may find it useful.