March 22 2010 Örebro Sweden. Thanks to Danwei Tran & Robert Rasmussen, the latest WomenBuild workshop ran the day before Swedish TechDays in Örebro. Danwei summarizes “Even though Örebro is a small town (walking distance to everywhere) and TechDays hadn’t started yet, we still managed to get 15 enthusiastic participants at the workshop. There were great discussions during the workshop and the buzz kept going afterwards. I saw positive feedback on Twitter and I met several participants during TechDays who came up to me and thanked us for an inspiring WB workshop. It also created an internal buzz and I have gotten requests from colleagues who want to participate at an internal WB workshop.”

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Challenges

Some of the challenges faced in IT with diversity as identified by the participants include:

Solutions

Here are some solutions and suggestions for addressing these challenges.

More on WomenBuild Sweden

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TechDays Sweden 2010 (March 23-24 2010) is proud to host a pre-conference WomenBuild workshop on March 22, 2010 at 6.30pm.

Join us for our first 2010 WomenBuild session in Sweden! The WomenBuild program is specifically designed to address the decline of female talent and leadership in the computer science industry. Microsoft partnered with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY (LSP) through Robert Rasmussen & Associates to create a unique interactive workshop, using LEGO® Bricks to model solutions for growing strong female leaders in the software industry.

WomenBuild is not only a program but a growing community that provides accessibility to female role models, access to resources, and an open communication path to the Microsoft Women in Technology community.

The WomenBuild program incorporates a hands-on process that draws on the power of creative thinking to shift group conversation from talking heads to focused minds. Each team will be run as a facilitated conversation with physical Lego brick constructions that will powerfully shift a group to more productive outcomes by accomplishing a deeper mining of the diverse wisdom within the group and a clearer shared conclusion on inspirational career paths for women in the technical field. Through this workshop, attendees will share real life experiences, discuss challenges, network & build on-going relationships with other women who are attending the PDC conference. Ultimately, attendees of this workshop will find ways to unleash their creative thinking and transform ideas into concrete concepts.

In this workshop, attendees participate in an environment of rich, interactive experiences by modeling real-life business challenges and solutions with LEGO® Bricks as part of the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY Program (LSP). WomenBuild opens minds to exciting and inspirational ideas on how to be a thought leader in the technical field. We work together in small groups to brainstorm and problem solve in a collaborative and productive way. The workshop includes people in various responsibility areas in teams. This way each role can impart their own unique perspective to the group, while collectively creating shared understandings that direct future activity effectively. WomenBuild workshops are not exclusive to women, as these topics apply both to men and women.

For those of you interested in attending the workshop in Sweden:

Datum och plats:
22 mars på Conventum i Örebro
Tid: 18:30 – 20:30
Ansvariga på plats: Danwei Tran, utvecklarevangelist på Microsoft och Robert Rasmussen från LEGO® Serious Play.
Vi bjuder på smörgås och dryck. Platserna är begränsade och deltagandet är kostnadsfritt.
Du anmäler ditt intresse genom att maila: danwei.tran@microsoft.com

Creativity Matters in Software.

What was the idea that we drew on cocktail napkins?  We wanted to take the analogy of building architecture with LEGO bricks into the mainstream community, encouraging children who enjoy using both sides of the brain to solve world problems using software.  We often focus so much on the left-brained tasks in software development – the code, the bits, the bytes – and we oh-so-rarely highlight the creativity, innovation, and art that goes into building good software.  A good developer or architect knows the technology inside out, and can put the parts together fast. A great developer or architect sees both the aesthetic beauty and elegance of design, and at the same time sees the internal skeleton of a solid technical foundation that lasts over time.

Creativity matters in software development. Innovative, unique thinking can build better applications, and build them faster. Sure, you can be handed some specs to follow steps 1-15 just like you would put together the ingredients to bake a cake. But that’s really ASSEMBLING not really creating, isn’t it?  There are times we’ll want to assemble, as there are strict rules when it comes to combining the right measurements and temperatures for baking. However, think of the best meals you’ve ever eaten (nostalgia aside), oftentimes these are the dishes that are unlike no other. Where does this uniqueness come from?

I have a good friend who is a fantastic developer – his software design is so elegant and crisp. And works without fail. And even anticipates strange exceptions to the rule that would occur .00001% of the time. Those exceptions are often the downfall of system that works perfectly 99.999% of the time, and conversely are blatantly noticed by 99.999% of the population of users.  Anticipating the exception is one of the secrets to a great software developer. With the information that’s available on the web, it’s easy to program according to rule.

formula 3: Anticipate Exceptions.

One day I ask him “So, A, how do you do it? Tell me the secrets! And tell me now!”. Nonchalantly,  he tells me that he can think in 4th dimensional form (don’t we all?) and that he can visualize the design of a software blueprint very quickly this way. Then he translates that 4th dimensional design into 2 and 3 dimensional form.  Because he knows his design is solid and proven in the 4th dimension, he knows it will be solid and proven in the 2nd and 3rd.

The only way I can describe downleveling in dimensional thought is with an analogy. Picture a camping tent in a box, unassembled. Now picture yourself in the woods, showing someone to pitch that tent. Visualize taking the fabric, binding it to the poles with string, and propping it up with height.  This is how my friend pictures writing code.  Now picture having a piece of paper and pen only to write down instructions on how to pitch that tent.  A little more complicated, but doable – that’s like taking real world business situations and translating them to instructions.

Now picture drawing those instructions in 2 dimensions – meaning you can’t use height.Now it gets complicated!  So in order to show the middle pole propping    (That’s me trying to write code – lots of metaphorical arrows and redundancy). Sometimes this is what code looks like. It will take a truly creative mind to read these instructions and visualize the 3 dimensional tent. And imagine an even MORE creative mind to picture whatever a tent would look like in 4th dimensions. I imagine it to be immensely more elegant.  That’s why we need creative minds!

formula 4: Creativity is a business requirement.

With creative vision, thought, and yes sometimes genius, the most elegant and functional software design is built. We certainly more creative thought in this field. People who aren’t afraid of the rigor of math, and who aren’t afraid of working without rules. Great software is a combination of both art and science.

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Once Upon a Time.

Like many good stories, this one begins in a hidden password protected room in the back alleys of San Francisco. And, as true of many techie ideas, this concept was born within the manicured campuses of Silicon Valley. It starts as an off the cuff comment during an interview on the Microsoft campus “LEGO if you are watching…Send me LEGO”. My west coast counterpart, Lynn Langit and I are giving an interview on what it means to be a female evangelist within Microsoft.      [The Interview that sparks the idea for WomenBuild] We draw an analogy between building with LEGO and software architecture and development. (More on that later).  Our stance? If you like to build with LEGO, you will enjoy writing code. We hope to encourage more young girls to consider a profession in the software industry, as we had both noted that the ratio of female to male technologies was dropping alarmingly in the last 10 years.  What Has Driven Women Out of Computer Science?  --> #1 most emailed business article of that week in NY Times “When one looks at computer science in particular, however, the proportion of women has been falling. In 2001-2, only 28 percent of all undergraduate degrees in computer science went to women. By 2004-5, the number had declined to only 22 percent. Data collected by the Computing Research Association showed even fewer women at research universities like M.I.T.: women accounted for only 12 percent of undergraduate degrees in computer science and engineering in the United States and Canada granted in 2006-7 by Ph.D.-granting institutions, down from 19 percent in 2001-2. Many computer science departments report that women now make up less than 10 percent of the newest undergraduates.”

formula 1: Before any outlandish business plan or idea, comes an idea sketched on a single malt scotch scented cocktail napkin

A few hours later, we find ourselves in San Francisco feverishly brainstorming behind a nondescript facade at the password protected Bourbon and Branch (House Rule: Don’t even think about asking for a Cosmo). To login you speak-the-secret-word-through-the-small-slat-in-the-door-and-no-it’s-not-FIDELIO.  Lynn and I sit entry sipping speakeasy single malt scotch, scribbling on cocktail napkins.”How on earth can we incorporate LEGO into our day job and somehow attract more female technologist?”  Clearly a problem many have agonized over.

This is the beginning of WomenBuild - an entrepreneurial concept for a partnership between Microsoft and LEGO to (1) draw awareness to, (2) build a community around, and (3) create solutions to address the decline in female technologists.

Once the broad brush strokes of a plan were drawn, the idea speeds off to its respective bicoastal incubation centers: the Hollywood sparkle of Los Angeles and the pre-crash steeliness of Wall Street. 

formula 2: blueprint for innovation = entrepreneurial ideas +  passionate people

This is the story of WomenBuild. As the story unfolds,  hopefully you will learn formulae for how you can leverage the resources of a large enterprise to incubate, grow and launch an entrepreneurial endeavor, as well as be part of the movement to grow female talent in Science Technology Engineering & Math (STEM) industries and disciplines.

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