Back in February I met with the Dean of CECS and Chair Harris of the CS department. One "good" problem for them is that nearly all (but few exceptions) are hired after graduation by the existing large businesses in Portland.
I don't hire strictly based on paper and education (being a high-school dropout type) but for many bright people, that is their best entry into CS and engineering. We'll have to work with PSU to increase the breadth and depth of their students - the really good news, no disagreement from them!
I'm moving my family and business to Portland, OR in order to grow. 4 days in Portland and I was able to meet with a couple of dozen people. I haven't seen a better city in this country ready to grow, try new things and be willing to support themselves and others become successful.
Portland Seed Fund is another win for everyone in Portland and Oregon.
No early manager's education is complete in my opinion without reading Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman's "First Break All The Rules".
Do yourself a favor, order a bunch of used copies for your staff to read. I've probably bought 200 or more copies of this book new and used and no other single book published in the micro-computing era has shaped my thinking more about running an organization.
I will add that starting from a good base of effective working culture, then working on culture as a theme will yield significant benefit.
I think the answer isn't just the employment and supporting of people already excelling in the system, it is in changing the distribution of opportunity prior to formal education.
We intend to do this by operating a program within our company, starting with community computer and science lab, promoting to a group work day with interactive collaboration, then eventually fitting a child's interest in a role with a second-seat internship at each employee's desk.
This is all early stage of process, but 20 years of thinking and experimentation. If I'm able to build my current venture out, my next will be promoting these early programs to help expand young people's thinking (and hopefully help them make themselves their own role model) about science and technology.
I am almost 40. I have been in the IT world actively since 1984 here in Berkeley/San Francisco/Silicon Valley. I have worked in big corporate, nationally and internationally.
I have worked with fewer than 10 black men and women in a technical role in my entire career; spanning hundreds of teams and nearly a hundred customers and employers.
It matters because opportunity and outcomes aren't equal. The problem isn't purely the IT scene, but one of the greatest challenges the United States faces.
I don't think it's anything we need to "fix". Racism is still around to a small degree, but It's not what's keeping black men and women out of IT. It's culture. The culture needs to change for the problem to go away (if it should be considered a problem) and no amount of money and government intervention is going to change it.
Why aren't there more male nurses? Why aren't there more female mechanics?
I also don't know where you are working, but I've only worked on 10 teams (I'm in software development) and there were at least a few black guys on each of my teams. But, I tend not to look at color. I look at the person.
Awesome point, Bundini. Not all entrepreneurs need to be leaders, but "The One" in every venture needs to be able to influence others to believe. Cultivating people skills, understanding basics of business communication that Dale Carnegie published nearly 80 years ago.
Charisma, people skills, energy, good-vibe - call it what you will, but if you can engage people in a trusting and real dialog they WILL believe in you and follow you into fire.
You need to synchronize your operations and shake out the trust issue.
Set up a mandatory morning and afternoon call at the same time every day. 15 minutes.
Spend the first two minutes of each call recapping your current milestones. If it takes more than 2 minutes you're talking about the wrong stuff. See below.
"Yesterday we expected to get to X." Then reiterate what the team members told you in the last meeting.
Person 1: What are you working on? Need anything? Next step?
Person 2: What are you working on? Need anything? Next step?
Person 3: What are you working on? Need anything? Next step?
Anything taking more than 2 minutes take offline, or stay on the bridge line after the others are gone. If you do this for a few weeks you'll quickly spot who is flaking, working for another company or project on the side, or who really just needed more direction from you.
When people experience trust issues, there's a good reason: either they are insecure, or someone is untrustworthy. I've managed large corporate customers remotely for years, performed complex projects remote. Once you get the process under way you can move to a single morning call.
Do not skip it. Do not reschedule it. Do not miss it. Get in the habit and your team will fall in line. The rest of the issues will sort themselves out.
Obviously my comment was misunderstood. Given everything the author of the post wrote about, "No" should be his "Yes". "No" is something you'll hear in life many, many times and it doesn't even phase people who are truly motivated.
So "No" in this case is brief language for meaning; "Go build a great product, kick the teeth out of the competition/market and don't fall into a rut."
I don't hire strictly based on paper and education (being a high-school dropout type) but for many bright people, that is their best entry into CS and engineering. We'll have to work with PSU to increase the breadth and depth of their students - the really good news, no disagreement from them!