{"id":1104,"date":"2021-03-08T16:12:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-08T23:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canopyadvisory.com\/?p=1104"},"modified":"2023-11-07T22:38:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T05:38:46","slug":"where-dei-strategies-fall-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canopyadvisory.com\/where-dei-strategies-fall-short\/","title":{"rendered":"Where DEI Strategies Fall Short"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question:<\/h2>\n

The diversity industry has been around since the 1960s. Yet, many organizations have little to show for their diversity efforts. So my question is, what actually keeps organizations from being more diverse, equitable, and inclusive? Surely it can\u2019t be a lack of resources.<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/h2>\n

The foundation of today\u2019s diversity industry<\/a> was built six decades ago on a combination of legal compliance and social justice. So you\u2019re right: we\u2019ve had a plethora of time and resources to try and \u201cfigure out\u201d how to make our organizations more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. In this light, the fact that our world is 257 years away from achieving gender equity across all races\/ethnicities seems puzzling.<\/p>\n

So we need to ask ourselves whether the 60-year-old foundation of the diversity industry still serves us today. And what about the current stack of DEI resources at our disposal\u2014do they still serve their function?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Perhaps the foundation of the diversity industry (compliance and social justice) is crumbling and we need to rebuild it. Perhaps that means we will need to add new tools to our DEI toolbox to reconstruct our strategy.<\/p>\n

By exploring these inquiries, we can begin to see where and why our journey to DEI has stalled.<\/p>\n

Step 1: A new foundation\u2014moving away from social & compliance-based DEI<\/h2>\n

We need to change the narrative around diversity, equity, and inclusion. It\u2019s not a charity cause, it shouldn\u2019t be compliance-driven, and it can\u2019t be relegated to the realm of social justice. Years before the pandemic began, economists and researchers had well established the link<\/a> between DEI and improved business performance.<\/p>\n

My company, Pipeline, confirmed this link in our original research across 4,161 companies in 29 countries, which found that for every 10% increase in gender equity, businesses see a 1-2% increase in revenue.<\/p>\n

The pandemic further exposed the business imperative of DEI, specifically how diverse, equitable, and inclusive companies outperform lesser diverse, equitable, and inclusive companies in times of economic downturn. (See here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

In fact, between 2007 and 2009, the S&P 500 declined 35%. However, the stocks of businesses where key employee groups such as women and POC had \u201cvery positive\u201d experiences at work rose 14.4%.<\/p>\n

The take-away: DEI is a business imperative, therefore it needs to be treated as one.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n