In the media, we have increasingly been experiencing urgent signals about sexual harassment in technology companies where workers and employers are mainly men.
This suggests and affirms for some, that the lack of diversity in the sex/gender of employees and employers, or men’s culture, leads to sexual harassment. This conclusion however is indirect, and I want to decompose in this article by shifting the focus of sex/gender to the focus on the way people think.
For this reason, I distinguish the human thinking (that is very diverse!) for your convenience in 2 ready-made bits: linear thinking and circular thinking.
- Linear thinking is black and white thinking, cause-thinking, vertical thinking, binary thinking, thinking in columns, errors being punished, thinking in hierarchies.
- Circular thinking is thinking in relations, trial and error, unitary thinking, system thinking, organic thinking.
This different way of thinking is determined in our brains. In today’s society we can say that most men think linearly and most women circular. This seems to be sex/gender-specific, but that’s less true than people think now. The influence of nurture on our brain and DNA is huge. The “caring cage” were we can find many women happily working in, is nothing more than a fitting box for the woman that is the result of nurture and nature of generations and in a different development phase than the woman who works or lead in a (technological) company. Linear thinking is required in a society were education, science and business are increasingly narrowed to a linear system.
I often said it. Linear is ending. Quick innovation and quick profits are wonderful, but sustainability requires more. Fast vertical growth, in which all linear thinkers are confirmed by their linear environment, money and reputation, quickly change into an organization of yes-knockers, followers and executives and authoritarian employers. The vicious circle remains uninterrupted. This knowledge is common to many, there must be more diversity in companies and the first (more) linear thinking women step into a linear thinking world that suits them, but the linear thinkers that are already present (mostly men) are linear thinkers and they think black and white, male-female. They make unconsciously distinction. Also because they feel threatened to live in anxiety culture, and they don’t have the circular thinking competence that is needed now.
I’ve been in technology since I was in my 20th, often as the only woman between men. Later on a little more women but still mostly men. I have been calling for a quota for women in business for many years already. Not only because women currently can make a difference in sustainable innovation, but especially because of the current women regarding their brain composition and DNA, their way of linear /circular thinking is really needed to turn the current linear ending culture into a more healthy Sustainable innovative culture.
The big questions I have at this time:
- When do we hire people because of their competence of “thinking” ?
- And if we allow medical manipulation in the DNA, what kind of thinking is now the preference of our linear scientists?
You understand I fear a future without proper intervention. Linear is ending.
Questions or feedback are welcome!