On pandemic binge-watching and why D.E.I.A. is the thing that makes a business grow.

This past Fall, in quarantine, I finally pressed play on “I May Destroy You” on HBO. Weeks later, I similarly, and belatedly, binged “Industry.” For a variety of reasons, I semi-avoided both shows after their respective releases, in spite of generally great reviews and feverish word of mouth. In the case of the former, the material sounded too young, too heavy and too challenging. It was still summer and I was still on vacation. I didn’t want to work. In the case of the latter, I sensed that it was also too hip and too English for me. It turns out I was mostly right in my suspicions of both shows. It also turns out that they were my two favorite TV shows of 2020. 

While there are many small details that unite the two series, they are first and foremost stories of diversity, equity and inclusion. The voices, faces and stories that are featured in these shows are not traditionally the ones we see in the center of our screens. They both grapple with D.E.I. (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) matters explicitly through plot and implicitly through their characters and their creation. At the risk of stating the obvious, these shows succeed for many reasons -- writing, acting, direction, photography, music. But, above all, they plainly succeed because of how they choose to deal with difference.

It turns out that the best TV shows -- like all products -- are born out of an openness of perspective. The cult of personality or genius have endured on TV and in film since their inceptions. But, in truth, the greatest works are not born from individuals. Rather, they are born from superorganisms. Similarly, the best organizations are not developed from a singular source or instance of brilliance, but through the curiosity, empathy and, of course, work of the superorganism.

While it took me a moment too long to appreciate these TV shows, the paramount importance of D, E, I and A (Accessibility) in business has been clear to me for some time. You see, I am not a sociologist. I am not an economist. I am not a historian. I am not a politician. And, other than being Jewish, I am also not a minority. Like many white, American men, I was born into considerable privilege and gained more privilege on top of my irrational birthright. So, I have many (poor) excuses for not confronting and grappling with these matters in my daily life. But what I lack in perspective, I like to think I offset with curiosity and desire to create genuine value in my work. Through life as an entrepreneur, and with the help of many tremendously smart people, I came to realize three impenetrable business truths:

1. Companies succeed in correlation to their ability to overcome obstacles.
2. Companies overcome obstacles in correlation to the strength of their hypotheses.
3. Companies understand their obstacles and solution hypotheses in correlation to their Diversity, Inclusiveness, Equity & Accessibility.

These insights came to me the hard way -- through failure. At my first start-up, now decades ago, I helmed a full website redesign and redevelopment under the impression that I knew more about the business and its customers than anyone else. I sweated every detail of design and function. And yet, when we relaunched, the new site failed to deliver any discernible benefit. Worse, sales dropped and customers complained. This humbling moment drove me immediately to a deep interest in user research and testing. At the heart of both practices is an openness to diverse, often contradictory, perspectives, and an awareness of one’s own biases. To make a great product or service, or to make it better, one has to disabuse themself of the notion that they know best. I learned that, as educated as I believed I was about my product and its customers, I was not even a fraction as smart as the superorganism. Alone, all I had was a bunch of clever ideas. In business, I found, ideas are pretty cheap. It was the organization and its users -- in their full diversity, inclusiveness, equity and accessibility -- that showed me the obstacles and the hypotheses. 

It is one thing to apply these principles to a product or service. However, it is quite another thing to apply them to an organization or institution. Years later, as a founder working in the dawn of social movements like #MeToo and BLM, I felt an intrinsic drive to more formally address D.E.I.A. matters within the company. Naturally, employees raised their hands with questions and suggestions. Some wanted more diverse recruiting pipelines. Others wanted hiring targets. Some asked for more accommodations for mothers. Some asked for complete pay transparency. A few suggested altogether upending management as a construct. 

To be honest, I was completely overwhelmed. We were a relatively small company -- less than a hundred people. We had exactly one Human Resource employee. We were busy growing and delivering work. And, moreover, I did not have the answers. There were so many facets to the obstacles and to the opportunities. I lacked the experience and education to even begin to resolve what to do next. I secretly hoped it was all a matter of improving internal communication and developing greater interpersonal awareness, curiosity and empathy. That, I could probably bite off. Beyond that, I felt lost. 

But then, a woman who worked for us, who was normally introverted and not one to ask me for a meeting, did the unexpected. She put time on my calendar and started off our meeting by empathizing. She observed that I had a hard job trying to digest, reconcile and even partially resolve the feelings and facts related to D.E.I.A. I confirmed for her that I really did not know where to start and that every solution I considered had enormous side effects that I feared. And then she said the most amazing thing to me. She said, “I think the bottom line is that there are just a lot of talented people here whose voices are not being heard.” 

I knew she did not mean this as an indictment or accusation. I was not defensive. Rather, I was excited. She was suggesting that, for many reasons -- from personality, to race, to gender, to power dynamics, to meeting structures, to a million other things -- that too few voices were dominating conversations at the expense of other perspectives. It was a fact and one that nearly every business I had ever encountered was guilty of. This revelation shook me for the very same reason that my failed redesign had shaken me twenty years earlier. I recognized that if the best voices were not being heard, then my company could not be aware of its greatest obstacles or emboldened by its greatest hypotheses. There were countless D.E.I.A. problems in the world, but this was my particular one. 

Rather than make my same mistake twice, I resolved that I could not solve this problem alone. There was no executive mandate or edict or brilliant engineering that do the job. My biggest contribution would be to empower the superorganism to do its work. And instead of trying to address the myriad symptoms, I went right to the root: How can we ensure that our company is as smart and valuable as possible? How can we ensure that the best thinking is elevated? It seems almost impossible that, in answering these questions, we would not also uncover D.E.I.A. obstacles and design more open, curious and empathetic innovations into the solutions.

Excited by what felt like clarity, we assembled a group of interested and open minded teammates to invest in the understanding of these questions and the optimization of their solutions. This committee (for lack of a better word) was funded and became part of the members’ job responsibilities. In some ways, it was the most important work they were doing. What they brought forth was sometimes obvious, but generally not. The team was less focused on endemic social or economic inequities and more focused on how people do and don’t listen, share and move forward. Some of the obstacles and hypotheses directly addressed race and gender. Many others focused on power dynamics or communication styles. The team was constantly wondering:

• How does the superorganism continue to get more intelligent?
• How do we avoid suppression and repression?
• How do we become aware of unconscious bias and projection?
• How do we reward curiosity and empathy?
• How do we do all of the above, without sacrificing value to our clients and shareholders?

To those organizations and their leaders that have genuine desire and capacity to address deeply held societal issues, I am grateful for your wisdom and valor. However, I also can relate to those that get overwhelmed or even disenchanted with D.E.I.A. pursuits. Many of the accompanying issues can feel so deeply ingrained that they are beyond the grasp of a single company or institution. In trying to resolve one obstacle, you can feel like you are simply “whacking a mole” that will pop up elsewhere. You can feel like you are doing the sort of right thing for the mostly the right reason, but also like some part of it is reactive or for appearances. There are many reasons that a company or a leader might not be full throated and full hearted in embracing D.E.I.A. initiatives. So, here is the simplest reason I can think of to be bold: Through D.E.I.A. you are more likely to uncover the biggest obstacles and the best solution hypotheses for your business. Period. 

Yes -- D.E.I.A. is a socio-economic matter. Yes -- it is a cultural matter. Yes -- it is a matter of communication. Yes -- it is all of those things. But, rest assured, it is decidedly a business matter. Should you not solve it, your business will degrade in ways that all businesses do when they fail to get smarter, more curious and more empathetic. They plateau and regress. You can’t solve it alone. So, trust the superorganism. Trust your people. Trust their diversity. Quite literally, employ them to ask: “Are our voices being heard?” “Do we even know how to listen?” “Do we know how to share our voices?” In pursuit of those answers, D.E.I.A. will be advanced within your organization. Moreover, I am certain that D.E.I.A. correlates to a smarter, more productive and more valuable superorganism.

It’s 2021. Your company can be season ten of “Friends” or season one of “I May Destroy You.” Go on. Watch both. Then ask yourself if it’s really such a tough choice. (It’s not)