Chapter 1

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

What’s Training Got to Do with It?

“Not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed that is not faced.”

—James Baldwin

Intellectual conversation around diversity and inclusion rarely, if ever, creates behavioral change. Articles, books, videos, e-learning modules, and other materials can be useful as tools to support diversity and inclusion work. Without making an emotional connection to the work and gaining a deep understanding and acknowledgement of the added value to one’s personal and work life success, the training remains merely an intellectual conversation, and nothing changes.

Tragically, this is the fate of too many well-intentioned DEI trainings that have been delivered over the past thirty years. It is a seductive process because it is easy to do, receives very little pushback from most participants (for various reasons), is relatively inexpensive, and can be pointed to as evidence that “we are an organization that values diversity.”

It doesn’t work because an emotional connection to diversity, equity, and inclusion has not been made, and the hard work of coming to grips with your personal “unconscious bias” and “blind spots” never happened. In some ways, diversity training gives people a “pass.” For example, if you complete the e-learning module, check the box, and fail to identify explicit value or accountability for diversity-related behaviors in the organization, you have produced effort without outcomes. Personal/emotional connection is essential. It also needs to be supported by a DEI organizational strategy; without clarity around the relevance and applicability of the learning to the organization’s success, diversity training is doomed to failure.

There Is a Difference

An inspired mechanical engineer once proclaimed that her company did diversity training. When questioned about what it involved, she explained it was an annual one-hour online program that defined the terms. When asked if it had impacted her behavior and/or changed anything in the organization, she responded, “No, but it is nice to be informed. And besides, we are very busy.” In our experience, this type of diversity, equity, and inclusion training doesn’t work. It lacks a human connection.

A very different example and outcome was shared by an assistant professor from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government who writes about an experience of delivering a diversity, equity, and inclusion training session to primarily White police officers. The assistant professor came very well prepared with DEI research findings, statistical data, and other written documentation, but rather quickly observed that it was creating very little response from the group.

He was mystified and disappointed at the lack of interest. There was no meaningful dialogue on how to make things better concerning DEI in the organization and no discussion about the challenges and problems that were clearly identified by the data. That is, until a Black police officer began to speak about the information. The Black officer simply stated with emotion and powerful authenticity, “This is my life, this is the life that I have been living.”

The assistant professor put down his notes and his training outline. He reported that when that human connection was made, the dynamics of the session changed. White officers began to listen with great intensity. The group began to have authentic and meaningful conversations about their own and others’ life experiences.

Having reached a greater level of trust, the group reached a new level of DEI awareness. That awareness motivated the group to authentically consider and publicly commit to what they could do better. They began to plan how to make the organization more effective and how to benefit the community. That day was a significant step in the DEI journey for the members of the police force. The training session significantly influenced how seriously the organization considered the DEI strategy that they later developed. That plan benefitted the individuals, the organization, and ultimately, society.

Why Training?

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are a set of principles designed to help an organization perform better by equipping the people with an awareness and a skillset to promote stronger, more productive, more comfortable relationships. For many organizations with large numbers of employees and customers, DEI involves a retooling of fundamental skills, attitudes, and knowledge. It is a strategy and a capability that sets people up for success and competitive advantage. Doing it right involves a large-scale change initiative that includes everyone in the organization.

From an organizational development (OD) standpoint, change initiatives involve several steps and touchpoints to define the change, prepare for the change, install the change, and monitor how well the change is sticking. Of all the steps in a change effort, training is the most important. Leaders set the strategy, project managers manage the process, and external advisors help provide objective guidance, but managers and regular people make it happen.

Training is the linchpin of a large-scale change initiative regarding DEI for three reasons.

• First, it is the most visible of all the project components. When people see and hear about executives, managers, and all their fellow employees having a shared experience, it signals to them that something important is up.

• Second, it is the most personal. It is a shared experience, but everyone has their own personal learning journey in the process.

• Finally, it produces the most profound change at the individual and team level. As seasoned facilitators, we have been blessed to bear witness to thousands of cathartic events, moments of awakening, and life-changing epiphanies during DEI sessions. It is designed as a business event, but has implications for every aspect of a person’s life.

Which Diversity Training?

Most commentators speak of diversity-related training as though it were a singular event or standard course. In our experience there are many different versions of diversity-related training designed for different reasons and with different outcomes. Here are some:

Executive education is designed to help enterprise leaders consider if and how a DEI effort (including training) is right for them at this time. The focus is on definitions, strategy, possibilities, and examples of successful outcomes. This is mostly a guided discussion session with a commitment question at the end.

Management training with a DEI focus is designed to give frontline managers a chance to consider how their role in managing the frontline “value creators” is critical to success with DEI. The focus is on promoting knowledge of the broad range of perspectives available to them for doing the important work of the enterprise. It also promotes the idea that it is management more than leadership that leads to success with DEI.

Marketing and sales events with a DEI focus are designed to help customer-facing employees understand how they may be leaving money on the table by not managing their diversity response. These sessions have changed marketing foci and sales tactics and expanded the success patterns for many enterprises.

HR and compliance training sessions are designed to help human capital professionals learn how they can be supportive of frontline managers and employees as they try to work more productively with an increasingly diverse employee base.

Deliberate diversity training is a targeted learning experience designed to guide managers through an experimentation process to discover if and how a more diverse team can deliver better results than a more homogeneous team.

Foundational training is designed to equip all employees with the basic understanding of the natural human response to increasing diversity. It is presented often as sensitivity and awareness training, but is increasingly presented as a strategy and competency (skills) learning experience. This is the level of training that is most often being referred to as diversity training. We will focus most of our comments on this level of the process.

The Building Blocks

There is a logical methodical process for delivering foundational diversity training that generates change. This book is laid out to address each step of that process. Each building block supports and is supported by the other steps. They are not as much steps as they are touchpoints. Successful DEI projects always include these touchpoints as part of their strategy and execution plan. These Six Building Blocks help to create successful diversity learning experiences in support of an effective DEI change effort.

A plan that includes all these touchpoints will have a greater prospect for creating an environment where everyone feels comfortable and productive in support of organizational objectives.

Does It Promote Relationships?

Diversity management is a relationship discipline. All humans see some differences in other humans, yet too often we let these differences distract us and become a barrier to effective relationships instead of a source for learning, perspective, and enhanced understanding. Conversely, all humans can find things in common with all other humans, and those similarities can be the catalyst for more comfortable and productive relationships.

The development of any discipline begins with clearly defining the problem. In the case of diversity management, the problem is how to manage the distractions caused by differences. It takes intention and skills to overcome that natural human tendency. Good DEI training should equip people to “seek similarities” with others so that their differences matter less. Productive relationships are the desired outcome.

The Goal

The goal of diversity-related training is to help people see other people as equal in value and humanity, and as sacred spirits with varying competencies, life experiences, creative and spiritual gifts. That translates into people with brown skin seeing people with white skin as equals, not as superior, not as more biased, not as an “up.” Likewise, a person with white skin should learn to see a person with brown skin as equal, not as inferior, not as poor, disadvantaged, under-represented, marginalized—not as a “down.” In his landmark book, The Nature of Prejudice, Gordon Allport, talked about prejudice as “being down on what you are not up on.”

On their face, the goals outlined above seem simple, logical, and common sense. The one thing that complicates the execution of those goals is the human condition. The human condition is the result of human conditioning—socialization and self-protection instincts, which if left unchecked, would cause humans to remain as savage and unsophisticated as any other animal on the planet. We all have acquired bias, learned prejudice, a collection of stereotypes, and a natural reaction to differences. For the goals to be achieved, however, we must find a way to address the impact of our human conditioning. We must make better decisions about people. We must learn to think before we react.

The Context

The Short and Quick Approach (Doesn’t Work)

Intellectual conversations about DEI rarely, if ever, create behavioral change. Articles, books, videos, e-learning modules, guest speakers and other materials can be useful as tools to support and inform people about diversity, equity, and inclusion work, but they rarely generate long-lasting and deeply rooted behavioral and organizational change. The Harvard Business Review reports that the term “diversity fatigue” has been coined to describe diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that are empty words without follow-up actions that “are simply for face value.” At best these efforts inform people, but rarely, if ever, transform individuals, businesses, or society.

In addition, many of these so-called DEI training efforts are essentially DEI support materials, which are often focused on a specific dimension of diversity sometimes referred to as “the flavor of the month.” That approach often leaves others feeling excluded, invisible, and not valued. It can also generate resentment in other peoples’ minds, with questions like: “What about me and my group?” These approaches lack the inclusive focus that genuine DEI programs need to have as their foundation. Again, informational, but rarely transformational.

The Emotional Connection

DEI training that gives participants an opportunity to talk and hear each other’s stories can create a human connection. The human connection leads to an emotional awareness that generates action and change. Without an emotional connection, DEI training remains at the intellectual level. Rarely does anything even slightly change. It is a seductive process because informational training is easy to do, it receives very little negative pushback from participants, it is relatively inexpensive, and it can be misused as evidence to publicly proclaim that the organization values diversity.

(Laura) In an exercise where participants discussed and listed stereotypes about different dimensions of diversity, we acknowledged the stark reality that different places in the world contain different stereotypes depending on history, events, etc. The participants then stood in front of the list that gave them a “charge.” A charge is defined as an emotional response to the list. It may be positive or negative. They were then asked to share with the group why they selected that particular list.

The plant manager was the last to go and was clearly hesitating on selecting a list. The room grew silent. The manager was known to be a powerful, wealthy, privileged White male with an Ivy League degree. People wondered aloud, “What type of diversity challenges could he possibly have?” Slowly the plant manager walked over to the chart that listed the stereotypes about Vietnam veterans. A profound silence came over the room as he turned to the group with a look of sadness on his face and tears in his eyes, and said, “I am a Vietnam veteran and I have never told that to anyone in this company because I know the stereotypes that are out there about Vietnam vets”.

“People think we are crazy, baby killers, mentally ill, and suffer from PTSD. I know that I would have been looked at differently if people knew that I was a Vietnam vet. I have kept it hidden until this moment. I decided to say it now because I just realized that there are people in this room, this company, and in the world that suffer every day because they get judged, stereotyped, and labeled for elements of diversity that they can’t hide. I could hide mine, and have done so, because I knew the potential consequences. I never looked at it this way before and I am deeply sorry.”

The plant manager later told us that without the DEI training experience, he never would have become the diversity champion that he grew into. Nor would he have developed the deep awareness and healing he needed for his own wounds. The fact that the training included meaningful interactions with others and the unique opportunity to connect with others as humans made all the difference.

He went on to talk with the group about his experiences when he returned from Vietnam. He was spat at. He had, on some level, judged himself all these years even though he knew that he had made an honorable decision to enlist. Some class members told him that they appreciated his courage and were sorry for his pain and suffering. Some other class members were Vietnam refugees and were able to tell him their perspective. Others, who had not been directly impacted by the Vietnam War, shared their perspective. Everyone in the room that day broadened and deepened their understanding that we are all in this together. Everyone has pain. Everyone has a story. Everyone needs to be part of the DEI conversation.

Finding the Missing Connection

The fact is, we don’t know what any other person has experienced in life. Nor do we know what affects another person. If we rely only on what we think about a person, we may miss the opportunity for genuine connection.

(Laura) John was a financially secure, White male, senior manager in his early fifties who sat wrapped in a tightly fastened tan raincoat for almost two days in one of our multi-day training sessions, only engaging in conversation when necessary. We respected his space and privately checked in with him regularly.

Moved by the authentic and generous sharing of stories by others, in the early afternoon of the second day, he suddenly began to talk about his pain of not being able to relate to women. He admitted to always feeling defensive and devalued for being born a White man. He was angry that his leisure-time activities, such as belonging to a yacht club, were now being “infiltrated” (his words, not ours) by women.

Clearly distraught, he did not know what to do and asked for help. We did not know this man personally, so we did not have any idea how long he had been carrying these feelings. But it was evident that it was impacting his professional success and personal life. This illustrates the power of the human connection in DEI training. Others listened to his story without judgment and helped him figure out who the enemy was (not women), how to move through his fear, and to begin to open his life to different dimensions of diversity. Participants talked with him about opening his personal and professional life to many new and exciting opportunities without totally giving up anything that he deeply cherished.

The Power of Inclusive Approaches

Effective diversity training cannot be done in a vacuum. The invitation to be part of the diversity, equity and inclusion conversation must be all-inclusive and empathy must be extended to all. DEI training needs to be a space where all dimensions of diversity are welcome and valued, and everyone’s story and experience is listened to and respected for its human connection. Otherwise, you are setting up yourself and the organization for failure.

What Training Can Contribute

If you agree with the ideas and concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion, training is a useful tool. Diversity training does three things:

(1) Gives space for adults to come to their own understanding and awareness of all aspects of DEI, including how it has impacted their own and others’ lives.

(2) Helps participants make a business connection to how DEI can enhance and improve their business.

(3) Helps participants understand how their actions as individuals impact themselves, the businesses they work for, and society at large in a profound way. It affects their personal and professional lives.

Two Key Elements

Diversity training that benefits individuals, businesses, and society must have at least two important elements:

1. The training must spark a human connection between people in the session.

Through the sharing of diversity-related life experiences, people begin to realize how much they do not know about other peoples’ lives. That realization often comes with a powerful jolt to their consciousness. A window is opened to an expanded awareness of the impact of diversity, equity, and inclusion on an individual’s personal and professional lives. They begin to visualize images of people attached to the concepts they are reviewing.

They see real people whose daily professional and personal lives are deeply impacted by the DEI statistics they read and the news stories they have heard. Through this process, the connection to one’s own life becomes much clearer, which can create breakthrough moments in an individual’s DEI journey. Perhaps their own stories have never been told, and/or did not fit the types of stories that were most often discussed in relation to DEI. However, their story had been deeply impactful in their own life experience. Perhaps people feared that their stories would not be viewed as politically correct, worthy of discussion, and emotionally connected to DEI work as others saw it.

This “missing connection” is often uncovered dramatically in participants of our multiday workshops. Diversity, equity, and inclusion is rarely the problem preventing the authentic acceptance and development of relationships with others, but so often it is used as an easy target to blame. Training that fuels human connection is essential for real change to happen whether it is at the individual, organizational, or societal level.

2. The training must be totally and equally inclusive of all dimensions of diversity.

People don’t need to agree with everyone’s views, but the respect and acceptance of their humanness in a diversity training is non-negotiable. Growth in diversity, equity, and inclusion training does not come from keeping some dimensions of diversity invisible and undiscussable. This action negates the commitment of everything that diversity, equity, and inclusion training stands for. The more we can intentionally listen to each other, rather than judging and/or prematurely deciding we know what is true for them and not getting defensive ourselves, the more opportunity we will have to learn and be better partners and leaders in DEI.

The Diversity Lens

A priceless value of diversity training based on human connection is that it creates an opportunity for individuals to have the type of unique and necessary moments of diversity awareness that generate behavior change. We often talk about diversity training that generates change as creating a “diversity lens” through which you can never look at the world in quite the same way again. It can be stunning to realize new things about yourself and others concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion. We often talk about this as a “DEI moment,” when you look in the mirror and may not like what you see.

These moments of DEI awareness can include seeing and realizing things about how much you have been missing, how your past behaviors and words may have impacted others, the biases that you may have, and how much you really do not know about DEI that you perhaps thought that you did. Not to worry—in diversity, equity, and inclusion work, we honor and celebrate these moments of awareness because it is a great place to begin to learn what we don’t know about others and ourselves. This is the type of inclusive approach to DEI training that we need to be doing as a critical part of DEI programs within our organizations if we are to be successful.

Understanding You and Me

The hard work of understanding your own and others’ DEI challenges is a critical part of diversity training that generates real change. Ineffective training too often gives people and organizations a pass. For example, if you complete the e-learning module, check the box, and fail to identify explicit value or accountability for diversity-related behaviors in the organization, you have produced effort without outcomes.

Personal and emotional connection is essential. These emotional connections need to be supported by organizational strategy and behavioral norms. Without clarity around the relevance and applicability of the learning to the organization’s success, diversity training is doomed to failure.

How Obi Taught Me Jedi Magic

Laura shared a story that illustrates how we all have been affected by our unique set of life experiences.

(Laura) I used to say that I disliked dogs. Sometimes in my fear I would even say that I hated dogs. On the very rare occasions when I got to know someone’s friendly dog, I would make an exception. Then I would go on to explain to anyone who would listen that, “I have been bitten three times by dogs whose owners had said to me that their dogs were friendly.” I would feel very justified and self-righteous about what I had said about dogs and my fear of dogs. It made perfect sense to me.

Then one day, our family got a dog, and my world changed. My younger daughter Willow had been wanting a dog ever since she could speak. Finally, shortly before she turned twenty-one years old, I realized I would be very sad if Willow never got to have a dog. So, we got her a dog. What you need to know is that three days after we got Willow’s dog that she named Obi, (yes, Star Wars fans, it is a reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master), she went in for knee surgery. For almost three weeks, I was responsible for Obi. I had to face my fears “up close and personal.”

Obi and I had lots of time to get to know each other. In many ways, we walked through the “DEI fire” together. Our neighbor, Kate, seeing the diversity challenge, gave us a gift of a “dog-whisperer trainer.” I was deeply humbled while working with the trainer. The gift that I received was that I realized that it wasn’t dogs that I had a problem with, it was with the owners who did not properly train their dogs. I realized that my angst and distrust was misplaced, and my former behavior was misdirected. I could not have learned this without living through it. I was so sure that I was right about dogs, and I had several examples to prove it (I even have a scar!).

Here’s what I came to know. Dogs are basically wonderful animals, pets, and companions. It is the owners that can mess them up. The early morning walks in the rain, navigating busy streets, and the opportunity to live day-to-day with a dog transformed me. I realized how truly wonderful our dog Obi was and how unconsciously incompetently (badly) I had treated him. Yet, Obi stuck with me, did everything that I asked, and in some ways, gave more than I deserved.

I grew up with cats, not dogs. Cats are my kind of “people.” I now had to face a deep fear based on three unrelated unpleasant experiences (dog bites). The unpleasant experiences only cemented my certainty that I was right to act this way. But luckily, a diversity learning experience, Obi, came into my life, and I listened and learned. The only reason that I changed my view of dogs was because I got to have an “emotionally, connected experience” with one. Prior to that, I had little exposure or experience with them, except three quite negative interactions.

The Obi Effect

This experience with a dog reminded me about how I have been on the receiving end of similar dynamics in my professional and even in my personal life. I have experienced judgments from people based on my dimensions of diversity without them even getting to know me. I have lived with unjustified behavior towards me driven by negative experiences others had with people who resembled me. Those were very painful and frustrating experiences for me. They often were never related to a personal/direct experience with me, but were based on stereotypes and unconscious biases about those with whom I shared similar dimensions of diversity. These same dynamics are an everyday reality for so many.

The way I often survived this type of treatment in my professional experiences was to focus intensely on the job I had to do. So, I tolerated the treatment and carried on … leaving those types of horrible situations as soon as I could. I know that many others use the same process to survive in these way too common instances, where DEI principles built on the Six Building Blocks have not occurred. It could have been, and can be, so much better.

Diversity training can be one of the best learning experiences of your personal and professional life. When we get up close and personal with authentic connections and have good trainers (facilitators), we can help shape people’s preconceived notions. We can help people transform their own behavior to create a more inclusive environment and become better team members and leaders for people in all aspects of their lives. These are the types of life-changing experiences that well-designed and facilitated diversity, equity, and inclusion training support.

Organizational Development Theory in Practice

A VP of a large international organization felt frustrated. “Why do I still keep hearing complaints about diversity issues? We have held town halls and completed online training. People can even complete the training on their lunch break if they are too busy with work. I do not understand it,” he stated. It is sad to think about how many times we have had this initial conversation with a potential client and/or heard about similar sentiments expressed to our DEI colleagues.

Organizational development theory has so much to offer diversity training initiatives because its practitioners know that an organization is composed of many moving parts. You need to address all the parts for successful long-term change. In diversity training, we talk about the Three-Tier Model. The Three-Tier Model describes a need for the focus to be on three levels to create long-term change and transformation:

Level One: Personal/Internal: Relates to one’s personal beliefs, values, life experiences, biases, stereotypes, etc. It explores questions such as: What do I believe? What biases may I be holding? How have my life experiences impacted me?

Level Two: Interpersonal and Intergroup: Relates to how one interacts with others, including interactions between individuals and groups. Examples: How do men and women interact? How do new hires and long-term employees relate to each other? How do the sales teams interact with the marketing groups?

Level Three: Organizational Policies and Procedures: Relates to the organization’s policies and procedures, as well as the written and unwritten behavioral norms. Examples: Do our recruitment and hiring policies and procedures support our DEI values? Do our compensation processes support equity and inclusion?

DEI training needs to touch on each of these areas to have the best chance of success. For example, someone may have a very strong personal value of equity in salary level and promotional opportunity, but if the compensation policy has strict rules about salary levels and standard requirements for promotional opportunities, the manager will not be able to make that happen. Or, there may be “rules” (unwritten) that no one gets to middle management without a college degree, or that three years of experience are mandatory for a promotional opportunity in another area.

It can be very frustrating and demoralizing when a dedicated manager attends a great DEI training session only to discover that the company’s policies and procedures are stacked against the DEI future that was just discussed in the DEI training workshop. This can have disastrous effects all the way around the organization. Be diligent in making your DEI training inclusive of all three tiers of organizational change and the results will be brilliant!

Intention Does Not Equal Results

When many people think of diversity, they think of race, gender, and other forms of difference. We want to rebrand that notion so that people see the truth about diversity and the path to effectiveness with diversity. That path involves basic human connections and personal behavioral change. The workplace is an inherently diverse environment. That fact is the basis of DEI work. Our efforts should face that fact and promote learning that allows that fact to benefit everyone.

Diversity work intends to level the playing field. Instead, it often creates “us vs. them” distinctions. It intends to create inclusive workplaces. Instead, it deliberately excludes some people. DEI training sets out to empower (some) people. Instead, it engages in the one thing adults naturally rebel against—being told what to think.

We propose an approach to DEI efforts that allows all people to participate and addresses all their needs. It focuses on managing each individual as an individual and managing teams as a collective mix. We envision an environment in which people are comfortable and productive working with other people. That simple vision need not be clogged with unnecessary complexity.

Diversity and Exclusion

The promise of diversity management assumed that it would provide equal value for everyone. If it were done according to the original construct, there would be no difference in the benefit to large corporations versus small businesses, domestic versus international businesses, traditional (White male) workers versus nontraditional workers, and senior executives versus working-class people. Diversity management was designed to give us a reason to access talent in different packaging (familiar and unfamiliar), to make it profitable to assume that the contributions of all employees are worthy of consideration, to overcome the tendency to prefer some identities over others, and to allow everyone to participate so they can celebrate the accomplishments of a true team effort.

The temptation to reduce diversity management to a study of cohorts and dimensions of diversity has hurt the effort to create a discipline for the field. True diversity management is not a function of identity. A team comprising of all White men is just as much of interest to a diversity management practitioner as a team comprising several races, both genders, multiple functions, and several cultural orientations. The management discipline of diversity management is about managing to the individual rather than managing to any group identity. Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. pointed out that White men are just as odd (different) and just as normal (similar) as all other groups.

The same is true of all people. No one can be defined by a single dimension of diversity. In like manner, no two people share the same set of dimensions. Two Black men invariably have some things in common and they have some differences. The reliance on dimensions of diversity made it inevitable (given our social conditioning) that White men would be candidates for exclusion.

What About Bob?

(Jim) In 1996, I wrote an article for the Managing Diversity Newsletter entitled “What About Bob?” I warned that it would be a big mistake to exclude White, non-Hispanic, non-immigrant, able-bodied, heterosexual males from the diversity management conversation. I argued that White men (collectively) were unnecessarily being projected as the “enemy.” This section of that article illustrates the problem we created by being selective in our inclusion.

“Inclusiveness cannot be redefined to exclude one group. In fact, failure to deliberately include White men in the debate, the strategy, and the implementation of diversity management will lead to its predictable failure. White men will respond to exclusion in natural human ways. They will band together; they will withdraw support; they will guard the old ways; they will get even. Making full use of our nation’s human capital requires that we include all available talent and that we remove all barriers (including assumptions of privilege) to individual achievement.”

Now, as we look at the state of the movement, both inside major enterprises and in the larger society, that article was prescient. The mistake we made was misreading the reality of being White and male in the American workplace. Many assumed that the inherent privilege of being White and male was extended to and felt by all White men. We were distracted by the top 1% and concluded that the other 99% had equal standing at the top. Because White men occupied over 90% of the top positions in corporate America and controlled the bulk of the wealth in the nation, many thought that experience was shared by all White men. The reality is much more complex and nuanced.

In the formative stage of the movement, White men played a pivotal role in the development of the platforms on which diversity management rested. It is a real disservice to them that their seminal work and their voices have been muffled in the current environment. The evolution of the field has seen a decline in the presence and influence of White men (except White male CEOs).

The Rainbow Solution

According to recent surveys, over 90% of newly appointed chief diversity officers (CDOs) in the United States are People of Color. That continues to be a mistake we can ill afford to make. Jim reminds us that “Unless we all contribute to the successful fulfillment of the goals of diversity management, none of us will ever realize the promise of diversity management.” We need all dimensions of diversity represented in all aspects of diversity to be the strongest we can be; all the diversity research would attest to this basic concept.

The reality is that something happens along the way, often in the form of ugly unconscious bias by many in the field and those in the position of hiring candidates to lead and/or consult in DEI. The statistic of over 90% of newly appointed CDOs being People of Color is driven by something very deep, perhaps unconscious, and way too often undiscussable by many. The reverse is also true, as People of Color are often assumed to be experts in DEI and face embarrassing situations when called upon for DEI solutions. One Black executive said, “I am an engineer, doctor, marketing specialist, sales manager, etc. I am not a DEI expert.”

We truly are all in this together and need to learn about each other and to face organizational and social truths, no matter how unconscious and well-intended, that are having a negative impact on the field. For example, White women have been told in DEI leadership job interviews that they have all the skills, are outstanding, and would be an incredible help to the company, but if they hire a White person for the job, even a White woman, that the employees of color would “go nuts,” and that it was better to have a less qualified Person of Color (with far less knowledge and experience in the field of DEI) than a White person who was clearly more qualified. When people of any color collude and support these types of decisions, it hurts the whole DEI movement.

Let’s get smart and do it together!