Solving Sexual Harassment and Bullying with Virtual Reality - An Interview with Morgan Mercer
Bullying and sexual harassment are real issues that plague organizations and impede performance. In the United States, 81% of women have reported being sexually harassed. When that harassment occurs at work, four out of five women who are harassed leave their jobs within two years. That’s an incredible detriment to the woman leaving and to the organization losing a talented employee.
One solution for greatly reducing sexual harassment is by building empathy. Morgan Mercer is CEO of Vantage Point. They have developed an innovative Virtual Reality training platform designed to build empathy and help companies prevent harassment and bullying. By creating immersive experiences, Morgan and her team are helping organizations resolve one of society’s greatest social issues.
In this interview, Morgan explains why we need better training for a safer workplace, the impact of #MeToo on training standards, and how to build empathy through immersive experiences. She also discusses her experience as a woman of color in the tech industry, her drive to empower others through VR, and her take on the future of VR.
Morgan and Vantage Point are based out of Los Angeles and serve clients around the world.
Topics Discussed in Part One: The case for better sexual harassment training, different applications of VR training, the impact of the #MeToo movement, career and economic impacts of sexual harassment, creating training experiences, protecting individual privacy, goals for the future
Topics Discussed in Part Two: Morgan’s background, being a female entrepreneur in the tech industry, inspiring the younger generation, accepting the role of a trailblazer, importance of empowering others, learning to negotiate everything, the next frontier for VR, full-body haptic suits, solving the political divide through empathy, dangers of VR addiction
People, Organizations, and Resources Mentioned: Barnes and Noble Classic Literature List, Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain by Ryan Blair, Athena Hacks, Crunchbase, Hooked: How to Build Habit Forming Products By Nir Eyal
Find out more about Morgan and Vantage Point at - www.TryVantagePoint.com
Follow Morgan on Twitter - @TheMorganMercer
“What you do directly impacts what you see. And so the experience I have is going to be different from the experience you have, depending on what we do…which is a lot more true to life to the ways that the world works. If I speak up sooner the situation gets better, if I don’t speak up at all the situation doesn’t get better, and if I speak up later it’s better than not doing anything.”
-Morgan Mercer on how the immersive experience of VR mimics real-life outcomes.