Let them.

Here’s why.

tomosaurus. (2006, December 13). Not today, thank you! Retrieved June 18, 2015, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/tomloudon/322172413/

Today Sam responded to the discussion all about Imposter Syndrome, “I’m not a technical person, but…” She describes beautifully the situation I have been in in several jobs – the only woman around the table involved in a discussion about IT and feeling as though I have to really, really get it 100% right with facts and tone if I am going to try to contribute. This is despite knowing all those things that Sam knows:

I know that I have successfully managed complex projects with technical aspects and have learned enough of the lingo to be able to effectively work with software developers, business analysts, systems administrators, storage analysts and other types of IT professionals. I know that I have skills and experience that other people in these groups do not, including an understanding of critical legal and regulatory requirements like copyright, recordkeeping and privacy. I know that there is a need for people who can build bridges between hard core IT professionals and other groups of users and stakeholders, and that is one of my strengths. I know that IT managers come from a variety of backgrounds and cannot have in-depth knowledge of everything, and that by the time they reach middle or senior management their technical skills must necessarily give way to other types of expertise anyway. I know that succesful IT programs need more than just technical understanding and that the soft skills that librarians have can make all the difference. And I know that my seat at the table has not been given to me by accident because someone failed to notice I am a complete fraud.

Once I worked out a strategy about how I could use this situation to my advantage. This idea will not be a surprise for those who think first and talk afterwards. I usually work the other way around. Often not to my credit nor merit.

Sometimes I feel compelled very early on during a meeting to make a comment, or ask a technical question, to establish that I have at least the same level of IT knowledge as other people around the table. (It may be a perverse anti-manifestation of imposter syndrome “I am allowed to doubt my own abilities privately – but don’t you DARE” )

But maybe there is a better way to spend the first part of that kind of meeting.

In judo, one strategy involves using the opponent’s strength and weight against them.

I will not generalise and say outright that all men in IT presume that women do not understand technical discussion unless a woman clearly established otherwise. (I will not point out that some women make the same presumption). I will not say that sometimes men around the IT table know less than other people but speak with greater confidence. I can say with confidence I have sat around many tables with men in IT who were presuming that I knew far less than I did.

I will say that you can learn a lot sitting around a table where people start with presuming you know less than you do, if you let them continue to think that. You can observe who actually has little knowledge and blows hot air instead. You can even pretend that you did not hear something stupid the first time and ask them to repeat it for the rest of the room to hear.  You can learn a lot politically. You can find out who would bother to clearly explain things they do not think you understand (which gives you a lot of information about their communication skills) and gauge how accurately they can do so (which gives you insight into their IT knowledge). It lets you understand whether they acknowledge that other types of skills are important (given that you must be there for some other reason if you have no idea about IT), and so how they are likely to work with others on any joint project, or how savvy they would be at negotiating non-IT matters. It can give you a good perspective on how they make IT decisions (based on actually solid knowledge? by being taken in by marketing buzz-words? by believing vendors without questioning? by defaulting to legacy techniques and tools because they have not updated their skills?).

I have tried this a couple of times, but I get defeated by being a well-brought-up woman. I often feel deceptive and uncomfortable by not letting on that I speak the same language as they do.  I think it could be very powerful, however, to see what happened if I let it go beyond my comfort level…