Purpose & vision for Women in Tech

ERG charter planning workshop | Remote | Women in Tech CareNetwork 2023

Spoilers...
Having recently chosen their leadership roles, the Women in Tech CareNetwork (Employee Resource Group) at CareRev now needed to create their charter, including their Vision, Mission, and Pillars (AKA values). I facilitated two 45-minute remote workshop sessions to assist the team with creating and refining these statements. Together, the team adopted a progressive vision focused on advocating for equal pay, knowledge sharing, and safety.
The Problem

Guide the WIT group members to create their Vision, Mission, and Pillars for their team charter.

Back story

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) were newly-introduced at CareRev by the PeopleOps team as “CareNetworks.” Several groups were formed, like Women in Tech (WIT). After their leadership members were elected, their next task was to create their team charter—a document describing their purpose, organization rules and objectives, and operating cadence.

The group enlisted my help to facilitate and help guide the creation of this charter. To begin, they needed to document their Vision, Mission and Pillars. Having previously facilitated workshops with exercises specializing in doing this, I repurposed their format to fit WIT’s needs. 

Workshop

Timing

The group consisted of remote employees from various departments and schedules. It was important to make optimal use of their time, and avoid causing any unnecessary meeting overload.

The workshop was scheduled in two 45-minute sessions, one week apart. 

Session One

The first session consisted of three 15-minute exercises. The group started with clarifying their specific purpose, then moved to create their vision and mission statements.

Ultimately, their discussions focused them on tackling issues of pay gap and gender equity in the workplace for women.

Purpose Advocating for equitable pay structures for women in tech.
Vision We reduce and remove barriers to entry into the tech industry through fighting for transparent pay and equity.
Mission The Women in Tech CareNetwork supports equity, pay transparency, and gender representation. We provide opportunities for education and mentorship and exemplify equitable practices and behavior. We partner with cross-functional, internal teams and leadership to hold ourselves and others accountable in the technology industry so everyone is seen, supported, valued, and experiences agency in their career and lives.

Session Two

The second session was formatted similarly, with three exercises at 15 minutes each. This time, all exercises were focused on creating the group’s Pillars, or Values. In order to do this, the group needed to pool their ideas, and then reject or adopt the highest-voted ideas.

The result was a set of six values that centered themes of safety, education, evolution, diversity, action, and the advancement of women in tech.

Values / Pillars
  • We create a safe space.
  • We learn as a group.
  • We take measurable action to improve women's experiences.
  • We support the diverse interests of ALL women.
  • We thrive in our rapidly-changing field..
  • We advance women in technical fields.

Rejecting or adopting values in Miro

Retrospective

It was an honor to lead this workshop for this CareNetwork, given our shared passions.

Post-workshop, participants felt a new sense of clarity and ownership, highlighting how the workshop helped them make decisions in an agile and inclusive way—an ERG cornerstone.

Statements drafted during the workshop were refined and integrated into the charter by a dedicated volunteer. Despite a company-wide reduction-in-force, the impact of our discussions left a lasting impression on all involved.

Previous project

UX operating focus at CareRev

Next project

Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD)