Digital Future: More Opportunities for Diversity and Inclusion?

As part of the Global Inclusion Seminar, where experts from around the world exchange best practices and trends on the topic of diversity and inclusion, Helena Trachsel, head of the Cantonal Zurich Office for Gender Equality, launched a day explicitly for local and regional SMEs. This day was dedicated to new job profiles, work processes, business models and organizational structures that take advantage of social diversity and new technological developments. Speakers included future consultant Gerd Leonhard, Bea Knecht, the visionary founder of Zattoo, and Florian Wieser, founder of The Relevent Collective. Finally, Jacqueline Fehr, member of the Zurich government, represented the "political view" on the complex issue of integration and inclusion of all people, regardless of their origin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc.

The future for women?

First, Gerd Leonhard gave an overview of what might await us humans in the future. He warned against being afraid of the future. "The future is better than we think. But we have to agree on what and who we want to be in the future," he said. Technology will still bring us many benefits, but, "Technology has no ethics," he warned. Therefore, he said, we humans must shape technology so that it can truly serve equal opportunity. As artificial intelligence would take over more and more routine work, he said, the training of emotional intelligence in particular would play a central role in the future. "EQ will become more important than IQ," says Gerd Leonhard. And that has consequences for diversity and inclusion: since men, for example, think much more strongly in terms of plans and structured processes, they are much easier to replace with artificial intelligence, he said. The question should be asked: Is the age of women now beginning? "Women are better for the new world," says Gerd Leonhard approvingly.

Not just a gender issue

Woman vs. man, man vs. woman: This discussion still dominates the diversity topic. This also became clear again and again in the table discussions. But there were also other examples: Ann-Kathrin Greutmann from the Zürcher Kantonalbank, for example, showed how, thanks to technical progress, hearing and visually impaired people can also play to their strengths in her company. Or Laurenz Uhl explained how HR processes supported by artificial intelligence can promote diversity and inclusion. Or Reto Schneider (Swica) appealed to dealing with people who have different prerequisites than most of us. "We still have to learn this way of dealing better," he commented. Or Bea Knecht: The pioneer of Internet television and founder of Zattoo has had to deal a lot in her life with "otherness," swimming against the tide, and much more. Her descriptions of the development of her own resilience were correspondingly impressive.

Way out of the biotope

The topics met with open ears among the participants. For most of them, it is clear that there is still a lot of work to be done for the equality of all people in the world of work. And with digitalization, companies are facing new challenges: New forms of work, alternative working time models and more flexible organizations are the order of the day. Those present were able to report on a great deal that has already been achieved and demonstrated the willingness and necessity to take a chance on something new. The only thing was that the conference had the appearance of a "meeting of like-minded people". In the world outside this "biotope", as one participant put it, there is still a lot of convincing to be done. On the other hand, there are many globally positioned companies that come up with many good examples - not because this only serves their image, but because they are virtually forced to diversity and inclusion due to their international orientation.

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