DEI is under attack, but now is not the time to concede
The reality is that there has been a worrying trend, some might say regression, for numerous corporate giants when it comes to supporting, promoting and prioritising DEI practices.
One step forward, two steps back.
If your age and music tastes are anything like mine that phrase would usually bring fond memories of Paula Abdul dancing with an animated cat flooding back. Unfortunately though right now it encompasses an increasingly uneasy feeling which has been heightened by the simply mind-blowing announcement from Meta that it’s terminating its diversity programs.
It would be easy to pin this lurch to the right squarely on a desperation to appease the new old boy in the White House (let’s not even try and calculate how many steps back that equates to) but that would be an oversimplification. Zuckerberg’s rhetoric around masculine energy might make him the current chief villain / poster boy depending on your stance, but the questioning of corporate direction has been gathering momentum for some time now.
The reality is that there has been a worrying trend, some might say regression, for numerous corporate giants when it comes to supporting, promoting and prioritising DEI practices. The removal of fact-checking and the support of ‘freedom of speech’ will see social media platforms become even more like the wild west for huge sections of the population desperate for a safe space to frequent digitally. Even the re-evaluation of hybrid working and the move to almost full office returns in some large UK businesses is just another reflection of a dangerous reversal towards days gone by. And there are no rose-tinted glasses here.
It took some awful events to really trigger societal, political and corporate change. Whilst the Covid pandemic and the George Floyd tragedy were dreadful events, both in their own way, were the catalyst for changes which have paved giant steps towards a more DEI-focused world. There was always work to be done but clearly we haven’t come as far as we hoped, the foundations of what has been achieved are not as sturdy as we wanted to believe. Most dangerously, very powerful people appear to be able to turn back the tide with relative ease. The attack and weaponisation of ‘woke’ is happening in plain sight.
Has the fight been lost and do we just have to accept that ‘it is what it is?’ Absolutely not.
DEI in decline?
So what happens now? Trump is in power, the right is on the rise across the globe and major big businesses are questioning the role and value of diversity and inclusion. Has the fight been lost and do we just have to accept that ‘it is what it is?’ Absolutely not.
The foundations may not yet be as deep as we had assumed, but what has been achieved over the past four or five years has been no mean feat. Minority groups have found their voices, allyship is higher than it’s ever been (the real type, not the virtue signalling type), but most importantly there is evidence everywhere that DEI is not a nice to have but a concrete, unshakeable business strategy which underpins success. And this is where we need to pick up the fight. Moral arguments are not going to win this war, it’s hard business facts which must always be the bedrock of our push.
What’s most alarming is that it’s near impossible to avoid the avalanche of evidence available with the most basic of exploration. It takes less than 30 seconds to discover that diverse teams:
- are up to 35% more likely to outperform their competitors (McKinsey)
- have 19% higher rates of innovation (Forbes)
- generate 2.3 times higher cashflow per employee (Deloitte), and
- are 70% more likely to capture new markets (Harvard Business Review).
I could go on and on. The evidence continues to be overwhelmingly in support of DEI as not only a moral obligation but a core business strategy.
I still firmly believe that the general direction of travel is the right one but there are always going to be bumps in the road, and it’s on all of us to use our voices, platforms and influence to ensure those bumps remain just bumps. The generations to come have the potential to obliterate this as a topic of debate, but we must ensure that they are coming into a corporate (and broader) world which supports their progressive views and doesn’t stifle them.
Taking one step forward and two steps back didn’t phase Paula Abdul or MC Skat Cat, they just rose to the challenge and pushed on regardless.
We must do the same.
