The Drama-Free Workplace

3 Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging . . . Not Just PC BS

The link between diverse organizations and financial performance has been studied extensively and the conclusion is clear: Diversity provides a competitive edge. This is especially true if the organization has a diverse leadership team.¹

Given this reality, it’s no wonder that companies in the United States spend hundreds of millions of dollars on diversity initiatives. And that spend increases every year. That begs the question: Are these initiatives working? Are companies getting a return on their multimillion-dollar investment?

Unfortunately, the answers are currently not so good. Despite the resources poured into initiatives to increase the number of women, minority, and other underrepresented groups, companies have seen little change and, most notably, almost no movement at the top leadership and board levels. As I’ll discuss below, a key ingredient to a successful diversity program is authenticity. Over the years I’ve seen organization after organization say they are committed to diversity, but really only giving lip service to an initiative. What these organizations don’t realize is that being inauthentic not only means you’ll see no results when it comes to diversity, but that you’ll actually see negative repercussions for the insincere efforts.

But there is good news. There are companies who have successfully tackled issues of unconscious bias to improve hiring and retention of diverse talent. Hundreds of companies ...