Interview: Rania Chow, Founder of Improvia Inc. Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Consultant and Founder of Ladies of STEM.

By Angela Tai

You’re a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and Mechanical Engineer who’s worked for numerous notable organizations. When did you first become interested in the engineering field? 

My interest in engineering started pretty early - in my teen years to be exact. Initially, it starts with, “well, what are my options out there and what am I good at?” I found that math and science courses came a little easier to me in high school and of course it made it more enjoyable. I was having fun with math and science and I liked that I was competing with all the guys in physics. I was always up there and wanting to be high-achieving but other subjects like english and essay writing were a lot more laborious for me. So, it was this sort of natural progression that led me into engineering. As a Lebanese-Canadian, I was raised primarily by my mom, who in turn was raised in a strong patriarchal society. She often recited that the best profession for women is nursing or law. I even remember my aunt reciting that we should leave the engineering jobs for men. There was a positive stigma surrounding my uncle who’s the only engineer in my family; I saw how successful and well-respected he was and all of the opportunities that he chased after. I thought, well why not me? I think at an early age, seeing so few women in the field got me interested in wanting to pursue engineering, and I wanted to stand out in my family. 

Was your uncle your role model?
Yes, but one of a few. My family immigrated to Canada from Lebanon. I came to Canada at almost three years old. There were so few women in STEM fields in the family in general, especially since we come from a very patriarchal Lebanese culture. Very few women I knew went into these tech fields and seeing my uncle by default rising in the engineering field really inspired me. I started to seek examples of women who were doing well or who were in places that I wanted to achieve and the more I looked into it, the more I realized what is possible for my future and so I wanted to do the same. Besides, it also felt pretty good to show my mom and others what else is possible for women.

What have you discovered to be effective in helping connect girls and women to STEM studies and careers?

In one word, ‘mentoring’. Majority of the work that I do within Ladies of STEM, has been mentoring ladies in their university years in STEM fields. I’ll start by telling you the catalyst for starting Ladies of STEM. Many years ago, we were visiting my sister in Princeton for Christmas and my niece had asked me what engineers do. At that point, I got all excited talking about the various fields of engineering and in STEM in general. She has a strong interest in science and at that time, I was doing some research online and I found so little to help her. There were these large organizations centered around women in STEM who were in the later stages of their careers but so little to support her ability to see herself just a few years ahead. Right now there are a ton of great resources on all the various social media platforms, which I love. At that time, there were so few places that highlighted successful stories of women in STEM, so I was quite excited to connect her with people so she could have her own conversations. But then I realized, why not start a community and name it Ladies of STEM! The community has a Canadian-focused mission and I do all sorts of volunteer work and coaching work for the various Canadian universities around me as well as empower women through posting to an IG page named @ladies.of.stem. My ultimate mission is to help close that gender gap that exists in STEM fields. A more recent study that I came across and that I shared in a presentation that I gave to a York University STEM fellowship group recently, which had a really great turnout that night, showed that in the last two decades, we’ve had zero progress in narrowing that gender gap and that just fuels me to want to do even more of this. The pandemic has moved the needle further back as millions of women have left the workforce to support their families at home. Even though this is a passion project for me and one that I’m happy to be able to do, I’m also looking at ways we can make this free so I’m seeking government grants and doing as much as I can so that it’s free to these ladies in their university STEM years.

What is male participation (numbers-wise) when you put together an event like that? 

I love that there is male participation! I should add that I am a mom of two boys - they’re both in their early teens. My older one is already focused on STEM as well and I try not to create a bias, but what I will say is that, as a feminist, and a mom of two boys, I’m all about equality and diversity and inclusion. To answer your question, I’ll typically get up to 20% male participants when I speak to groups, but there are never more than 20%. But I’m so grateful to have these guys in the sessions. I always have a module or a component of my talks that’s centered around gender equity and I then follow up with tactical, hands-on how-to's for both the ladies and our allies. It includes all of the things that we go through, including how to get past imposter syndrome, build self-confidence, and in this case, how to advocate for gender equity and diversity and inclusion at any table but particularly in the STEM fields where it’s so unbalanced. I love the engagement that I get from the guys who attend as well as all the ladies. 

For students who are now starting their careers in STEM, what fundamental skills should they have to help them on their journey?

What I see in the students that I’ve been mentoring and coaching is that all of them come from a solid foundation in terms of learning. So they’re all good students and they all want to succeed. They’re all working hard in their studies. After running more than 200 interviews, I have found that the most successful candidates are the people who are most successful in their careers are the ones who are always curious and always eager to learn. This is what I say to everybody - it’s 80% mindset because we all have that capability to learn and we’re all here because we want to succeed and we can study and understand the theories. But beyond the fundamentals, that innate drive that we have in ourselves is what makes us successful, to have that drive to be better than we were three months ago and to continuously learn. It’s that drive, that eagerness to excel, learn and self-improve - that’s how the best candidates stand out. 

As a woman in your field, do you ever feel like you have to perform at a higher standard just to gain the respect of your coworkers or male counterparts?

Absolutely. I have countless stories of challenges that I’ve come across and adversity. There have been several times where I’ve been the only woman (and youngest) at the table giving advice to other young ladies, whether it’s entrepreneurial or in manufacturing or engineering. What I would say is that those times, despite being challenging, are the times of pure growth. Although we have to stretch our capacity in how much we produce and execute in that role, it’s also an opportunity to practice all the things that we stand for: values, equity, boundaries and more. At times we need to teach our teachers, so managing upwards may be required. There are talks where I’ve described situations that I’ve been in. Here’s one: I was leading a vendor negotiation and the vendor continuously directed all communication at my older, white, male, colleague and I understood in the first meeting that we had to define our roles despite that I was clearly introduced as the project lead. In this case, it continued to happen, so it was my opportunity in a very patient but assertive way to educate these people on the spot. I told my mentor how I was feeling and what had happened and outlined what needed to change inorder to help me. It’s about bringing them along on the journey because we all have unconscious bias, it’s one for all of us to learn and grow through. Having patience through it is key. So in a very professional way he came onboard. Even to the smallest detail of asking him to give me eye and body contact when a question is being asked that should be directed to me as the project lead and then also educating the vendor so that it’s a growth opportunity for everyone. There are so many variations to that situation but there are some really gentle, tactical ways to manage through that are highly effective. 

You founded your own company, Improvia Inc., after holding multiple full-time positions. What was that transition like for you having worked for a corporate setting for so long to now working as an entrepreneur? 

Yes. I spent nearly 20 years working in the corporate world. I have had multiple large teams working for me so I was used to the big organization, big team environment. Going out on my own was a really massive change, more so than I anticipated. But I needed change as the long commute and hours were no longer working in that phase of my life. I wanted to try venturing out on my own. With so many years of experience, a great network and strong market, I branched out on my own and honestly it was a great start. I had reached out to a number of entrepreneurial resources within the greater Toronto area for support. With their support, I was able to create a brand, incorporate, launch a website, and secure my first few clients. At that point in time, getting clients (late 2019) was not so bad, the market was great and I had a big network so I brought on a couple of clients and was up and running. A few months in and we all felt the impact of COVID. Again, it was time to reevaluate what was happening in the market and what was needed by my clients. A lot of my contracts were put on hold or cancelled, and so a number of really unique opportunities came up for me that I loved even more despite that it took a couple of months until those materialized. All along the way, I’ve been grateful for these experiences and I’ve met some really badass women entrepreneurs. I love learning about how those women are really killing it in the market and finding those niche markets despite the pandemic. I would love to find a way to marry Ladies of STEM with my own Improvia business and somehow fuse this all together. My journey of growth continues and in the meantime, I certainly am doing lots of learning online, taking some new certification courses and trying to uplevel my own skills as I go. My experience has been quite the zigzag but I appreciate the learning from every part that I’ve been on. 

What do you miss (and don’t miss) the most from working a corporate job vs. working for yourself? 

Entrepreneurship is lonely, especially during Covid - there’s less social interactions and all of the skills that I was practicing earlier on (in terms of going out there and networking in person and how I was first bringing on clients) of course all changed. I learned to travel a new path of finding new ways to leverage LinkedIn and other platforms for networking. There’s a lot of learning and change, but what I really miss is the human interaction, especially as there has been less and less of that. I enjoy the team environment. I haven’t closed the door to the corporate world. I think there might be another time and place in my life for it. At this phase, I’m excited about trying to find ways to bring all my experiences together into a unique offering and that work is in progress right now. 

So much of what you do is helping companies with workflow optimization. How have you applied the same skills to your own business?

Directly. Having led multiple teams as a Six Sigma Black Belt, it's been my role to analyze business processes from end-to-end and look at optimizing and streamlining them, to save the business major time and money. Typically, I work with medium to large-size businesses. I’ve been leveraging this methodology through coaching and training start up companies as well. I offer operational optimization and lean six sigma within: training, project leadership and coaching for organizations. Most recently, I’ve been running workshops and mentoring businesses as they look at process improvement opportunities and business growth opportunities. It’s starting to morph itself already into more business mentorship and I most recently had an opportunity with another local university to facilitate three of their women-focused entrepreneurship accelerator groups. What an honour and highlight to my year! I facilitated their bi-weekly sessions to support their efforts to scale and grow their businesses. It has been a learning opportunity for me - meeting and making these incredible friendships but also learning from them and growing and scaling as well. 

You’re also the founder of 'Ladies of STEM'. Helping to close the gender gap is a passion of yours. What are some of the common mistakes you see employers make in their hiring process, especially in the STEM field?

My thoughts are based on my experiences and research over the past many years. Typically the functional manager is paired with an HR resource for the interview process and the decision comes down to the functional manager. Now the functional manager typically has an affinity towards somebody who's got a similar personality/temperament or background to them. That’s a common bias, and I would say that’s the number one shortcoming in the recruitment process that sticks out in my mind. Also, we often lean towards somebody who is relatable or somebody that we would enjoy working with and I do the air quotes because again, typically that means we’re siding towards somebody who has the same personality/temperament. What we want to do is look at our entire group that we have and not try and peg another similar personality/viewpoint, but really look at diversifying and that goes beyond gender even though in STEM I happen to be focused on gender equity, but its critical to reach far and wide also looking at representing: age, race, and more. We need to look at what else those individuals bring to the table because presumably all other qualifications are equal, so now let’s look at what other voices we could be bringing to the table. I’m a big proponent of encouraging women to always use their voice when they’re invited to the table even if it shakes the whole time you’re using it. What we really want to do is bring those people forward and those who are quiet may not have the same personality/temperament as me but who would add tremendous value from their perspective. 

You’ve conducted numerous interviews throughout your career. Has that changed your own interview process - has your own interview process evolved throughout the years? What are some of the improvements interviewers or hiring managers can make to be more inclusive in their hiring process?

Yes, I estimate I have conducted close to 200 interviews over the past 20 years and with every new iteration of hires and at this point having my own small business, any time there were hiring opportunities, my eyes were widened and opened to different people and different perspectives but also to really looking at what are the questions that we’re asking people and what are these case studies that we’re putting forward. What is it really exemplifying? We also need to modify certain situations when there is a brilliant person with you in the room but if we are overwhelmingly intimidating as interviewers and the role doesn’t require this person to be in front of senior executives, why would we conduct an interview that way? Ask the other three to step outside for a moment and have a segment one-on-one to give that person an opportunity to bring down their nervous energy so they can shine and show their authentic selves. 

You’re quite the accomplished individual who’s equally compassionate and generous with your time with the mentoring work you do. You’re also a mother of two. Do you have any time management tricks for us? 

That is definitely a struggle at times. I recently went to a fireside chat and I absolutely loved a piece of advice shared because ultimately we’re all striving for work-life balance, regardless of whether or not we have children,  we’re all juggling multiple priorities. There’s two thoughts that I love: 1. we may not be able to find balance or harmony in every moment of the day so work-life balance is this unattainable goal, but what’s key is to remember that we can find it in particular moments of the day. When we are unbalanced in a particular moment, that is our opportunity to step back and observe what is working and what’s not. Do some of your own root-cause analysis to understand what you can change, what is in your control and what’s out of your control. You have to accept that there will be moments on any given day where we’re not harmonized and we feel unbalanced, but we can take certain elements that are in our control and bring them back. I love that because it allows for our permission to not have it all together at all times because we’re human and we have to figure out what we do have control over and manage through that. 2. The other analogy that I love is this idea of envisioning work-life balance as a juggling act, literally as balls in the air. Some of those balls are glass and others are rubber and it’s really about understanding which of the balls are glass, that you can’t drop, which forces you to decide what your core values are that you won’t allow to slide at any cost and which of the balls you are juggling are rubber, so that you allow yourself to know which you can let bounce, and dampen to stillness until you are able to pick them up again. They’re slowly going to fade and roll to the side of the room and can sit there until you have the energy and strength to go pick them up and throw them back in the mix. These are my two current life practices because 2020 certainly has taught us a number of lessons and I carry these practices into 2021.

We loved your Instagram post regarding the ‘Chief Happiness Officer.’ You announced that you’re the Chief Happiness Officer of your home and life to get you through the next couple of difficult weeks. You turned it around and listed three things you’re looking forward to in the near future. How have you been staying optimistic during these tough times?

You’re absolutely right and thanks for the reference to the post, I'm really loving this title that I have given myself as Chief Happiness Officer of my house. What I will say is that being in Toronto, where we had a very cold winter while in lock down, it’s been hard to get out there and go on walks everyday to break up the day. Currently there are no stores open for in-person shopping, besides the essential stores and there are rules around social gatherings, etc. Again, we have to focus on what we can control so I spend my time controlling the elements that I can. I have certain obligations that I’m privileged and happy to have, creating healthy meals for my family and more. If we’re looking at health and wellness, I have dedicated  7am-8am as time for me. A time when there are no dependencies on my time and I can focus on my wellbeing, so I get up and I do a fitness program with great close friends. We all join through a video call and off we go. I look at breaking my day up into chunks so that there’s time for priority elements where I chunk out time for me and my family, so again it’s back to those core values. I block off time for what matters - nutrition and eating well, family, growth, business, mental wellness. I always start my work day with priority work and look at blocking off afternoon time for growth work. I’m flexible and I’ll alternate based on what I have on-the-go. What carries me forward is knowing what I have to look forward to, spring is coming and nobody can cancel the warm weather. That translates into more time outdoors. Lockdown will be done very soon and that’s what brings me joy this week. I look forward to getting together with a handful of close girlfriends and my family. I really enjoy hiking and planning travel for this summer. We may not be able to jump on a plane and head to the beach but perhaps there is some cottage or other ways of enjoyment that we can plan for. I have a white water rafting trip in sight but if I’m giving advice to others it’s to look for those elements of happiness that you do have control over and find ways to embed those in your daily life as well as maybe something larger to look forward to. That “larger” doesn’t necessarily mean a big financial obligation, it can be as simple as planning a camping activity in your backyard or with a bunch of friends, it doesn’t need to be costly. 

You recently included an incredible quote on your Instagram: “The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you’re very courageous: be strong, be extremely kind, and above all be humble. How can women build the confidence they need to not just survive but thrive in a workplace? 

This is a tough one but SO important. I say it’s tough because it starts off internally. There are always elements that we need to work on both internally and externally and there’s some real tangible steps that we can take to do that. So much of it is based on the inner game so it goes back to mindset and asking how we build self-confidence - there’s a number of ways but I love encouraging everyone to take the time to list our key accomplishments and they don’t always have to be educational. They can be accomplishments in how we’ve impacted somebody else’s life or a loved one. It could be an educational accomplishment or career-wise but go back to the facts so that when where we’re going through turbulence at work or otherwise, we have to ground back to knowing in ourselves that we are capable of handling it and we can do hard things. And really, the best way to prove it to yourself is by giving yourself factual evidence because that can’t be disputed. It’s easy to say all those affirmations - I am strong, I am confident, etc. It’s so easy to question yourself in the seconds that follow, it’s still valuable to have our affirmations but maybe written in a more neutral way so we can say stuff like, “I am strong” but perhaps amend it so that our brains can better believe it by saying, “I am becoming stronger.” Have that list of factual evidence of when you’ve gone through a very difficult period in your life or accomplished something big, because those things combined together are what empowers us internally. We want to start with the inner game, there are lists and tons of great things you can do around mindset but I love these two in terms of taking action immediately because they’re easy to do and things we can take action on now. Identify your limiting beliefs, write yourself an empowering I am statement and read your list of accomplishments daily. Paired with that in the workplace, items that are out of our control are the behavior of those who are around us so we want to examine that. Who are those characters or players in this scenario, what is causing distress and what can we do about it? Can we address that person directly? I always recommend first, to try a one-on-one chat with those individuals. If it has to be escalated, that is the time to do so and again we need to use our voice and make clear what matters to us and what feels wrong and in turn take that action or that next step despite that its not easy. We also need to be willing to really listen to the feedback we are receiving. There are growth opportunities everywhere if we are open to them. 

If you were to summarize your message for girls and women in STEM, what would that message be?

My advice is to stay curious, stay passionate, and always be willing to learn at every stage of life. It has never been easier to learn or progress and pivot and get ahead. We’re perfectly capable of anything we want to do, there are so many great resources out there that offer free information. Go out there and ask for it, reach and learn. Lastly, when you find you’ve grown and excelled, turn around and keep the door open for the young ladies behind you, because they’ll need your hand on their way up.