JUSTICE. EQUITY. DIVERSITY. INCLUSION.
alignment.
reorganizing to create exponential value.
last september, linkedin reported that over the last five years, the number of folks with diversity and inclusion in their title has more than doubled (107% growth). around the same time, the WSJ shared that the turnover rate within the CDO (chief diversity officer) role is exceptionally high.
what’s the deal?
well, change agents want to be agents of change.
although a hot commodity, the role often leaves practitioners feeling like they are digging in dry sand — culminating in absolute burnout.
it begs the question, how does one drive enduring change from the corporate center?
too often the response is, well, we need a business case.
essentially seeking the justification for diversifying talent. yet, to expect an ROI for the work necessary to ensure a company—at minimum—reflects the very fabric of the countries and locales it operates within is quite literally systemic racism in all its glory.
but we’re not going there today.
instead, let’s reframe.
in the last snippet, we explored all that brands offer as opportunity and possibility.
what if executive leaders took that same energy and imagined their greatest moonshots—possibilities that teeter on the brink of impossible?
and, perhaps just perhaps, those same leaders were honest in assessing that their current bench-strength, even under their leadership, wouldn’t be enough to realize their greatest dreams.
and, crazier still, that to even conceive of the micro-steps necessary to attempt moonshot approach would require new and different leadership.
this is not a proposal to slice up the pie differently—instead, this is an entreaty to move from a scarcity mindset towards one of abundance. let’s figure out how to expand the pie.
imagine the possibilities of working to push to the fringe in search of truly actualizing purpose.
this goes beyond the core business.
this is beyond YoY growth.
so what does that require?
first and foremost, it starts with decoupling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) from HR.
let’s be clear. it is not about decoupling from people.
it is about separating the two entities functionally — penning a more expansive charge.
DEI is a futurist capability—through articulation of our greatest dreams, this capability has the power to make them realized.
until DEI is granted an enterprise-wide remit it will remain a fair-weather endeavor — front and center when there aren’t competing business priorities.
always monitored on a dashboard but ultimately someone else’s job to deliver.
sidebar: if leaders are truly committed to driving meaningful change that advances representation and mix efforts, then they must ensure business needs drive the talent pipeline — not the other way around. it presents a more meaningful proposition for all involved.
not to mention that over-indexing on representation and mix inherently places the onus of systemic change on said underrepresented talent.
somehow, we’ve cuddled up to this notion that diverse talent will enter, and their mere presence will shift entrenched paradigms — creating better teams, a better company.
hello, magical minority.
it’s like asking your daughter’s new wife to come into the family and unpack, process, and solve generational family bickering and trauma during their first year of marriage.
that’s not the role she signed up for, and, let’s be honest, nobody wants that invitation.
it is not only unfair but also lazy.
it places the burden on folks who are in the minority. it expects them to use an outsized voice to right the system even though they are not of said system—the unique system of interconnected and interdependent business processes and ways of working that fuel a particular company.
so what does it mean to ensure the business drives the pipeline?
it means advancing equity by linking it to business outcomes — the c-suite held to task through an enterprise-wide, multi-year, metrics-driven strategy.
how might DEI crack wide open the seemingly impossible business conundrums—epically disrupting from within and driving external value?
micro-steps will require reimagining existing business processes and routes to market.
commercial leaders: what corner of commerce does your brand play in? what money is being left on the table? who might benefit from access to your goods or services yet for whatever reason—be it price or proximity—remains cut off from the marketplace?
operating officers: evaluate your value-chain — internally and externally. who is consistently tapped—your go-tos? alternatively, how might networks expand to enhance supplier (in the broadest sense) diversity?
heads of product: how might you shift the sphere of influence within product design so that preconceived ideals regarding how it gets made (a.k.a the way we do it here) are shattered. what voices are typically shut down—marginalized, not at the table?
strategy and innovation titans: when considering growth, how might reinvention of joint-venture and acquisition strategies offer new possibilities for black and brown upstarts? in turn, how can their secret sauce be bottled and utilized internally, at scale, to lead to imaginative routes to market as well as fan a more systemically diverse culture?
the CDO should be the executive designee, the master co-conspirator, expected to lean into challenges that unlock exponential value. the one that helps mold leading-edge approaches that deliver differentiated optionality.
to expand into new markets.
to capture additional share of the wallet.
to reach consumers previously unattainable.
to disrupt at the fringe.
to build a culture that can rise to the occasion.
that’s right, work of this nature absolutely requires teaming differently than we traditionally see within the core business. (see! this is where the people come in!)
this becomes the pull for diverse talent — the demand. if you build it, the excellence will come.
solving these challenges with authenticity requires banding together teams that inherently approach these challenges differently — leveraging an unexpected vantage point.
if they don’t, companies run the risk of solving on behalf of communities they have no real authority representing — their solutions will ring hollow and false.
they’ll stand on shaky ground.
to safeguard that CDOs (and practitioners of similar ilk) are building sandcastles versus digging in dry sand, their work must extend beyond talent.
exponential value creation requires that CDOs must have the actual remit, not just be subtly tasked with the work. they must be fully resourced—team, dollars, and a (for real for real, not for show) seat at the c-suite table.
CDOs must possess the agency to explore every nook and cranny — to poke, to prod, to close gaps. they must be armed to dream big and push the company to imagine new futures—be the babe ruth.
anything less would be uncivilized.
