A defense of DEI and other issues
It’s been a tumultuous few weeks, fueled in large part by inflammatory rhetoric and baseless accusations. Such matters have been a feature of the American political scene for a while now. You’ll recall Vivek Ramaswamy, for example, calling climate change a hoax in a Republican debate (and no one correcting him).
But with the new administration officially in place, they’ve turned the dial way up. One target is DEI. They blame DEI for everything from allegedly misappropriated funds to the tragic plane crash that took 67 lives last week.
I’m not an expert on diversity programs. I even had some challenges overseeing such initiatives when I was a CEO. And I don’t object to conversations about how DEI programs can be improved. But I do believe we should speak up when valuable initiatives like DEI programs are recklessly attacked. In my experience, well-led DEI initiatives lead to better organizational outcomes, period.