Why is Diversity Still a Pie Chart? Shouldn’t it Be a Piece of the Pie?

I began the week by asking about your POV on Diversity and Inclusion…and whether or not you saw a difference between the “thing” DEI and the proven success principle of Diversity and Inclusion.?

I hope that in the future, historians looking back on our time will be baffled and bewildered, wondering how and why the most interconnected world ever remained as divisive, hateful, and otherwise biased as it is. Perhaps they will see us as unchanged from previous generations, whose separatism often led to violence and death and assuredly created and perpetuated inequality.?

I have written previously about the growing number of siloed echo chambers we have created. Bubbles that float unconnected to others are, in fact, limiting diversity of all kinds. Some bubbles are filled with people with good intentions and some with bad (really bad intentions), while others are just confused or content to float along.?

No matter the motivation, the separatism created (even by those preaching diversity in their own bubbles)…did not advance society. At least, not the way we hoped…and it opened up the door to dismantling DEI (the thing) and, still worse, hurting diversity (the principle).?

Separatism takes us backward. Among the many factors affecting our slide are politics and religion, with a dose of the usual ignorance that I imagine will always be a part of the human ethos.

Given that, as I said in my prior IMAGINE, we need to look at diversity again, recheck its meaning, and add some extra weight to its purpose.?

Frankly, it’s hard to believe that (all else aside) companies are still discussing diversity as a business strategy. An article, a number of years ago, in The Atlantic explained:?

“The idea and importance of cognitive diversity is nothing new. A 2004 study from researchers at the University of Michigan and Loyola Chicago found that creating groups of individuals who had diverse approaches to problem solving outperformed groups that were made up of only the most talented problem-solvers. And a 2012 study from McKinsey found that increased representational diversity could help a company’s bottom line, supporting the idea that outside of morality or justice, diversity may be helpful simply as a business strategy.”

Simply put, even if you don’t get the “Human Rights Equality” imperative, business is business. Yet Georgia State University Assistant Professor, Adia Harvey Wingfield, a race, class, and gender in the workplace specialist, said in the same article:?

“We live in a more diverse world in a superficial sense. Diversity becomes defined so broadly that using diversity programs or affirmative action as a way of remedying ongoing historical inequalities can easily become overlooked and dismissed,” she said. “People become focused on having diversity for the sake of diversity and it loses the power to address existing inequalities.”

Adding to the issue is the hashtag soup of authentic causes vying for their rightful place in the diversity discussion and action plan, compounded by confusion around those that aren’t quite as authentic. Companies often get caught between being too general or too specific in addressing their own makeup.

Let’s be clear: We have a long road ahead of us…particularly with the added challenges of today as companies….as industries, as people, and dare I say, as a world. We may never have a ‘cure’ for human shortcomings. But what we do have, and always will have, are ideas and talent. By highlighting these challenges, we have a chance to change the discourse. Think twice, then think twice again when hiring because talent comes in many forms, shapes, and sizes.?

The problem of inclusion is equally important as diversity…maybe even more so. It’s just not enough to look at the percentage makeup of groups without understanding that we will have achieved little other than good-looking graphs and charts without assimilating diverse populations into the conversations and processes that define businesses.?

We have retreated precisely because we think we have advanced. Of course, we believe in diversity. Who doesn’t…? Of course, we have diverse groups of friends….You’re boring if you don’t! Of course, your staff is diverse….I’m sure you can show me the statistics.?

While the McKinsey study should have ended the very discussion, as the business case is clear, I fear that losing our moral imperative jeopardizes our future even more as we reduce it all to pie charts.?

To recap: Diversity of race, religion, socioeconomics, region, sexual orientation, intellect, and physical ability is the challenge. Inclusion is the goal. A better world is the outcome.

Yet, I am still concerned that we are missing the mark. Perhaps there is a way to unite us in a bigger way before we start counting heads.?

As I pondered this, I came across a quote from U Thant, a Burmese diplomat who championed human rights and became the third Secretary General of the United Nations—the first non-European to hold the position.?

As a teenager, I had the opportunity to meet him. Listen:

“The war we have to wage today has only one goal and that is to make the world safe for diversity.” —U Thant

Maybe we are all thinking too small.

What do you think?