DIVERSITY
enjoying the different perspectives we all bring to the table.”
to have energy to be creative and solve problems or build products rather than stressing about being in the office for 9am and having to leave at 5.30pm. There are a lot of calls on our time–childcare, caring for elderly parents, studying–and the diversity agenda has helped to make it better for everyone. It’s not just about making it easier for women, it’s about making it easier for everybody so that you can do your best work.
BEING YOURSELF AT WORK Diversity and inclusion is about respecting, understanding and enjoying the differences and different perspectives we all bring to the table. In industry, that means people being able to be themselves at work. When people can do that, it is a safe environment to express their ideas, to give their opinions, to agree or disagree with what they hear. From a business perspective, it’s really
helpful to have teams and an environment where people can bring different ideas about the problems they are trying to solve. Diverse groups bring more rigour to a discussion because
they know they have
Adrienne Gormley HEAD OF EMEA AND VP OF GLOBAL
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, DROPBOX
Adrienne Gormley is the Head of EMEA and VP of Global Customer Experience at Dropbox. Adrienne’s team is responsible for trouble-shooting customer issues and ensuring users fully maximise the versatility of their Dropbox and Dropbox Business accounts. She joined Dropbox from Google where she led international teams across a range of functions including Sales, Google Maps and Localisation. There, Adrienne
also led Google Ireland’s women’s network. She is an active member across diversity networks and organisations in Ireland.
The diversity agenda has helped to change work practices, and the
reality of the
workforce and pressures on people are being better understood. Dropbox is about trying to build a more enlightened way of working because if we can remove the daily stresses that people have when they are trying to balance work and life, then you are allowing people to work in the way that they want, a way that’s flexible. They are then more likely
14 INNOVATION IRELAN REVIEW to think
through the points they are going to make, the plans they’re going to put forward, and often I have seen ideas end up a lot better because of that debate. There is less chance of group thinking, there is less chance of just going with the first suggestion. A person’s life experience influences how
and what they create and increasingly there is a culture of teamwork, and as you build diversity into the team, those perspectives means that the biases all start to change, they balance out and that’s very enabling for apps and technology and any kind of work. We have Women at Dropbox, Pridebox,
Black Dropboxers, Mums at Dropbox, and all of those groups have an executive sponsor at the C level who engages deeply with each
about respecting, understanding and
“Diversity and inclusion is
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