Honor and Thanks to all those who served
A very special thank you to all Veterans who are currently serving our country, who have served, and who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. You are not forgotten and your sacrifices are appreciated. A special call out to my Uncle Johnny, who served in WW II and was recognized for his service in D Day. I wish you were still with us!
Our freedoms come at a high cost and we can never rest assuming that our freedoms will always be present, so it's fitting that there is a day to say thank you to those who voluntarily serve and put themselves in harms way so that we can enjoy our freedom.
Unconscious Bias?! What is it and what do you do?
Today we hosted an incredible call about Unconscious Bias. Everyone has them ... based on your history, experiences, and context. Take this test -- it is a real eye opener! https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
What is UnConscious Bias?
A personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment (Merriam-Webster)
Unconscious biases influence our judgment and decision-making, and because we are not aware of them, can be detrimental in certain circumstances such as what information to prioritize in decision-making, who to hire, promote, and reward, and where to allocate precious resources.
Why do we have these biases?
We work in everyday between the automatic pilot and thoughtful, reflective moments. Most of us are on that automatic pilot most of the day -- driving to work, the feeling when wearing shoes, breathing, etc but when we pause and do the slow thinking, we think about the facts and the basis of our decisions. When you are in System 1 -- intuitive -- you make assumptions you don't even know about!
Understand the Ladder of Influence:
We have a lot of filters that we need to be aware of. I love this ladder from Chris on how much data we process automatically. Alot of our conclusions are based on assumptions, based on a selective set of data.
What do you do? Unconscious Bias:
- Be willing to examine your own assumptions and experiences.
- If you feel uncomfortable, say so.
- Be willing to practice inquiry if you suspect unconscious bias in action: seek to understand.
- Start from the assumption of good intentions.
TieCon Explodes for IBM Cloud!
I love attending the TieCon conferece every year. It is the world's largest Enterpreneur Conference with over 4300 attendees, 35% women, and this year 20% women speakers.
The TieCon 50 are the top 50 Entrepreneurs who this year each received up to $120K of the IBM Cloud! The results for these chosen few are amazing .. with over the past years over 114 successful exits!
They focused on 8 tracks:
- Internet of Things
- Data Economy
- Cloud & Security
- Healthcare
- Entrepreneurship
- Oil and Gas
- Online Education
- Youth
I wanted to share many of the great moments from our Global Entrepreneurs!
Kick Sim:
GT Systems - a TieCon Power 50 Entrepreneur!
Airosense:
And the interest in the IBM Cloud was a long long line! Thanks to all the entrepreneurs for your interest! We will do our best to help you be successful!
Inspiration Friday -- 10 Lessons from Tiffany Shlain - Founder of The Webbys
I was inspired by the great presentation by Tiffany Shlain on lessons of life!
I'll share by favorites!
- Know what you want and know when to walk away. You won't succeed at everything. So know which things to stick with and which things to throw over!
- Be over prepared. Enough said!
- Think outside the box. Tiffany shared a story about how she didn't like to negotiate so she had folks email her "alternative email" so that she could negotiate in a different voice. Think about different ways to be strong!
- Renegotiate your definition of success. It does change throughout life!
- Negotiate boundaries with technology. Tiffany and her family turn off all devices one day a week -- their family's new favorite day!
- Whoever throws out the first number loses. (Her freebie!)
- Always use the Love Sandwich approach. Start with the good, what "they" will get. Add in the middle what you want -- and close with the "what they will get"
- Seek advice from a diverse group of people.
- Workout your courage. It is like a muscle that needs to be exercised.
- Have fun and constantly be changing!
Introducing the WITI Virtual Hackathon! Sign up now to show off your "entrepreneur" style!
In 1935, three decades before the Equal Pay Act, IBM recruited its first women in the workforce. IBM's founder, T.J. Watson Sr. promised women, "the same kind of work for equal pay." Since then, IBM has been acknowledged as a world leader in its commitment to women both in and out of the workforce. In 2014, IBM was named one of the 諺Best Companies for Women”by Forbes.
It should come as no surprise that IBM has partnered with WITI (Women In Technology International), a powerhouse dedicated to women in tech, on their first ever Virtual Hackathon. WITI started in 1989 as The International Network of Women in Technology and, in 2001, evolved into The WITI Professional Association, the world's leading trade association for tech-savvy women. Today, WITI is the premiere global organization empowering women in business and technology to achieve unimagined possibilities.
I personally invite you to join Bluemix, IBM's premier cloud development platform, and WITI for an international hackathon where developers, scientists, students, and entrepreneurs will gather virtually to build software, applications, hardware, data visualization and platform solutions focused on the Internet of Things and wearables. The hackathon runs throughout the month of May and is open to open to all.
Follow these easy steps to get started and get hacking!
1. Register for the hackathon at ibm.biz/witiregistration
2. Register for your free Bluemix trial at ibm.biz/witihack
3. Participate in Bluemix virtual education sessions and review technical resources here: ibm.biz/witihackathon
4. Start building your app and submit it for review by May 27th.
Prizes include IBM Cloud Credit, a 1-hour virtual meeting with me, 2016 WITI Summit tickets, free WITI memberships and more.
As a board member of WITI and mentor to several women in IBM, I am thrilled to see this type of collaboration and can’t wait to see the apps you come up with!
Give back ! People who need help sometimes look a lot like people who don't need help
- I once worked with a gentleman who was so put together. But what I didn't know was that his wife had MS and was struggling to deal with his new situation.
- Or a young talented girl that is coding in Hackathons but has to have another job to make ends meet.
You never know what is behind each person!