It is the year 2017 and gender equality and women thriving in work place without fear of sexual harassment or discrimination is the #1 unsolved social issue of our time.
Better Together: 8 Ways Working with Women Leads to Extraordinary Products and Profits offers a rare and startling look at the business world through the lens of an expert looking in and plots out how ALL types of businesses can gain a competitive advantage and excel past competitors by simply nurturing an equal blend of men and women on leadership teams and staff. It focuses on powerful and implementable solutions that any CEO, manager, or team leader can put to use to ensure that women thrive within the organization, leading to the business being more successful, customers happier, and employees more fulfilled.
Author Jonathan Sposato knows the challenges facing women in startup tech and venture capital today because he specifically builds his companies with-out those obstacles. He credits the unprecedented success of his businesses on his brand of gender-balanced culture, and in this fully practical guidebook to his celebrated style of team building, he puts his eight secrets to profiting through diversity in your hands. These secrets are not just for tech companies, but for teams and companies in ANY industry.
It is the culmination of extensive research on the many issues that affect gender equality (or lack thereof) in the workplace, exhaustive interviews with many powerful female CEO’s and executives who have been brave in sharing stories of their own personal struggles and triumphs, as well as Jonathan's own experiences as a male entrepreneur, CEO, and angel investor in supporting the advancement of women in business. The book also shows us why that’s not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do economically.
With the same entertaining and informative delivery that makes him a sought-after speaker worldwide, Jonathan walks you through adjusting your own culture to open the FULL potential of your workforce.
The data will amaze you and the real-world voices will inspire you, and with Better Together you can achieve more success with more women on your team. If you care about inclusivity and beating the forces that prevent it, you will want to read this book.
About the Author; Jonathan Sposato is chairman and co-founder of Geekwire, PicMonkey, and WeCount.org, and in general, a serial startup founder. Since his early days as a high-performing player on the first Xbox and Xbox games business, he’s gone on to add numerous awards for innovation, voted “CEO of the Year” for Picnik.com, receiving the University of Washington’s “Man of Integrity” award, and becoming the only person to sell two companies to Google. He recently promised all his future investments to female-founded companies - another first in the technology industry.
Table of Contents
Foreword ix
With Grace Kahng xi
About the Author xiii
Introduction xv
Sister, Where Art Thou? xv
What Do I Know about Women? xvii
It’s Personal xix
I Know We Can Do Better xxiii
Straight Talk: Maria Hess xxiv
Chapter 1 Men Must Change 1
Welcome to Man Island 3
The Sad Truth of the Here and Now 4
And It’s Complicated 8
The Bigger Picture 10
One Small Step for Womankind 11
Night of the Living Bros 15
Women Don’t Get Funded 16
Getting Harassed is Part of the Hustle 18
Men Must Be Part of the Solution 24
Be a Change Master 26
Straight Talk: Lisa Conquergood 28
Chapter 2 Solution 1: Not Enough Women? Look Harder 29
Look Harder Part A: Top of the Funnel 30
What’s in a Name? Anonymize Resumes 30
Look Harder Part B: Minding the Gap 32
Stacking the Loop and Mining for Diamonds 35
Set Explicit Diversity Goals, Then Mirror Your Interview Loop to Match 37
Pay Big Bonuses for Employee Referrals of Candidates from Underrepresented Backgrounds 40
Mining for Diamonds and “Custom Grooming” 41
Straight Talk: Lisa Maki 47
Chapter 3 Solution 2: In It to Win It: Supporting Women’s Development 49
Reverse Mentoring 49
Increasing Female Visibility 54
Straight Talk: Eugenia Harvey 63
Straight Talk: Maria Hess 64
Chapter 4 Solution 3: Listen Louder 65
Dragon Slayers and Deliberators 66
Star Shooters and Stratosphere Blasters 68
Identical Pitches Yield Biased Results 70
How Men Can Change the Way They Listen 72
Straight Talk: Karen Cooper 80
Straight Talk: Susannah Malarkey 81
Chapter 5 Solution 4: Creating a Family-Forward Culture 83
One: No Meetings before 9:00 a.m. 86
Two: Men Should Take Just as Much Parental Leave as Women 89
Three: Shut Down Email at Night 92
Four: Create Family-Friendly Spaces, Not Bro-Friendly Spaces 96
Straight Talk: Christina Watt 105
Straight Talk: Dr. Tejal Desai 106
Chapter 6 Solution 5: Just Say No: High Performance Should Not Trump Bad Behavior 107
Caught between a Rock and a Hard Place 108
How Long Has This Been Happening? 109
Reid Hoffman 112
The Cost of Ignoring the Problem 113
D&I: Hire a Diversity and Inclusion Director 114
Words Can Change the World: Say “No” to Bad Behavior Regardless of Performance Level 115
But Wait, There’s More 118
Straight Talk: Laura Parmer Lohan 120
Chapter 7 Solution 6: Adopt the ERA at Your Company - Because Your Country Didn’t 121
Revenge of the Housewife 124
Revive the Equal Rights Amendment: Ratify Now 129
All is Not Lost 132
Straight Talk: Melody McCloskey 135
Chapter 8 Solution 7: Stand Together or Fall Apart 137
Touching the Third Rail 139
Great Expectations: Case Study 142
It’s Really Not Personal 145
Come Together: Right Now! 147
Our Unique Strengths as Women 148
Straight Talk: Debbie Landa 151
Straight Talk: Shelley Ross 152
Chapter 9 Solution 8: The Future: Raising Better Men 153
Show That Mom is Incredible and Strong 156
Communicate Differently at Home 157
Break Out of the Man Box and Call Out Bro Behavior 158
Show Him That Things That Are Traditionally “Feminine” Are Not “Less Than,” or Off-Limits 159
Show Him New Heroes, Stories That Include Women and Girls 160
Straight Talk: Grace Kahng 162
Chapter 10 Final Thoughts 163
A Note from Niniane Wang 165
Endnotes 167
Acknowledgments 169
The Better Together Pledge 171
Index 173
