The call for increased diversity in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields is growing. There is a stereotype often talked about of engineers all being white guys. People are breaking that stereotype everyday; with a growing number of women and underrepresented minorities pursuing education opportunities in STEM.
For someone whose parents are from a developing country, or for a kid struggling with the stressors of inner-city life, a career in computer science or medicine can lead to financial opportunity and also the chance to give back to society. In order to solve the problems of the 21st century, we’ve got to pool from the collective experience of a global community. To design innovative products that change lives, you must be able to think from the perspective of different backgrounds and cultures.
Lockheed Martin, the world’s number one defense contractor, features an aerospace and advanced technologies portfolio. Lockheed Martin, like many other corporations, has realized that in order to stay competitive and technologically innovative, diversity is imperative.
“At Lockheed Martin, we’re at our best when we bring talented people with diverse capabilities and experiences together to take on our customers’ toughest challenges,“ says Marillyn Hewson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Embracing diversity sparks creativity, generates new ideas, and raises smart, insightful questions. That’s when innovation really takes flight.”
The Harlem Times recently interviewed Rainia Washington, Vice President of Diversity, Culture and Equal Opportunity programs at Lockheed Martin. Rainia was born in Ohio and got her undergraduate degree in Systems Engineering (with a minor in Math) at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been with Lockheed Martin for 20 years, and stresses the importance of providing the experience of diversity in the workplace, not just talking about it. The basic idea is that through experiencing diversity, leaders can begin to appreciate it and effectively engage the workforce. Rainia is also open about the role that parents play, alongside teachers and other role models, to get young people involved with STEM.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
HT: How has your technical experience in engineering helped you in HR?
Rainia Washington: “It’s interesting. A lot of people think that engineering is about the math, and it is about your technical capabilities. But what I learned in my undergrad experience is that engineering is really about giving you the tools needed to solve very technical and complex problems. When I think about engineering and the education that I gained, it was more along the lines of … how do you make sure that you’re bringing unique ideas to the table, that you’re able to synthesize ideas to come up with a solution. And so, when I think about transitioning from the engineering world into HR, trust me the people issues we deal with are just as complex, just as difficult. I may be counting people, but at the end of the day it’s about how you solve problems, and that’s really what my undergrad prepared me for.”
HT: What is the function of Lockheed Martin’s Diversity, Culture, and Equal Opportunity programs?
Rainia Washington: “Traditionally, the role identified opportunities, programs, and initiatives where the company can leverage diversity and develop an inclusive culture. But now, since coming into the role, I think it’s more than that. I’m evolving this role to think about the culture that we’re creating and really define what diversity and inclusion means for the company.
“Over the past couple of years we’ve said that diversity is about bringing different perspectives to the table….I’m really trying to take the conversation to something a little broader than that. That conversation lends itself to this: we’re all diverse in our own various ways. We all were born in different places. We all come into Lockheed Martin everyday with different experiences. Whether or not it’s experiences that you can see based on the color of my skin or my gender. But I’m trying to really get us to a point where it’s about differences that are visible but also ones that you can’t really see. So we’ve talked a lot about diversity of thought, we’ve talked a lot about diversity of technology — and how that impacts the workforce.
“Once you determine that you’ve got diversity in the workforce, then how do you help employees feel included? How do you help them feel as though their ideas, their thoughts that they bring to the table, that they’re able to bring them to the table without retaliation, without retribution, and oh by the way — they’ll be valued? I use that as the backdrop of all the programs and initiatives that we have. How do we get employees to really engage in diversity? How do we get leaders to demonstrate the behaviors that we expect them to demonstrate as an inclusive leader? And then, how do we partner externally with universities and colleges, how do we make sure that we’re connected there?”
HT: Tell us a little more about some of the programs that you’re passionate about.
Rainia Washington: “Sure….The majority of our population, over 50%, is male and in some regards it’s white male. We work really hard to engage our white male population in all of the diversity and inclusion initiatives that we have….We started a program working with an external consultant…essentially that program is designed to provide a venue where white men, minority women and minority males can get in the room and really talk about the challenges of the workplace. And what were doing, to be quite honest, is we’re providing a safe zone where employees and leaders can talk very openly about not only the differences in the work place but how to leverage them. We’re creating a language in the company where it’s OK to say, ‘Look, this employee resource group is only women, we want to get white men involved. How do we do that and how do we leverage them for support?’
“We also have leadership forums and employee resource groups that we use heavily at the company, and it’s really our pulse on the community. These leadership forums are along the lines of various dimensions of diversity. When I say ‘dimensions’ I’m really talking about not just race and sex but also our employees with disabilities, our veterans community, we’re talking about generations and looking at how our baby boomers are connecting with our millennials, so we have a variety of employee resource groups and leadership forums that really hit at bringing people together…We’ve also added in this whole notion of allies. So if I’m in what we call our LGBT leadership forum or ERG, I also have allies, where I may not be a part of that particular community, but I participate, I attend, provide guidance, and maybe even lead some of these employee resource groups as an ally and supporter. We have the same for our African American leadership forums and Hispanic leadership council. So we have really started to leverage these employee groups and leadership forums to get all the way down to our lowest level employee and get them engaged in really being ambassadors, not just externally, but internally for Lockheed Martin as well.”
HT: Tell us a little about Lockheed Martin’s work in STEM outreach.
Rainia Washington: “STEM is important to us. We have so much activity happening across the corporation that we’re in the process of creating a council that’s focused on from A to Z what we’re doing as it relates to STEM…Lockheed Martin has partnered with an organization called Girls Inc. It’s a non-profit organization that inspires girls to be strong, smart, and bold, and really think about the fact that they can be whatever they want to be. It’s really about getting STEM in front of them at that 9 -12 age. So we’ve provided a grant to Girls Inc., a one-year commitment that we want to work very closely with Girls Inc., providing engineers from Lockheed Martin to go out and meet girls all over the country and talk to them how they can be engineers, scientists, astronauts, and things of that nature….Lockheed Martin has also partnered with Project Lead The Way, and we’ve provided them with a grant to really look at working with educational providers…providing them with training as well as looking at equipment in the classroom, supplies, and really just focusing on identifying and exposing young girls and boys to STEM. With Project Lead The Way the first area that we’re focusing on is the Washington, D.C. public schools and we’re looking to do something similar across the U.S. in various communities.
“The last area of focus for us as it relates to STEM is when you get to the college level…We’re starting to focus on how to leverage our engineers within the company to work at the college level to help these students make it through and help them decide to make a career in the STEM fields. We’ve just finished a whole grant process within Lockheed Martin, where we’re providing over $800,000 to 12 historically black colleges and universities, with programs specifically targeted at sophomore through senior year students who have elected to go into STEM, really having that conversation with, providing resources, labs, etc., to help them understand that STEM is really a field that they want to pursue.”
HT: What kind of outreach does Lockheed Martin do with veterans?
Rainia Washington: “We’ve set up what we call a Military Relations Team. So we’ve set up a representative for each of our business areas…they are all veterans themselves, and by the way, we were so fortunate to have each arm of the military represented on this team. This team goes out along with a whole army (no pun intended) of Lockheed Martin employees that attend over 250 hiring events a year….We actually have bi-weekly online chat sessions designed specifically for transitioning military members. We’ve also looked at not just the individual coming out of the military, but also creating programs that support their family. We’re looking at even our on-boarding process, so when veterans come to work at Lockheed Martin, let’s not just on-board that individual, but onboard their family. How do we provide resources that are designed to support the family members? Especially when we get to the point of our wounded warriors — they need support.”
Thanks to the work of Rainia and others, Lockheed Martin is a good example of a corporation that realizes diversity isn’t something that we can just talk about — for when diversity is actually lived and experienced in the workplace, amazing things are possible.