Why and How DEI Needs to Evolve for the 21st Century

– From focusing on creating a public image to focusing on having a real impact!

Many DEI efforts in organizations today still rely on outdated diversity, equity, and inclusion approaches designed in the 20th century to meet the then-emerging legal and sentiment standards of the 1960s. These worked pretty well at a time when public attitudes were shifted toward correcting past wrongs due to the success of awareness-raising social justice movements, like those led by Dr. Martin Luther King and other advocates for fairness and equity. However, in today's climate, these 20th-century strategies are no longer working as they did in the past. In the balance of this article, I will explain why these strategies fall short today and how DEI leaders can evolve their approach for 21st-century conditions.

Why 20th-Century DEI Practices Failing Today?

The DEI practices that were initially developed to comply with emerging legal standards of the 20th century and address the growing sentiment of the public back then toward correcting historical injustices are clearly faltering in today’s environment. Why? For starters, modern employees and consumers tend to be more skeptical of these surface-level DEI initiatives, often viewing them as mere “virtue signaling” that prioritizes corporate image over real impact. This sentiment is not far from the truth when we witness disparities in pay, development opportunities, and advancement continue to persist within companies that have publicly celebrated diversity for decades. This is why many organizations with these types of practices, according to a Work Human study, find that while HR leaders driving them rate themselves a 97% success score, the employee communities they are supposed to be serving only rate them a paltry 37%.

In addition to this, many white males who see and interpret these performative initiatives, such as Heritage Month celebrations, as giving priority to the careers of women and underrepresented people tend to conclude that Caucasian men are getting the short end of the stick. So, while women and underrepresented people rightly perceive themselves as continuing to be short-changed by companies, many white males believe these heritage celebrations and other symbolic gestures are actual evidence that these non-white-male communities are getting extra benefits at their expense. This perception fosters anger and resistance on the part of white males, sometimes vocal, often silent—against DEI efforts. And training programs offered to help raise awareness of white privilege, bias, or, in some cases, white society's culpability in the oppression of women and minorities only make matters worse with this community.

?Meanwhile, some business leaders who have traditionally supported DEI minimally, seeing it in the past as a low-cost way to boost their reputation, are now facing intensified scrutiny from conservative groups. And despite all the quotes from groups like McKinsey about DEI's business and economic value, these business leaders are not seeing a visible impact on their bottom line. (To a great degree, because in the past, these business leaders never demanded fiscal rigor from DEI programs they saw as nice, low-cost corporate window-dressing). Today, all these business leaders see are the escalating pressures from political and conservative activists and threats of boycotts. Given these facts, it's no surprise that for many, the risk of backlash has become a strong incentive to cut DEI budgets or dissolve DEI offices altogether, reverting to minimum effort and the low visibility HR-run compliance-focused efforts they see as less controversial and equally effective for meeting legal obligations.

?These new and emerging conditions result in many DEI practitioners being left dumbfounded as they look at practices once considered “best practices” ripped apart and dissolved. So, what is the solution? I believe the solution lies in recognizing the powerful truth voiced by Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, when he stated, “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Bell used this metaphor to express the idea of finding new opportunities after setbacks through resilience and openness to change in the face of challenges instead of longing for a return to the past. So, what new door has opened for us in DEI, and how do we enter it?

The New Result-Oriented Approach to DEI

?I believe that for the first time in the history of DEI, we are facing one of the best opportunities to show the power of a new strategic form of DEI to produce business and social benefits. Today’s DEI efforts can refocus toward making substantive organizational improvements that create the kind of companies that deliver measurable benefits to the modern workforce and marketplace. DEI leaders can demonstrate the competitive power of their DEI practices by helping their companies beat their less DEI-savvy competitors in securing talent and market share. (For more on this, read my Forbes article titled How Brands Can Gain a Competitive Advantage With Authentic DEI). Can you see a CEO eliminating a DEI business practice that saves them 29 million dollars by reducing the turnover gap between people of color and other groups, brings in 40 million dollars of business taken from less agile competitors, and/or helps them poach the top thought leader behind a massive competitive project expected to yield 100 million dollars over the next five years? I don’t think so.

?And not only will this business-impacting practice enable you to poach top talent and clients from competitors, but it will also help you attract ESG-conscious investors and donors who seek organizations prioritizing equity and social responsibility, which they are betting will produce 21st-century sustainable growth.

My Closing Advice

?So, my advice is to stop staring at the closed door of the past and lamenting the loss of state-level and Supreme Court legislative support and no resistance from people who treated DEI as sacredly as they did motherhood and apple-pie and start going through the new open door of opportunity. By transforming your DEI efforts from a practice focusing on superficial PR gestures that no longer work into a business practice that can capture dissatisfied clients and talented employees from competitors and draw new investors, you can instantly become a 21st-century-ready success.

As Charles Darwin once observed while working on his seminal book On The Origin of the Species, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” The message here for DEI leaders is simple: Adapt or risk becoming irrelevant. By evolving our DEI to produce measurable outcomes within organizations today, DEI leaders can make DEI the indispensable practice of the 21st Century.

So, are you ready to revolutionize your DEI practices? At the CDO PowerCircle, we specialize in transforming DEI practices into dynamic, impactful business strategies vital for today’s business enterprise. Don’t miss the chance to evolve and put your DEI practice at the forefront of the 21st century’s new and robust DEI movement. Check out how we can help you elevate your DEI efforts and drive real business success that gets business leaders to double down on their support for you and your efforts. To start, click here, and let’s schedule a time to connect on Zoom and begin to unlock your DEI practice’s potential together!