Diversity: At the Core of ASME Values

ASME is committed to developing its globally inclusive volunteer leadership — and much more. Setting our sights on emerging markets and technologies, fostering innovation, and stimulating active participation in all units and communities throughout the world has its challenges, but I believe that attention to diversity can help us make some important breakthroughs in these areas. Diversity is a central ingredient to nearly all of ASME’s objectives. It affects engineering education, the quality of any workforce, and our capacity to relate to the growing multicultural marketplace.

Thomas M. Barlow

First on my diversity wish list, I’d like to assure that we collectively understand what diversity and inclusion mean in our behaviors and practices. We have a good foundation for it on an institutional level. As stated in our agreed-upon core values for the Society, we “embrace diversity and respect the dignity and culture of all people.” It means, strategically, that we are sensitive to cultural parameters, have a concern for local needs wherever our projects take us, and focus on the greater good, especially in terms of sustainability and environmental responsibility. Key to what ASME offers in this arena are standards development, best practices for academic and industry constituencies, and relevant technical products and services needed in fulfilling the needs of this world view. We are trying to cultivate the skills and opportunities that let us grow as individuals into these roles.

Second on my wish list, I’d like to see ASME become that multiculturally savvy organization that we envision, because our “continued success depends on a talented, well-motivated volunteer leadership drawn from diverse backgrounds,” according to ASME Policy 15.11. It helps that we have some great heroes that embody our values in this area, including winners of the ASME Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies Inc. Medal, which honors our commitment to diversity and inclusion. ASME Fellow Klod Kokini, Purdue University’s professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering and associate dean for Academic Affairs, College of Engineering, is this year’s recipient. Another highly visible example in our Society is this year’s Ralph Coats Roe medalist, Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, for inspiring others to pursue critically needed careers in science and technology, among many other public service contributions.

And, of course, our Society has had two notable presidents who are women: Fellow Nancy Deloye Fitzroy, retired from General Electric, who becomes an Honorary Member of ASME this year, and Fellow Susan H. Skemp, executive director for the Center for Ocean Energy Technology, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Florida Atlantic University. Both of these outstanding women have served our Society and our profession in leadership roles and as mentors for many years. I don’t mean to leave out all the other wonderful mentors who do good work daily, but I wanted to note a few pioneers. Celebrating diversity is an important step in helping us live it.

ASME’s Center for Leadership and Diversity is the arm of the Society that promotes diversity and inclusion throughout ASME by helping the Society develop leadership skills, set strategies, and provide programs and leadership training. This year, the work of ASME’s Diversity Task Force, headed by Mary Lynn Realff, vice president, Center for Leadership and Diversity, is making recommendations to the Board of Governors on such key items as:

• Revision of policies such as 15.9 (Society Policy Against Discrimination) and 15.11 (Diversity),

• Training to reinforce the core value of diversity through the development of volunteer leadership, and

• Increasing the pool of candidates for volunteer leadership positions from those who embody the core value of diversity.

I suppose the question we can ask of ourselves is the following: Are we motivating people to work collaboratively in ways that make use of both the differences and the similarities among us, so that we achieve mutually beneficial outcomes? This is the definition of diversity presented at last year’s diversity workshops led by Todd R. Allen, an ASME member and manager at Johnson & Johnson’s International MBA Internship Program. Diversity includes, according to the Mr. Allen, attribute differences such as age, gender, ethnicity, and physical appearance, as well as personal differences such as thought styles, religion, nationality, socioeconomic status, belief systems, gender identity, and education. Inclusion is defined as the due diligence of seeking the reasons why the ways that all people should and can participate in and contribute to projects, programs and processes — or any opportunity — will achieve the successful outcomes we seek.

Diversity is among the key drivers identified by the Institute of Alternative Futures as part of ASME’s environmental scanning of current trends. Greater ethnic diversity, a better gender balance, and collaboration among more specialized technical fields are key trends affecting industry and business significantly even today. ASME recently released its “2028 Vision for Mechanical Engineering,” a report based on the April 2008 proceedings of the Global Summit on the Future of Mechanical Engineering describing these drivers. In the report, diversity in the workforce offers not only growth in numbers of people who network together, but it also has distinct career advantages for engineers who work on projects with people from a variety of cultures. “Companies are juggling more cross-border teams on all continents,” according to the report, noting increases in migrations and mobility as well as continued workforce shortages relative to global demand. ASME, in particular, seeks new ways to expand the managerial skills now in demand to help engineers take advantage of emerging global opportunities. Best practices and recognition of success stories help us address the challenges, such as attracting and retaining a motivated and talented workforce, moving toward fair and equitable wages, improving communications, and managing diversity in ways that provide the opportunities and continual improvements necessary to stay competitive.

I’m grateful for the work ASME volunteers and staff have put in place to help us create the foundation on which we can build, including the common language that I use here in this article and the shared vision for diversity and inclusion that we are using to communicate across many different perspectives. I have heard it said that the enduring qualities of ASME are based on its core values and principles, and the fact that engineers are dedicated to improving the quality of life for people throughout the world — indeed, engineers are making a world of difference.

— Thomas M. Barlow
ASME President, 2008–2009

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