Most Companies are [now] Focusing on Diversity. Here’s Why That’s Wrong.

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During a her Ted Talk, The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie quotes Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti saying “if you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story and to start with, ‘Secondly.’”

When recalling this quote, I’m struck by the word “secondly”.

Logically a “secondly” requires a “firstly” or a “previously”; a reminder that something preceded this moment and the subsequent statement. In Adichie’s speech, she gives the secondary clause example, “the Native American’s arrows” while challenging her audience to consider that first, “the British travelers came (and invaded)” to help illustrate how our educational institutions have built an incomplete narrative that have led to harmful outcomes.

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In our workplaces today we have another been telling our own incomplete and therefore dangerous narrative that has been producing harmful outcomes for some time now. Namely, the stories we tell around:

Corporate Diversity strategies.

Corporate Diversity Strategies are the greatest example of the contemporary “secondly” shaping our modern workplaces. This is a global phenomenon but particularly felt and faced by teams rooted in North America & specifically the United States. Companies often talk about their Corporate Diversity Strategies but rarely, if ever, talk about their:

1. Ineffective Talent Acquisition structures
2. Ineffective DEI strategies
3. Ineffective cohesion with key stakeholders

This makes their narrative incomplete.

We want to explore these missing parts of the Diversity conversation and in this piece we’re going to focus on the first missing part, Ineffective Talent Acquisition structures. We want to help you understand where things stand and why a focus on Diversity first is the wrong approach.

Corporate Diversity Strategies are the greatest example of the contemporary “secondly’” shaping our modern workplaces.

Ineffective Talent Acquisition Structures

Talent Acquisition (TA) structures are inherently barrier-ed, basic & biased:

Barrier-ed: meaning there’s very little meaningful visibility into company culture, particularly at the intersection of personal identity & DEI. This means as a historically underrepresented individual, its almost impossible to have confidence in how psychologically safe a working environment might be until you already commit to working there.

Basic: TA’s focus tends to be on getting people in the door. This isn’t inherently bad itself but most effort and allocation of resources are spent on attracting talent, especially underrepresented talent, but rarely are meaningful resources allocated to retaining and growing that talent once within the company.

Biased: Most TA strategies for business-critical roles (whether founding teams or key executive hires) rely heavily on the personal networks or preexisting expectations usually set by the existing decision makers. If the decision makers reflect the traditional Silicon Valley pedigree (eg: Google for example is 80% male and 53% white identifying) of identity, socio-economic status, and educational background, the likelihood of another hire reflecting that is almost certain.

With this as our backdrop, it’s no wonder that companies in tech have made massive technological leaps but lackluster movement in regards to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Ultimately, the environment is not set up for success. And it will remain destined for repetitive failure until the root issues — the “firstly” parts of the narrative such as those listed above — are meaningfully addressed & overhauled.

With this as our backdrop, it’s no wonder that companies in tech have made massive technological leaps but lackluster movement in regards to Diversity, Equity & inclusion.

So naturally the question is whether or not companies can recover from this widespread phenomenon? We believe the answer is, yes, they can — with the right voices and a strong commitment to change.

Ascending is that voice.

And we’re the committed partner vital to actualizing sustained change that’s previously been unattainable.

The solution we’ve built is rooted in the opposite of what most teams currently possess:

• We’re a deeply diverse leadership team, supported by an even more diverse community.
• Our solution is rooted in having felt these exact pain points, firsthand.
• Our expertise comes from time our team has spent at big companies (including Google & Facebook) as well as at rising venture-backed startups who made significant strides in Diversity to begin with but ultimately fell flat in the end.

This solution we’ve crafted and are unveiling is what we call: DEI Sourcing 101™️ the first comprehensive recruiting overhaul facilitated by the leadership at Ascending.

We’d like to invite you to check it out here.

More on it later but for now thanks for reading & reach out with your thoughts, comments & feedback at: jeremy@joinascending.com.

Cheers,

J & the Ascending Launch Team 🚀