 And so we become more virtual in the last 10 months than we have the last 10 years. Oh, what a time this is. We've become more digital and more technically reliant, more so than almost one year's time than we have ever in our time at all. Technology has come from a very far place and we've become more accelerated in communications, particular in the last 10 years than we have the last two preceding decades before it. So much has happened. The world has never been more politically heated with contestation and differing views and ideas than it has today. So much has happened in the world. We've come a long way and there's been a lot of different transitions and different changes for each and every one of us, things that have affected us in ways that we certainly didn't expect coming out of 2019 near where we find ourselves in year 2020, much more has happened and things that we have begun building and technologies that seem relevant. We're used to the disruption of technology, but never have we seen a pandemic come and disrupt technology and so much has happened in the world. We've come a long way and so has tack, but there's more to consider. We see every day how advanced technology has become and what it's been to us in our daily lives and our daily dealings even here at KubeCon in this particular conference in this event. We've seen what it becomes, adaptation and change, but I want you to consider and to take time not just to consider those things, but to take a little time to consider how far you've come. Not just how you arrived at KubeCon, not how far you have arrived at KubeCon to this event, but how far you have arrived in your station, in your particular career, your vacation, what you do. How did you get here? How long did it take you? At what point in this journey did somebody help you? Now, somebody say, well, Chris, I got here all completely on my own and I arrived here by myself and I knew what I wanted to do since day one and I just got up and I woke up and I did it. If that is you, if you're the perhaps the outlier of this event, then perhaps this session may not be for you, but if you're like me and so many others that I suspect, perhaps even all of us, have to admit at some point somehow on the road that somebody helped point us in the right direction. While we're thinking about that and taking an internal inventory on how such things happen, I would ask you to consider even further a little more as to what brought you here today. Now, in front of you, there's a box where you can submit questions and things of that nature and answers or you can keep it unto yourself, which is fine. You're amongst friends. Begin to consider what brought us here, what brought you and I here today. Why this? We go to KubeCon to learn about technology. We go to KubeCon to learn about open source systems, Linux. We go to KubeCon to share and learn and to understand better about what we do as technologists, artists. Why attend a Diversionary Inclusion session? Why attend a session on removing barriers to innovation and becoming a better ally? Why have you attended and what brought you here today? Since we come here for technology, why is this session even here? Well, I would have you to submit for everyone to consider that we talk about ecosystems, ecosystems this and technical ecosystems that, but one thing we must understand is that ecosystems are just a set of hardware and software. Ecosystems are people and culture isn't separate and apart from technology. Culture is people. You as an individual have your own autonomy and your own culture as you abide yet in an ecosystem. When we talk about culture, we want it to be understood and to understand that the more culture that we add to ecosystems doesn't take away from an ecosystem, the more culture that we add to our ecosystems. It levels up the whole ecosystem and the stronger that that ecosystem becomes to what brought you here today. My name is Christopher Lafayette, international and national speaker on emergent technologies and applied sciences, culture and inclusion advocate in technology. When I as a kid, I would come home and I'd come through the door up the hall and look into a room and there was a man sitting at a desk with a little light on, taking a part in tearing down and building up computers. I had good at this man and I'd say, dad, what's the internet? That man would stop and look at me and he would tell me about what the internet was. And on the next day, I would come home and I walked through the door up the hall and look into this room and this man sitting at the self-saving desk with the light on and I'd ask him, dad, how does the web work? That man would stop, look at me and tell me about how the web work and how it flowed and operated and behaved. The little that I have appreciation that was at that time that I was beginning to understand my first understanding and lessons on technology and down the years up the way, even after that man's departure, his demise, that I didn't begin to have such an appreciation as I do yet to this day on what I was given. Now, when I came to Silicon Valley, my native area and home around that, when I came to Silicon Valley, I came to Silicon Valley with black-colored skin and I found myself working with people that didn't look like me and being taught by women and men and like and others, technology and working with people and technology that didn't come from places where I come from, like East Oakland or Brooklyn, Baltimore, South Central LA, Atlanta. They didn't necessarily come from where I come from, nor did we share perhaps in the exact same culture and at some point when I found myself in Silicon Valley and sleeping on a hacker space, living in my car between Google and NASA Ames but attending different sessions and meetups and technology and taking all that I could in to build more with such a thirst, such a hunger, if you will, the self-same people that have been teaching me and I've been learning with side-by-side. Some of them asked me to speak at different groups and speak at different events, at different sessions and I found myself speaking across Silicon Valley from there, speaking in the western region of the United States and eventually across the country and around the world. And while I'm speaking at these technology events in front of audiences, sometimes hundreds, maybe even perhaps even thousands, began to look into audience and it dawned on me that there weren't too many people that looked like me and while they're sitting on stage monitoring the panel or giving a keynote or a lecture, Stanford or Mayo Clinic and things of that nature, there weren't too many people that looked like me and began to dawn on me that as much as we've built in technology, as much as we're seeing an emergent technologies, as much as we've achieved and as much as we've done, began to dawn on me that we have to go back. You see, with all the advances of what we're at and what we had today and what's been discovered, if you will, embarked upon, we're now seeing things in technologies that were only written in novels and other people's minds, perhaps even some of yours. And we're seeing that being manifested before our very eyes, but we have to go back. There are people and principles that we left behind. And so what I did was I said, what if I took all these people that I've been working with here in the valley and other places across the country and around the world? What if I took all these people that come from places where I don't come from and I don't come from where they come from? And what if I took the communities and different people that come from places where I come from and created and served and built a bridge to bring them together? What would that look like? What would happen? And so I did. But we're going to take the rest of that experience and we're going to put that over here. We'll come back to it. I promise. But we have much to go on our journey with a little bit of time that we have to go together. But we'll come back to that. I promise. And so what brought you here today has courage. But before there was courage, before we touched on courage, there was desire. Not everyone's here today to attend at KubeCon. But this wasn't just for everyone, but everyone could benefit. But you're the different one in your company, in your station, in your heart. A desire to not only want to do better, but to understand what might be the void that may be latent within, to achieve levels internally of which you may not have. With all in your heart, you have the desire to do such. So that courage was the sword and shield. Never would you have picked those two up without desire. Your desire is fortified and filled with the hope to become a better ally. And that we find ourselves in these companies, be it virtual now, for the most part, and working on these platforms when we take ally and ship. And these are like vessels, these companies, these ecosystems. And on a ship, there are people and people do different things and have different stations and operations and functions that they do on these ships. And there's allies hidden and decorated throughout. The people that help keep the flow going. The people that have identified, especially on tech campuses, tangible or virtual, that there has to be more than a set of code and hardware and software to keep us together. There must be something more to our given task and daily duty of commitments when it comes to the sustainability and the greater and better growth and foundational structure of where we find ourselves at and what we build in. And so you've become an ally just by you taking the step here today. Whether you were an ally before I knew it, whether you're an ally and never even knew it, but today I let you know that you're an ally and we're talking about ally ship because with ally ship leads us to community. Now in community, each and every person that brings a different culture to this ecosystem, they're bringing their past, they're bringing their history, their heritage, their expertise, their lens of perspective, the diversity of who they are, what they are, why they are, how they've become, what they contribute. They're bringing all of that and the collective of the allies in these ecosystems form a community. We have to get asked ourselves today, have we done enough in our communities? Have I been the best person to the person next to me? Have I been the best helper, the best keeper? Did I take time to remember how I got to the position where I'm at, the principle of helping, of giving back, of extending a hand or even simply helping point someone in the right direction in my community? Have I done the best that I can in my contributions? When we talk about ally ship and we talk about community, like in an unto going to the store for the very first time and discovering something that you like and I say, wow, I'm going up and down an aisle because this is what it's like when you come into a community, into a system and you're discovering. Do you realize it or not? You're discovering and you meet people and in this case you go to Trader Joe's for some, maybe Whole Foods and you're going down the aisle and there's a tea that I like to try and you take that and you discover this tea, this new thing and you take it and then you look at it and once you discover it, you explore it. Let me check the ingredients, soy check, no, I can't do that, I can't do nuts process on the, I can't do that, I can do, okay, I'll do it, I have it and you're exploring and the cupboard it goes and the consumption session comes shortly after and once you're satisfied with the palate, perhaps you're like me or so many other people, you will share a mug of the tea that you discovered inside Trader Joe's or Whole Foods to the whole world for the whole world to see that I am now become an expert in understanding this tea and so mastery comes and that's likened to the ecosystems that we come and evolve ourselves in into better understanding people in our discovery that we've discovered that there are people that are different from us that come from different lands with different behaviors and to explore who they are. We will never be as great in technology, we will never be as advanced in technology until we have a better sense of the people that build it. How could we ever have an appreciation for the home and not the one that built it, as I've always been taught, and so to seek and to thrive for mastery and to better understanding all the people and all the different lens of perspective and to add it benefit and the value gained from having more culture when we move away from a monocultural perspective meaning one and how we build and in business when we move towards a polycultural lens and acceptance from leadership to ERG and everyone in between then we find ourselves in a situation where we're able to grow. People say well Chris I don't know about that. I mean I know when we talk about diversity, inclusion or more culture in there but look at Apple. I mean I know Apple has admitted that Apple has a you know a DNI situation and they're not as more culturally accepting and with other people from different backgrounds as they want but Apple you know the value at a one to two trillion dollar company I don't know about that Chris I would have you to submit that even as greatest companies of Apple and Google which products we enjoy and we like so much a lot of us do some may not but even as great as Apple has become perhaps Apple if it had more culture that it desired to have perhaps it would be valued as a nine to ten trillion dollar company today as opposed to a one to two trillion dollar company and perhaps we've set our standards so low and we haven't set them high enough for what more that we could achieve together and when we talk about having that more culture integrated into these ecosystems and become a master if you will appear to peer communication and identifiability and acceptance perhaps then we'll understand the adage that we want to hire the people that we want to buy our products that the work that you do today will be appreciated by many instead of some and so now what we're going to do is we're taking a midsection internal reflection and the question that I want you to take out your notepads and submit into the question box if you will and again you can keep this unto yourself and if you have any questions let us know I want you to do as I want you to take time to consider now at this mid session internal reflection what haven't you done what haven't you achieved and we talked early on about why you're here today and how far you've come and how far technology has come there's still some things left what haven't you done we're not talking about what you've learned and your academic studies but what haven't you done now it's not just for the workplace it could be for your community your neighborhood your family under the banner of allyship what haven't you done yet now write that down we take a moment to reflect and to pause and to consider and we talk about that no matter what it is and you don't have to share it again or you can share it what haven't you done we'll take a few seconds to consider that right and in our notes some still use pencil and paper others use notes in your android or your i device what haven't you done now we're taking honest inventory within to consider these things what haven't we accomplished what do we want to accomplish and so we move forward now once you've had that question or once you have that statement and for those that are just not joining us what we're going to do is we're going to do a recap when we start to look at how far we've come and where we've arrived in fact what we're going to do is we're going to go and do a super fast recap this is something you may not have seen done before an event but you'll see it today and we're waiting for the slides to come on bear with us as we have some difficulties here and we're waiting and still waiting for the slides to come on please bear with us as we wait for our slides to come on and we are still waiting for the slides to come on and looking for number two to come on so that we can do our recap thank you for your patience everyone and i'm still waiting for it to show up and hopefully you can see where i'm at in slide two i can't tell if it's present or not but i'll make the assumption and we will go from there as we'll do this recap that along this journey we've already talked about that much has happened in this world and hopefully that you can see this slide and that much has happened in this world and its advanced technology has become we talked about this and as far as we've come we've come a long way and that we've become more virtual in the last 10 years than we have in the last 10 months we've become more virtual in the last 10 months than we have in the last 10 years we become more digital in the last 10 years than the decades preceding than that but then we took time as our recap goes to stop and to consider for a moment not just how far an advanced technology has become but to stop and consider exactly how far in advance that you all have become and whatever it is that you've done your vocation your career path and what you've done how far have you come and stop to consider the magnitude of what it took to be able to get you here and so yes we continue our recap and we've taken time and our journey thus far to consider exactly how far you've come and what it took for you to get here and then we've asked the question what brought you here today what brought you here not just a cubicon but to a diversity an inclusion session and a session like this that doesn't necessarily seem to have its place within technology but we've already confessed and we've already discussed that when we look at ecosystems ecosystems are just a set of hardware and software that ecosystems are people and that people are culture and technology is culture and the more culture that we have into our ecosystem the stronger that ecosystem becomes culture doesn't take away from an ecosystem culture levels up the entire ecosystem and then we moved even further beyond that when we talked about what brought us here today then we moved forward and we had that question what brought me here to this room to this session of all sessions that cubicon has to offer of all the wonderful things and we talk about open source networks and we talk about the advancements of code and how far we've come and how much we've been reliant on communication and technology as we move forward in this 2020 year and we ask ourselves why this session of all sessions and then that's what came to play the sword in the shield of courage and I shared with many of you that hello my name is Christopher Lafayette international and national speaker on emergent technologies and that when I was a kid I would come home and walk through this room and walk up the hall and into the doorway and I'd look and there was a man sitting at a desk with a little light on in the chair taking the part and building up computers and I would say to this man dad what is the internet that man would stop looking me and tell me what the internet was he would tell me about and on the next day I'd walk through that self-same door up the hall and looking into the room and the man sitting at that desk with a little light on tearing apart and putting back together computers again and I say dad how does the web work that man would go about to tell me about how the web work and I found myself coming to Silicon Valley years down the road not appreciating that where I come from and environments in neighborhoods where I come from there weren't too many parents at all that look like me that were in technology and in even some neighborhoods whether it's East Oakland Brooklyn Compton Baltimore Atlanta there weren't too many neighborhoods that had dads and I came to Silicon Valley with black color skin finding myself being taught and trained by people that didn't look like me that don't come from places where I come from and I found myself with a incredible thirst to understand technology and to build on emergent technologies while living out of my car between Google and NASA with the rest of the other hacker communities and people doing what they can hacking away building out of cars garages sleeping on sofas and other people's sofas and people began to ask me to speak around and across Silicon Valley and around the west coast and across the United States and eventually around the world where I found myself and I was staring and looking at audiences and finding out there weren't too many people whether hundreds or thousands in attendance that look like me in our recap we talked about this and when I was on stage I'd look to my left and right and there weren't too many people that look like me and I said to myself what would happen if I took all these people that I've been working with and building and exploring with what would happen if I took them and brought them and paired them with people that come from environments and where I come from and brought them together and served as a bridge what would that look like what would that be like what would happen now we're going to take that and as I promised we would come back to that and we're doing a brief recap for those that have come in late and those that are still yet with us to be able to serve to better understand why we are here today because of courage the sword and shield but before there was courage before we had courage there's desire and we talked about that we knew that there was more for us showing up in this event today with all the things that we could be doing especially in attendance at cube con or in our daily lives with all the obstacles and the virtual obstacles that we find ourselves in with all that we could be doing we showed up here not because of courage that's just a sword and shield but because of desire and the desire to do what and to be what the desire to be a better ally that understanding that our ecosystems are the ship in the ally ship and that the ally is you and I and that in the ship of ally ship and in these ecosystems in these communities there are allies through in and allies throughout and there are those that have showed up today that may not have known and understood that they are an ally but I'm here to tell you today that you are an ally at this point put in any questions that you have in a little box ahead of you any questions that you may have but today whether you've been conscious of it or not or realize you're an ally you showed up when the rest haven't and so we're recapping we're bringing everyone up to us to where we're going but we have much more to ground to cover and we have a little bit of time to get there and here we are yet in communities and we're figuring out through ourselves how do I become the better ally what are the barriers that I face and becoming the better ally that I can be what are the barriers that me as a company whether I'm on leadership ERG and everywhere in between what are the barriers that I face to grow and scale my platform my startup my corporation what are the barriers that I face to see and the first thing that brings us to discover we talked about this we're walking in Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and we walk down our favorite aisles and all of a sudden we see that brand new Roybo spice pumpkin tea latte tea that we've never had that chai tea thing and we take it and we're discovering and from discovery we take that and we look at the back of it can I even drink this no soy no nuts it's going on the same platform as where they build not yeah okay I can take this okay I can take this I buy it I bring it it's in the cupboard and then one day I consume it and from there comes mastery because I'm sharing it on my Instagram and my Facebook and perhaps maybe even my LinkedIn on a story on a tweet I'm sharing that I now have to tell you about this tea that I have and you're sharing it with everyone else and the same joy that you get from discovering and exploring and mastering the taste of that tea is the same feeling that we want to have and that I promise you will have from ally shop you'll want to tell everyone about it not because it's the info thing to do or that it takes the courage or that it may be popular but from the results of what you see from true ally shop gives you such a feeling that you can't help but tell people about it and so we move on during our recap and we look at this and now we head into our mid-session internal reflection where I ask you all to write a note and submit a question and you can share it with all of us and the question that we have to ask ourselves is what haven't I done to become a better ally in my community and my company and my platform external to others from other people that don't look like me and other neighborhoods what haven't I done I want you to take 30 seconds we'll give you the 30 seconds and I want you to take that write it in this box or keep it on to yourself you're amongst friends it won't judge you and it's okay if you want to keep that to yourself close to your heart the question was asked what haven't I done what more could I do and while you find yourselves coming up with the answers and perhaps a myriad of things are coming up and perhaps even not and that's okay but I believe that it's the letter that things are coming up and we ask ourselves what haven't I done and now that we have those on the table in our notes on our pen and paper and pad where do we begin and I'm often asked Chris where do I begin when it comes to technology how do I become a better ally what do I do what's the better way to go what is an ally I understand it's a ship and that I'm this person that's on it that's supporting whatever system that I find myself in to be a better citizen of this allyship of this community but where do I begin and I tell you right now that where you begin is with self and that removing barriers to innovation removing barriers to innovation is self and that the biggest barrier to removing is you you're the biggest barrier to innovation our self-limiting beliefs our doubts that we can't do it our lack of vulnerability everybody says that's the new word in town is vulnerability you must be vulnerable and you what is vulnerability comes down and boils it down to listening understanding even with what I think that I do know of the person that's in front of me they may look like me they may even have the same color skin I am not them they have a different culture a different lens and the best thing that I could do as I was always taught two ears one mouth for me to listen more than I talk to listen to consider a thing in which they're saying to us because so many people in this very politicized world where passions have never been higher the debate has never been more higher off the screen the Richter scale and everybody wants to say something and everyone's talking but who is listening in this time we asked did you take time to listen and before we have vulnerability there has to be open mind in this and being open minded to even consider that maybe perhaps there is a better way yes there could be several ways to a destination in my destination doesn't always have to be that way perhaps someone else's destination may be better perhaps someone else's hurt needs to be listened to perhaps me considering that we have to go back and get the things that we left behind including our principles that at one point at some time somebody pointed us in the right direction to get to where we're at we talked about that we talked about how did you get here how did you arrive but at some point we must consider when we're answering the question within our own hearts and minds of how we got here we have to consider how did we get here and at what point who helped point us in the right direction and showed us the way and then once we have an open mindedness to understand that there's more that we don't know and taking on the disposition of vulnerability to sitting with those that have something to share in this set and for us to want to understand they're better and the better understand their lens of perspective that will make us a better colleague that will make us a better neighbor that will make us a better overall person and how we go about doing and dealing on our daily lives in this world that's become more virtual than it's ever been we cannot say that we've become so advanced and so great in technology if we haven't had an appreciation for those that have built it we will never be as advanced as we can with anything that we code hack build make until we have a better appreciation for those that build it an ecosystem is not a set of code hardware and software ecosystems are people and the more culture that we have in the better cultural understanding that better will be become well chris that's a good argument but as i said before apple says they're about valued as a one to two trillion dollar company apple is they're valued as a one to two trillion dollar company and i know that they said they have a culture problem and a d and i problem and we care for apple we we appreciate those that build apple products but even apple the great apple have you spent the time to stop and consider that perhaps apple could be valued as a nine to ten trillion dollar company had it taken in more culture like it once as opposed to a one to two trillion dollar company and perhaps we've set our standards lower than what we should have and perhaps it's much higher than it should be now as i continue to take time to write notes or whatever questions and to moving barriers to innovation but then there's the willingness that has to happen because we can have an open mind and we can have a vulnerability disposition but there has to be the willingness inside then that willingness inside there has to be more than just that because when we have that willingness inside but then we're saying i know chris i know i need to do better i know that i could do better i know i want to do better else why would i be here at an event like this of all places at cube con where we're talking about diversity and inclusion in the middle of the code in the middle of the open source here we are talking about this subject but i don't know if i can do it and that's where doubt comes in and one of the biggest enemies in my understanding that we've come to face when it comes to self and us is doubt and look no one's asking you to take the ball all the way a hundred yards the other side of the field no one's asking you to do that no one's wanting you to do that the first step the first step is what we're wanting the first step is what helps get us there and when we're there and we find ourselves in a situation where we took the first step then and only then are we effectively being able to understand the value when you took time to listen to someone when you took time to exercise their perspective and incorporate that in your daily lives and then you gave back when you did that then we begin to understand what servant leadership is as a servant leader it's about not just serving others and giving back and and doing these things but servant leadership is serving yourself in part to understand that there are different people in this world whom we've never even met they come from different backgrounds and walks of life and if we just took that time to better understand the quell my desire to want to be able to speak to want to be able to say but to listen if we did that and saw the reflection that you got back from that person through your servant leadership to be able to intake their considerations how much fruitful and rewarding it would become now we say to ourselves but how how do i become a servant leader how do i become more vulnerable how do i show this how do i manifest how do i become the change how do i stop talking how do i start doing more how do i go about living this life and doing this and demonstrating this daily and it's real simple it's becoming actionable i hope that there's such a time in life the five to ten years from now that will never have to have a need for these type of discussions and conversation on diversity inclusion and equity and belonging and the better understanding ecosystems are people and not just a set of software and hardware that ecosystems are people and culture and the more culture that we have the stronger our culture and our ecosystem becomes the better identifiable our products become the wider our district distribution channels become and that we've fulfilled and lived to the adage that we want to hire the people that we want to buy our products and so i went and i said what if i take these people that don't come from places where i come from and pair them with people with places where i do come from what happens if i bring them together and serve as a bridge what will that look like what would that be like and from there i created with my little bit of allyship capability a platform called the black technology mentorship program and we took people and we've taken people from all different backgrounds and walks of life all different professionals from companies where you work at now and from somewhere you don't in places you've never even heard and companies you very much have heard and from companies and corporations with new partnerships and relationships and we've taken all of these people from different backgrounds and ecosystems and we've taken them and we brought them together and i say to you and i submit to you that that is what we're asking ourselves when we ask ourselves what more can we do and it is simple because the thing that we must understand is that we did not get to where we're at on our own and at some point somebody helped lead you and give you the way and through servant leadership and the willingness of your heart to give back the impact of mentorship not just with my program with black technology mentorship program but programs that may be near and dear to you programs that may yet have not been discovered and built and shown with mastery to the world mentorship it could just be your colleague or sure he just began their job and their career and you've been well on your way for some time to ask them your neighbor hey are you okay how can i help is there something that i can do oh such the value of simply pointing someone in the right direction oh the potency oh the care that comes with simply helping point someone in the right direction can you imagine what you would be and where you would be in your life if somebody didn't take the time to point you and i in the right direction guidance from our young ones to our senior no matter the color no matter the gender no matter the culture no matter the age no matter the person we all are in need of guidance what more could i do what more can i do when it comes to serving when it comes to adding more and giving back to others when we talk about that in a world where everyone gets to build not just a few because if we all don't find ourselves building out technology and contributing that if we don't stop right now this moment to go back to get the ones that we left behind as great as our technology has become and as great as our technology can be in the time of emergent technical growth our technology will never be as great and as unique as it possibly could the things that you are going to go to work on on Monday will never be as great as it can be the things that you worked on yesterday will never be as great as they can be unless we all have an opportunity to build it together and when we're building together and we're on that track and we're reaching out to those that come from different areas in different places when i reached out to these hidden geniuses and i shared them things that seemed so irrelevant and so obsolete when they asked me all these questions and i had answers for them and then one day when they replied to me a thing that i shared with them and taught them that i showed them because someone else gave it to me people that don't look like me many of you are in attendance are probably the ones that come from different cultures of the type of people that have helped teach me in part how can i keep the things that you've given to me and not give it to others but when i'm talking to one of our hidden geniuses and come from these far and away communities that are about us every day and they simply reply with something that they learned by what they've been taught you'll look at them with different eyes and a different heart all together and you'll realize that the time was well spent that what you've given is invaluable and that what you've been given is priceless and then all that comes with that you will find yourself in a situation like many others you're a hidden hero and now you've become a better ally and in that consideration removing barriers to innovation is one less obstacle yet one step further to creating the best absolute technology and experiences we can and we didn't start with code and algorithms we started from the heart and then we find ourselves building together thank you everyone thank you for your time thank you for your commitment thank you for your trust thank you for taking the journey with me i'm here if any of you need me we'll take some time for questions but i want you to know that you can always get in contact with me find me on LinkedIn find me on the web send me a pigeon a scroll thank you for taking the time to be able to spend with us and to build together my name is Christopher Lafayette and it's been such a pleasure in this very virtual world and i hope that all of you will keep well and that you'll hold well and your family is in you will be safe and that you've got something out of what was said today and i'll move on to q and a if you have any questions feel free to submit at this time and i'm taking a look at what we have we have quite a few gem i hope that you were here and that you were able to see it i know there may have had a few technical issues but we hope that it was fixed this was recorded live or spoken or given live hopefully we'll be able to provide you with a recording or a recap of what was said and i'm glad that you take time to come and visit Rosario it's such a pleasure to have you here with us and it's a pleasure for us to be able to have you have a 10 here not just at this session but as q con as well and thank you for your willingness for servant leadership and to understand and to have a better understanding that there's more that we all can progress in and that we can learn in together and so it's much appreciated and i have a question from christian christian asks us how do you break past discomfort to open the door to conversations with someone who doesn't look like you i think that's a very impassionate question and chris and i would ask that you would consider one when we talk about breaking past the discomfort zone to open the door to conversations with people that don't look like us is to empathize and to understand that first you're talking to somebody that's maybe not a manager or maybe not just a colleague but you're talking to another human being and they certainly sometimes are equipped with their own implicit and explicit biases we often carry that a lot with us even i am guilty of this i'd be a lie if i said that i wasn't but we have it but to understand that people are approachable but to really consider we often talk about foreign languages when i fly to italy or to france or to the uk or maybe not the uk but to other places south east asia or asia and i go to different places there are different languages but i want you to consider christian and for all of you that are in attendance we want you to consider that consider that people are languages and just because someone may be speaking english or farce or to gollic or they're speaking italian or france just because they're speaking in a different language or even if they're speaking in the same language doesn't mean that you understand them so the first barrier is to have a vulnerability and the open-minded that we talked about and to be able to have empathy to understand where they may come from because when you do have that conversation and you're able to go past that and you're able to remove those barriers you might find in that conversation that you're having with them that the words are exchanged but the translation may not be lining up but to understand that in order to these days have a conversation that's productive it is of the hope that both people have an understanding that the two people are coming from two different places of different perspectives and to be able to approach one another would have to understand for the most part that you're coming from different lives different lenses and so when you approach that conversation christian with the courage and the desire understand that they have a different lens perspective and they have a different lens perspective and you know what that's okay that's all right to be able to do that and so the discomfort you may feel and the apprehension is because you don't know how they may judge you based on what they don't know but go in there with courage with as much diplomacy as you can muster but have the courage to be able to show them who you are with care and kindness and consideration and even more importantly to come to the conversation if you're going to talk do more listening than you did talking i think you may find some benefit in that thank you christian for your question tim orling we have a question from tim how do i give myself permission to ignore my management schedule and instead spend my time on inclusion to do the right thing well that's a very interesting approach and a very interesting question well what we never want to do is find ourselves in the workplace entering into a battle of fisticud certainly we were hired to be able to do a job and to do the thing that we've been hired and asked of us to do should be our first priority the commitment does hold sway and advantage over the station yet at the same time a lot of it is about having a conversation with your management good management healthy management will allow in this human centric world that we find ourselves in human centered design communication peer to peer will allow you to find time to be able to speak with one another and one unto another for you to be able to share to them priorities and things that you may want to contribute when it comes to inclusion or even belonging and to approach them not just with ideas that are aloof and wild but with firm solution that you think may be the better approach that means you have to do a little bit of groundwork on your part that means you have to be prepared to speak with your management and to have the same self-same open understanding with great empathy that you're willing and ready to have a conversation with them but you're ready to listen to their perspective given their task and duty and job responsibilities as well and at the same time that you've approached this meaning with documented material to be able to express to them so that they can better understand and chew on what it is that you express to them and that you've given them on what you would like to do to be a better community member within your platform and and in so doing that you'll find yourself in a situation where you'll have more heroes and more support and you your own self will be a hero and most likely and let me share this with everyone here that when you find yourself in a situation in a company where you may be the only ally in your whole entire community that you can identify as you will be alone you might be a pioneer you may have to go the extra distance to do what others haven't done or what others may not know how to do you may be alone now outside of that ecosystem outside of that community there's plenty of people that you can reach out to i know a bunch i get good information and get a good advice from so many other people i give it to thousands of people often i feel but you're not alone in your community you may be but in your community you're a pioneer sacajawea lewis and claire ponce de leon you may have to play the role of the explorer discoverer and the person that brings mastery for excellence to your platform and why not because if not you then who there are people that are relying on what you do inside that company that have never set foot inside your company for one day there are people that are behind a laptop behind a screen learning and educating themselves to one day ingress hopefully into the same platform that you're in or in the same community environment that you're in and they're going to need you every good community every ecosystem needs its heroes and now that we've identified that you're an ally there's no exception we've got time for another question the most diverse community there is an open source kubernetes and yet we have work to do and that's right i agree with that we all have work to do you can't do it alone you're not going to achieve it alone we have to do it together with the willing heart determination not be hindered by our own self limiting beliefs that says we can't not sell ourselves we become better at selling ourselves on why we can't do a thing as opposed to selling ourselves on why we can but my goodness stop for a moment look around you hasn't there ever been a better need that there was ever a time that you were going to stand if there was ever a time that you were going to lead and to serve and to give back if there was ever a time that you were going to do this i can't find a better time and all the time that i've been here to do it and you are not alone thank you everybody so much i look forward to hearing more from you post event thank you so much kubecon thank you so much for our sponsors thank you for aws for taking a chance and building with all of us technologists and artists observers and explorers thank you all for being with us today i certainly hope the best for you and your families i'd hope you go with courage with desire and with willingness to be a hidden hero thank you so much and good night