Many people are puzzled by the rollback of DEI programs, often getting online to see what all the fuss is about. Google’s AI Overview is usually their first stop with a basic definition that says, “In the corporate world, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) refers to a set of programs, policies, and practices aimed at fostering a workplace where all employees feel valued, respected, and have equal opportunities, regardless of their background.” Would anyone want to work anywhere they didn’t feel valued, respected, or have an equal shot at advancement? Probably not. Or at least not for long. “In fact,” Ron Carucci reported in Forbes Magazine, “69% of Millennial and Gen Z workers are likely to stay five or more years with a company that has a diverse workforce.” On the other hand, many Gen Z workers are ready to walk rather than take jobs where their values are disrespected.
Employee turnover is expensive. The goal should be—and is for profitable, sustainable companies—to hire the best and the brightest with as many different backgrounds, characteristics, and perspectives as possible. That’s how products are invented, promoted, and distributed to the greatest number of people. Hiring only one type of person to sell to many different people doesn’t make sense. “Diversity Matters” by McKinsey is the largest ongoing series of reports on diversity and profitability to date and is quoted in nearly every article about DEI leadership’s impact on corporate profitability. The report summarized the progression of DEI in 2023:
The business case for gender diversity on executive teams1 has more than doubled over the past decade. Each of our reports—2015, 2018, 2020, and now 2023—has found a steady upward trend, tracking ever greater representation of women on executive teams. At each time point we have assessed the data, the likelihood of financial outperformance gap has grown: Our 2015 report found top-quartile companies had a 15 percent greater likelihood of financial outperformance versus their bottom-quartile peers; this year, that figure hits 39 percent.
“Throughout my career, from a leadership perspective, I’ve learned people are more important than processes and procedures. An organization is only as good as the people behind it,” said Dr. Sheila Robinson, CEO of Diversity Woman Media in Mission Matters Power and Purpose. For 20 years, she has built Diversity Woman to serve women of all races, cultures, and backgrounds. In her recent podcast interview, she stressed that the renaming of her flagship magazine, Diversity Woman to Executive Woman, has nothing to do with the pushback and rush to eliminate DEI. “Executive Woman magazine has nothing to do with the backlash on DEI but has everything to do with elevating women to new heights of leadership.” She added the focus has always been on the achievements of the women appearing in the magazine. The word, diversity, is a description, whereas “executive” is a benchmark of leadership.
Stressing the fact that Diversity Woman Media has always focused on the needs of their clients and customers, Dr. Sheila said, “They’re having the challenge of being told that they’re exercising discriminatory practices, which they are not because DEI has never been about giving someone a job that did not qualify for the job. It’s been about giving them fair opportunity to the job because they do qualify for it. The reason it exists anyway is for decades, there have been systems in place that prevented people like myself and yourself from having the opportunities that we know we are qualified for.” However, as businesses are struggling with DEI, she said that many companies like Diversity Woman Media are holding fast to their principles, supporting their people with what they need to succeed at their jobs while pivoting to face the new obstacles of misunderstanding fostered by misinformation.
In a recent podcast interview with Robin Pedrelli, co-founder of VisionSpring Inc., a diversity and inclusion consulting firm, Robin explained that we’re tribal by nature and will hire people we feel most comfortable with, who are like us, and not necessarily the best for the job. Since most executives are white men, they continue to get those jobs. Dr. Nancy said, “I grew up in the Washington DC area, and the term tokenism was used quite a bit because there were ratios. And I think sometimes people confuse that with diversity and inclusion, which is hiring the person who is qualified for the job.”
Sometimes who is qualified is so obvious, it’s laughable. In Dr. Sheila’s corporate job on the Lycra® brand, they were developing hosiery for women of color. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who has the best perspective to create a successful product for this customer. One size, color, shape and gender cannot possibly make decisions for all of humanity.
Ultimately, we need to support the decades’ worth of growth and impact we’ve experienced thanks to the concepts and practices related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Behind all of the systems and efforts to create an orderly society, it’s safe to say that while we are all different, we need and want the same things. The argument today seems to be how we get there. Some people want to push others out of the way to serve their own interests in a win-lose model. Others want to continue to care about their communities and workplaces and include others in their success. Women Connect4Good was founded on the idea of women supporting women (and men, girls, and boys). It all boils down to inclusion—the “I” part of DEI. We are in this together. Let’s lift each other up so we can all rise.