Rebooting Tech Culture: How to Ignite Innovation and Build Organizations Where Everyone Can Thrive

Many technology leaders believe in having more women and people of colour in technical and leadership positions throughout their organisations. In truth, though, they just fall back on exclusionary behaviours, like revering the typically male 'lone genius' who is essential to their innovative future. Why the disconnect?

Build a more innovative, inclusive culture that welcomes all talent.

Many technology leaders believe in having more women and people of color in technical and leadership positions in their organizations while still exhibiting reverence for the lone genius, almost always male, that they believe is imperative to their innovative future. They hold these two ideals as separate.

Why? According to Telle Whitney, cofounder of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, tech leaders want to talk about inclusivity, but few fundamentally change their culture to dismantle the unwelcoming environment, fearful that doing so will compromise innovation. Women and people of color pay the price, facing exclusive and even hostile workplaces. They''re held back from professional growth and in many cases, choose to leave the industry altogether.

But there is a solution. In Rebooting Tech Culture, Whitney explains that the same values at the heart of a culture of innovation—creativity, courage, confidence, curiosity, communication, and community—can also foster a culture that is welcoming to all employees. Drawing on more than 50 interviews with tech executives and a survey of 1,000 people in tech, she shows how these "six Cs" can power real change in technology organizations, creating workplaces where anyone can be successful and where innovation thrives.

Today, every company is a tech company. By understanding how to apply these values and reinvigorate their cultures, leaders will learn how to eliminate the behaviors holding their teams back from true belonging, creative growth, and true innovation.

• | Author: Telle Whitney
• | Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• | Publication Date: May 27, 2025
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Hardback
• | ISBN-13: 9781647829858
• | ISBN-10: 1647829852