#HRTechChat with Tom Tonkin, Ph.D., CEO at The Conservatory Group

Joining us for this episode of the 3Sixty Insights #HRTechChat is Tom Tonkin, Ph.D., member of our Global Executive Advisory Council. A former colleague of mine, Dr. Tonkin is now CEO of The Conservatory Group, where he and his team "help executives, middle-managers and sales leaders to self-actualize in their roles." Dr. Tonkin's background in technology for the enterprise stretches back many years and includes just shy of two decades at Oracle in a multitude of roles spanning sales, technology enablement, professional services, and more. My conversation with Dr. Tonkin centered on diversity, equity and inclusion. Through his observations, informed partially by his doctoral work, Dr. Tonkin believes several things must happen for DE&I initiatives and ideas to move beyond awareness -- frankly, only the first step of many that must take place. For example, he believes strongly that so-identified historically privileged stakeholders' active, observable empathizing with women's and minorities' struggles in these areas will help to advance DE&I efforts overall. It's a great point. He sees much utility in the role of various affinity-related and other employee resource groups in giving voice and establishing representation for women and minorities in the workplace. The usefulness of these groups, however, while necessary, falls short in advancing the actual equity and inclusion sought. Our discussion eventually landed on the scientifically underpinned idea of neurodiversity. Who are the neurodiverse? They are, mainly, those who place along the spectrum of autism. Our world, Dr. Tonkin explains, is structured around the neurotypical's way of thinking. The vast majority of people are neurotypical. Their minds are considered, for lack of a better term, normal. Real-world experience shows, however, that the neurodiverse have much to contribute to the success of teams. A program at SAP is one example. The problem is that they struggle, because of their deficiencies in social interaction, to get hired. Here is where our discussion segued into the potential for psychometrics and other tools to help organizations make sure the neurodiverse make their way through the recruiting process and get a "fair shot" at joining the organization in order to offer the employer their very particular, valuable skills. The idea is that this ultimately benefits organizational performance. Thinking even further into the future of work, we pondered the possibility that artificial intelligence may one day equip both the neurodiverse and neurotypical with "mental prosthetics" that might greatly help them understand each other and collaborate optimally. Visitors here really do owe it to themselves to watch this especially fascinating episode of the podcast. Along with his work leading The Conservatory Group, Dr. Tonkin is heavily involved in organizations whose missions intersect with these and related ideas. One, SAMI (short for Smart Answers for Modern Issues), bills itself as a "Real Time Crowd-Sourced Solution for Soft Skills. Another, aptly named Diversity Equity Inclusion, provides a "SaaS-driven solution that makes diversity, equity, and inclusion high-tech and easy to understand for any organization or business."