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Moving into design leadership: 4 ways to create visibility for your work
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Designers, there’s a lot going on in the world right now. Structural inequalities are increasingly revealed . A big obstacle for many of us is the “broken ladder” problem, where qualified individuals face major obstacles to entering even the lowest rung of leadership. This stunts our ability to rise up in the ranks of an organization. If people are unable to “see” our leadership, then we are unlikely to be recognized or rewarded with leadership positions.
It is ABSOLUTELY on institutions to own making meaningful change in how they guarantee equality in the workplace. We may not be able to change people who have outright decided to operate by bias. That said, everybody grapples with information gaps where unconscious bias can creep in. It is possible to help fill those gaps with real information that can enable people to make better, informed, choices.
If you have an opportunity to help correct those gaps in a way that enables you or your colleague to get beyond the broken ladder—why not try? What I offer here are some ways to try. This is not intended to replace courageous and conscious action from people already in positions of power. It can, however, be a supplement as we try to recover and correct against mistakes of the past, present, and future.