The Pomegranate Principle

CHAPTER TWOSTOP DOING THIS: Not Recognizing the Phase of DEI Adoption Your Organization Is In

I have decades of executive search and recruiting experience, first with a global organization and now with my own company, Protégé Search, and over those decades I have figured out that there are four phases of adoption for companies seeking successful DEI outcomes, each with its own challenges and issues. As I mentioned in the introduction, I did not write this book to convince you that DEI is a good thing, because if you do not believe that diversity is a key to innovation, growth, and adaptability at this point, you may not want the status quo to change at your organization. But if companies could imagine their most commercially successful versions of themselves as happening on the opposite end of their DEI journeys, they would be much more willing to embrace these strategies.

If the PGA Tour, which had a “Whites Only” clause until 1961,¹ knew what the PGA Tour would look like if it integrated and allowed Black players and the Tiger Woodses of the world to play in tournaments, they would have integrated a long time ago. Tiger Woods brought millions of people into the golf world—millions of people buying equipment, clothing, shoes, and rounds of golf. He catalyzed millions of people to take lessons, join golf clubs, vacation at golf resorts, watch golf on TV, and spend their hard‐earned dollars on the sport. And what does the PGA Tour think about DEI now? Well, it is dying to find ...