Battery Insiders Reflection - Intersectional Innovation

0:00Transcript

0:00Welcome to Battery Insiders, your podcast providing you insights in the fascinating world of batteries. Hosted by Bhavya Jha and Simon Engelke. Welcome back, everybody, for our next session of Battery Insiders here with Simon. And, yeah, we just got off of a great conversation about intersectionality and innovation in the battery space or even just, you know, broadly in our professional and even personal lives. I think we had a very interesting topic. It was wonderful to hear from Jill Pestana. She gave a lot of great insight and I think she got a lot of interesting thoughts. She got people talking, I think, about how they feel, where they stand on this topic. And I definitely had some interesting perspectives on the call, you know, just about what is innovation and how does political correctness or how do, you know, workplace dynamics really hinder or promote it. And, you know, what is what is the way of the normative way of things, how they should be, I think, in the workplace?

1:19It was actually pretty interesting, especially and it got me reflecting kind of on my time working as well. You know, here now as a graduate student, I have some different perspectives. Obviously, dynamics are still in play, but the workplace, I think, is a very specific place to experience gender dynamics. And so I personally resonated a lot with a lot of what Jill said. But we did have some people from other places in the world and which I think also like informed how they viewed things and kind of the different ways the conversation about race and gender and intersectionality takes place in the US versus Europe versus other places. So I thought we had a lot. We got a lot of food for thought from that conversation. What did you think, Simon? Simon? Simon? Absolutely. You know, I agree with what you said. And I think it's such an important topic, you know, I think to think about, I think, I think the bigger picture here, right?

2:21I think to think about how to foster innovation, you know, what's required for innovation. And I think, you know, what it comes down to is creating as diverse and as inclusive, you know, work, you know, like an environment essentially, right? To kind of allow these kind of ideas and thoughts and, you know, developments to kind of happen and to be fostered and to kind of flourish. And yeah, I think it's one, you know, discussion we have internally a lot, you know, battery associates for quite a while. And you have been part of this as well. And you know that, you know, how can we increase diversity in the battery space, but also, you know, the industries, et cetera. And the idea also part of this, as you said, you know, is one of the work environment you want to create, but also I truly believe, and I think also was, you know, supportive of what Jill said, what was others said, that like a diverse and inclusive environment actually creates better outcomes as well.

3:12So it's not just a nicer place where I want to work. And I think that's a big part of it, of course, but also beyond that, I think it actually creates, you know, it really advances, you know, the outcomes you get. And I think that's something we shouldn't forget because often I feel there's so much focus just on outcomes without thinking about how that these outcomes created, you know, it's just like looking at this has to happen and let's get just people in there who can help. But then maybe sometimes we forget kind of how can we design actually a group like this. And it's so much more also complicated, right? I mean, we have seen this so many times in our own projects. If you just let organically a group come together, it's so much easier than actually, you know, trying to really assemble it. But every single time also by assembling it, we have seen that it actually is so much longer lasting, right?

3:58Like in a way of you can maybe run faster alone, but together we can run, you know, we can walk or we can go further. So, yeah, I really enjoyed the session. I think it's an important session we had. And as you said, there have been some opposing views as well. And I think it's so important that we have this as well and we allow each other to talk. But of course, also make sure that there, you know, the limit is when, you know, you kind of interfere with each other's kind of, yeah, like, you know, when you kind of, yeah, if you kind of, I think there's like this, we had this discussion about freedom of speech, right? So it kind of ends when you kind of affect others in a negative way, I feel. Yeah, exactly. I think that in that sense, I'm really glad that our Battery Revolution conversations offer that forum for people to speak up. And I'm glad they feel comfortable to do that.

4:44Even when we don't agree, I think that's really, really important, especially for topics like this. But yeah, I think one thing that Jill hit on, and you mentioned it too, is this idea of like what's performative and what and how, how much can you orchestrate this type of, how much can you orchestrate intersectionality? And at what point do you need to just let it happen organically? And over time, if it's not happening organically, what, what does the burden fall on to actually take action? That's like, those are some really hard questions. I know that we've juggled with that or juggled those thoughts as well here with in Battery Associates and I have in other places in my life too. So it's hard work. It's not easy, but I'm glad that we were able to kind of push, push the envelope today by just even having this conversation about in a, in a, in a, in a community that usually focuses on battery and technology and whatnot.

5:42Like, but what about the people? And so thanks for bringing this topic to the table today. Thanks. And thanks for, for being part of it. And I feel, as you said, right, like in our mission statement, to create sustainable world through the power of people and better innovation, you know, and I think that we should never forget the people part. And yeah, I'm very excited to have this discussion. We're now going to take, I think about two weeks or so, a little break for another session. You know, the holidays are coming up and we are kind of, and we are having a bit less sessions, but then we're re-energizing also for the coming year. But yeah, with this, very excited for, for the next session. I wish you a wonderful week. Same to you. Talk soon. Talk soon. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.