Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Maria Moraes Robinson of Holonomics On The 5 Leadership Lessons She Learned From Her Experience
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Really invest in communication, as this is one of the biggest challenges for leaders. The formula that I always recommend to achieve high quality communication is the 3Cs of content, coherence and consistency. This means always checking that the themes and concepts you are using are being understood, that everything you say is coherent and that you are not contradicting yourself, and that you communicate regularly, so that people accept and absorb everything that you need to convey.
As a part of my series about “Lessons From Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Maria Moraes Robinson.
Maria is CEO (Brasil) of Holonomics, co-founder of the Deep Tech Network, a Harvard Business Review author and author of Deep Tech and the Amplified Organisation: How to elevate, scale and amplify your business through the New 4Ps of platforms, purpose, people and planet. Maria is internationally recognised for her innovation in the fields of digital and cultural transformation, Balanced Scorecard, employee experience, agile strategy, and championing the role of universal human values in Deep Tech.
An economist and a specialist in strategy and organisational transformation, her contributions to leadership thinking have transformed the way in which business leaders are able to achieve augmented agility through understanding and implementing a systemic form of strategy, through a focus on human values, an expanded form of consciousness and the quality of relationships within organisations and across ecosystems.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I decided to study economics at university as I felt this would help me to understand how to really create impact in the world. Since graduating, I have never stopped studying, expanding my knowledge to include other subjects such as technology, in order to ensure that I could always have the means to put all my experience, knowledge and discoveries into practice. Having this level of curiosity naturally led me into consultancy, allowing me to truly help leaders see and comprehend situations differently and organisations to overcome their challenges.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?
Holonomics was founded on a systemic understanding of organisations, allowing us to bring diverse knowledge from many other areas. So to help people and organisations flourish, we complement formal strategy and innovation methodologies with anecdotes, metaphors and insights from many different disciplines.
We were asked by a CEO to help use our transdisciplinary approach to facilitate with one of the world’s largest mergers and acquisitions. What was so interesting is that people responded so positively to us bringing themes such as universal human values, that we were asked to extend the project by a month to allow us to write a book to be given to every single director, manager and co-ordinator in order to capture both the knowledge and frameworks we were bringing, and also the many insights which had emerged during the six month initiative. This level of appreciation for our work and our beliefs was incredibly rewarding for us.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I was starting out in consultancy, I would often have long-distance flights. In one project I was so busy thinking about the demands of it that I did not take into account the fact that the climate was much colder than where I was living. This meant that when I arrived I had to borrow a colleague’s coat for the first few days. Nowadays I really make sure to think about where I am travelling and to prepare accordingly, understanding the locale and also any local cultural differences I may need to be aware of.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
There have been a number of high-profile projects we’ve been invited work on due to senior leaders recognising that we work in a very unique way. What makes Holonomics stand out is our ability to go much deeper into digital and cultural transformational processes, exploring behaviours, feelings and relationship dynamics.
An example of this is the way we have developed our Deep Tech Discovery process which extends the concept of the Voice of the Customer to the Voice of the Stakeholder. This approach to innovation has really helped a of number major enterprises rethink the nature of the value they deliver to customers and clients in a much more systemic manner.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
One of key areas that we work in is educational tech. We’re currently developing a new type of platform to improve the quality and accessibility of education for children and adults that also develops their self-esteem and develops their sense of place and of belonging in relation to their local communities.
We’re exploring platform-based solutions in partnership with businesses to help people to make full use of technologies which they would have previously been excluded from, thereby creating a virtuous circle. Sponsoring brands and organisations are better able serve the local communities in which they operate, and at the same time they are benefitting from contributions from those people in these communities who are impacted by their operations.
Ok super. Thank you for all that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?
Nowadays although we still have many challenges, the situation for women is far better than before because technology has really opened up opportunities. The internet has created new ways for women to demonstrate their talent, creativity and ability to think systemically. Technology has democratised education, giving women who were previously excluded genuine access to knowledge through learning platforms.
What I would like to see now is for organisations to really look at society without boundaries or defining and judging which groups can make the best contributions. Many talented women in STEM have come from quite humble social backgrounds, with their success coming through the access and support they have been given, meaning that they have been able to develop a career in science and technology.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?
A situation I have seen in many meetings, even in purpose-driven organisation, is men failing to acknowledge the value of their female colleagues’ contributions. This therefore demotivates them, resulting in the organisation losing a valuable source of creativity and insight. For this reason, I would like to see far more awareness from executive leaders of this challenge and provide support by helping men to become consciously aware of how they are acting and how they can shift to fairer and more supportive ways of behaving.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech. Can you explain what you mean?
There is still a myth that women do not have a natural propensity for mathematics or rational analysis — it’s simply not true. Historically women did not develop these abilities to the extent men did due to their limited access to education. People still conclude that women are underrepresented in STEM because they lack the ability and the vocation to be successful.
One way in which leaders can help overcome this is by developing transdisciplinary deep tech projects, which by their very nature require multiple perspectives, disciplines and authentic dialogue to explore and solve the complex issues under investigation. In this type of environment women can flourish and make significant contributions to solving society’s most pressing challenges.
What are your “5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
When developing deep tech systems, always consider those people with whom you are talking by thinking about the best form of language to use. Understand their worldview, mental models and check they understand what you are explaining, and vice versa. I do this to improve decision-making at every stage of the design process.
Always look to find that sweet spot in a project between freedom and structure. While creativity is important, never forget the importance of checking in at regular intervals with team members, giving everyone space for dialogue and valuing diversity and different points of view, especially when these are different to your own.
When projects are not quite progressing as expected, one of the greatest leadership qualities is detachment, allowing you to pivot and change direction when necessary. I have found that this is especially important in contexts which are volatile and changing rapidly.
One of the most important things a female leader can do is to develop self-confidence, in order to be able to give other people space to express themselves and their ideas, especially in those situations where they may not have all the answers. So, as a leader, this helps me to facilitate conversations and dialogue, enabling the best solutions to emerge naturally.
For women in senior leadership positions in tech, it is important to create spaces for other women to share their challenges. For example I have facilitated female-led technology communities of practice that support women and allow them to develop both their technology and leadership skills.
What advice would you give to other women leaders to help their team to thrive?
Always look to create a culture of collective confidence and trust. This means always observing what you say to people, what you actually mean and how you act. People respond to actions more than words, and so cultivating this level of authentic leadership will naturally lead people to trust you more within the team, resulting in greater agility.
What advice would you give to other women leaders about the best way to manage a large team?
Really invest in communication, as this is one of the biggest challenges for leaders. The formula that I always recommend to achieve high quality communication is the 3Cs of content, coherence and consistency. This means always checking that the themes and concepts you are using are being understood, that everything you say is coherent and that you are not contradicting yourself, and that you communicate regularly, so that people accept and absorb everything that you need to convey.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I can honestly say that my mother has had the greatest influence due to her instilling in me the importance of a good education from an early age. When I was growing up, as well as reading to me she would also discuss the books with me, teaching me how to interpret what I was reading, helping me to develop my critical thinking. She always believed in me and my talent, giving me the self-esteem and confidence I have today.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
In my twenties I discovered that the world’s cultural traditions have established that the basis of prosperous and flourishing relationships between people are the five universal human values of peace, truth, love, righteousness and non-violence. They articulate the highest expression of humanity in each person, rather than being a code of conduct or behaviours, such as corporate values. They are not something to be taught and absorbed from without, as people already have these qualities within them. which simply need to be encouraged to be expressed.
I think that because of the way I am able to talk with people and develop a connection with them, I have been able to introduce these universal human values into boardrooms and therefore into discussions about corporate strategy. In my role as a senior advisor, I bring them into everything I do, creating spaces in my projects to allow these values to emerge naturally from within people.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
The movement of universal human values, to help remind people of their deepest essence and exactly who they are. “Who am I?” has been a question people have asked since the dawn of civilisation, and universal human values provide an answer. When we are expressing these five universal human values of peace, truth, love, righteousness and non-violence we are able to develop high quality relationships in every facet of our personal and professional lives. So this movement would be to help people to discover, express and live these values.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
The quote that resonates the most with me is “Everything is worthwhile if the soul is not small” by writer and poet Fernando Pessoa. When we are really connected with our soul and with our essence, there will always be something to learn from every experience we have in life, helping us to evolve, progress and be a better person.
We are very blessed that very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
My company Holonomics is one of the beta testers of OpenAI’s GPT-3 natural language processing applications. We actually include extracts written by GPT3 in our book Deep Tech and the Amplified Organisation. So I would love to have a conversation with Elon Musk, one of the founders of OpenAI, and explore the way in which artificial intelligence could be developed to express the five universal human values of peace, truth, love, righteousness and non-violence. This would be incredible for me.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech: Maria Moraes Robinson of Holonomics On The 5 Leadership… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.