Smarter Collaboration

10 Watch Out: The Illusion of Inclusion

We talked recently with a partner at a large private equity firm who happens to come from a minority background. He was discussing the culture at that firm:

I’m not a scratch golfer, and I didn’t go to Yale or study economics. And I’m not white. For my first several years here, I was pretty much of an outsider. Everyone was nice and polite, but the more archetypal guys were always tapped for the juiciest projects. I eventually did make partner, and we’ve recently managed to hire just a few other people of color. But now it’s the opposite problem: we allocate the “diverse people” [he used air quotes] to every single project. They’re burning out because they’re way overstretched, but they feel like ...