Diversity in the technical workforce is a valuable asset for all companies, because it encourages different types of thinking and taps into the full potential of your team. Come learn from one AWS organization how a fast-moving, fast-growing team has put in place a "diversity circle" for personal and professional development. This program provides a peer mentoring group that builds skills and establishes informal networking support. The host and active participants of this two-year program will share tips and best practices for running a diversity peer mentoring group that spans engineering, product management, and operations.

1. How to Sponsor a “Diversity Circle”
in a Technical Workspace
Amy Therrien, Senior Software Development Manager, AWS
Lee Kear, Solutions Architect, AWS
April 19, 2016

2. Diversity Circle Sponsorship

3. The flywheel for growth

4. Amazon S3—unleashing untapped potential
Growth of
Amazon S3
innovators
Career
development for
innovators from
innovators
Innovation
leaders
Role models
attract more
innovators

5. Amazon S3 women’s circle
Membership selection (17 members)
• Common
• All women (inherent)
• All part of the Amazon S3 organization (acquired)
• Diverse
• Diverse levels of experience (acquired)
• Diverse roles: managers, product managers, software
engineers, systems engineers (acquired)
• Diverse cultural backgrounds (inherent)

6. Sponsoring
• Identify
• Time/budget
• Coaching
• Facilitating

7. Facilitating trust
Safe environment for learning
Strong relationships keep circles
together
Make it fun!
• Blackberry picking
• Happy hour
• Lunches

8. Facilitating a structure
• Monthly meetings on topics covering experiences and
knowledge
• Amazon S3 topics are defined by the circle: negotiation,
leveling the playing field, communication, confidence, work-
life balance, and so on
• Establish role models
• Individual mentoring for the first role models
• Leverage existing career development techniques and
resources
• Guest speakers, published resources
• Provide feedback, encouragement

9. Sample meeting
Knowledge sharing
• 10 minutes: Grab lunch and
greet/mingle
• 30 minutes: Video on “Leveling
the Playing Field”
• 40 minutes: Interactive
worksheets, open discussion
• 10 minutes: Planning next
session
Experience sharing
• 10 minutes: Grab lunch and
greet/mingle
• 5 minutes: Introduction of guest
expert on “Confidence”
• 60 minutes: Pre-prepared Q&A
with guest product manager
• 10 minutes: Planning next
session

10. Logistics
Do’s
• Stay connected to participants’
managers
• Advocate for your circle
participants outside of the
circle
• Make time for retrospectives
Don’ts
• Get into expanding circle churn
• Feel like you need to limit this
to women
• See this as a replacement for
all other mentoring

11. Measuring success
Role model innovators
Growing influence

12. Diversity Circle:
Benefits of Participation

13. Personal and professional development
How we started
Networking opportunities
What do participants get out of a circle?

14. Experience sharing
Knowledge sharing
Two types of meetings

15. Leveraging resources
Career development resources
My favorite:
“Communicating
with Confidence”
www.leanin.org

16. A Story

17. Confidence
The confidence
flywheel
Practice new
behaviors
Confidence
Success

18. Strategies
Communication changes
have an impact on
perceptions
Remove lessing language:
- Just
- Sorry