Ep 87: Sonja Gittens-Ottley: Remember Your Power and Worth

Diva Tech Talk interviewed Sonja Gittens-Ottley, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Asana, a leading work management platform that helps teams organize, track, and manage work.  (Dustin Moskovitz, aco-founder of Facebook, is also co-founder of Asana). Sonja’s mission is setting standards to drive inclusivity and equity in the workplace.  As a first generation transplant to the United States, she immigrated from The West Indies.  “I am the mother of a 4-year old boy,” Sonja said. “I am bringing up a child in this society. How can what I do, today, impact his life, and shape his opportunities for the future?” 

Growing up in The Republic of Trinidad/Tobago, Sonja did not have aspirational limits placed on her. Growing up “we had really structured expectations of what were ‘cool’ jobs.”  Sonja became an attorney, with a bachelor’s of law degree from The University of the West Indies in Barbados, and a graduate degree from The Hugh Wooding Law School.  She worked at both the Ministry of  Legal Affairs/Office of the Attorney General and  the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.  Now she is adamant that “Inclusion includes thinking about all the opportunities; ensuring that everyone has access; not being confined to what society says you should be doing.”

Sonja’s transition from law to tech was prompted by her move to the U.S. that was originally planned as a two-year stint. “But I got the option to work at a company called Yahoo.” There she implemented project management and legal internal consulting. When Yahoo established a human rights program, Sonja played a significant role. That led to working with Yahoo’s corporate policymaking for diversity and inclusion. From Yahoo, Sonja moved to Facebook as the company’s Global Diversity Program Manager and then to Asana as Head of Diversity and Inclusion.  

To empower Asana’s diversity, she focused on two strategic pillars: recruiting and employee evaluation and growth. She stressed that “the culture is really supportive” and that neither pillar can exist without the other; diverse recruitment and nurturing culture must work in tandem.  She works closely with the company’s University Recruiting team, and targets events that attract diverse attendees. To enhance existing culture, she is working on a variety of supportive initiatives like ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) for internal communities “making space for the community, and space for allies to learn more…”. There are three:  Asana Women, Asana Gradient (for people of color), and Asana Team Rainbow (for LGBTQ employees). Each group autonomously sets its objectives, but all three are aligned, overall, to the greater Asana mission.

One practical approach that Asana initiated  to support inclusion is the Asana Real Talk series where people engage in honest, authentic discussions about overcoming challenges, communicating purpose and driving change, individually and in the greater world/workplace.  Sonja also does an onboarding session with all Asana team members emphasizing how vital inclusion is to the company. Asana’s liberal Family Leave policy is an example of progress. Sonia proudly exclaimed: “The beauty of Asana is that it is really transparent. People are not shy to ask questions.” Sonja’s leadership is enabled through wielding influence.  “Be clear about what you are trying to achieve. Be honest. People want clarity on an objective --- possible issues, risks involved, and probable results.” For candidates, she advised “You have power. It can be as easy as asking: ‘You say you do diversity and inclusion; what are the actions you have taken?’ ”  

For companies initially adopting diversity and inclusion programs, Sonja recommended a company-wide engagement survey with questions about “belonging” to gauge employee’s perspectives. “Think of it as an audit to see where you are.”  She also pointed to mundane vital questions a company can ask: “What is our restroom situation? Should we have ‘all gender’ restrooms? Are we thinking about ‘mother’s rooms’?” For recruiting, in companies without a dedicated diversity expert, she suggested: “You should be thinking about interview skills and training.”  To measure success, Sonja said: “At Asana, we look at it as we would look at any other objective, in terms of both qualitative and quantitative data. What’s our new hire rate? How is it mapping to goals? Through surveys, tracking employee engagement and sense of belonging in terms of the overall company, and in terms of how specific groups are doing, and the intersectionality of groups.”  The intersectionality data can offer “very different pictures.” 

To keep momentum, Sonja and Asana do numerous things including monthly All Hands meetings, use a companywide Slack and Asana to consistently share diversity data, and hold “Office Hours” and Ask Me Anything sessions dedicated to inclusion/culture. In addition to the Asana Real Talk series, Sonja is proud of the recent apprenticeship program the company launched, AsanaUp. “We were really thoughtful and intentional about widening that funnel of great candidates coming from non-traditional backgrounds.”  The AsanaUP apprenticeship welcomes those without university computer science degrees (with other degrees, from coding schools, or parents returning to the workforce) to join the company for 6-9 months to work alongside software engineers.

Sonja characterized herself as “an eternal optimist.”  In her view, “everyone can make a difference. Children are the future, and they have no limits.”  She exclaimed: “There are people out there, who don’t have access to the opportunities,” she said. “I plan to be working on lengthening that pipeline. This has to be done with really great partners like Grace Hopper Celebration conference”. “We forget that this is new and uncomfortable for a lot of people: to talk about race or gender or any of the other identities that people possess. Getting people to a place of comfort is how you change things!”  Everyone much develop “a real sense of empathy; people might look different than you, might sound different, but we are all trying to do the same thing.” And the most important thing she would like to do is “remind people of their own power and their own worth.  It makes a difference in what you can achieve!”

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