As a business owner, management consultant, and advocate for equity, I’ve been challenged by the recent discourse around DEI. There is noise in the system right now that seems to suggest DEI work is anti-business, and this idea challenges everything that I love about business and my experience over many years as a business consultant and business leader.
While DEI programs aren’t perfect (people and organizations rarely are), I have seen that they can significantly improve organization culture, leadership and team member growth, products and services, and business competitiveness. Since Paradox was founded, we have incorporated equitable practices and equitable process design into the organization and talent consulting work we do simply because it’s good consulting and good business.
Recently, I’ve had a number of business leaders reach out to me asking what I’m seeing companies do with their DEI programs. Honestly, most mid-size private companies I know aren’t making any big changes to their programs right now though they may be shifting some words and terminology. But, as evidenced by the questions I’m hearing, many leaders are also feeling conflicted and confused and aren’t completely sure what to do or what changes to make. If you’re feeling this way, you’re not alone.
When leaders feel conflicted and confused, it shows, and it can have a significant impact on the organization. Nothing kills productivity faster than lack of clarity and direction – especially as it relates to strategy and organizational culture.
Businesses and business leaders have both an opportunity and a responsibility to be a voice of clarity and reason right now – an advocate for opportunity and growth and innovation and people and fairness. At a minimum, our job as business leaders is to do what’s best for our business and, by association, for the people who impact our business on a daily basis. Unfortunately, as business leaders, we don’t exist in a bubble, and it’s easy to question our strategy and even our values when there is lots of turbulence, tension, and uncertainty in the market.
To help, I wanted to share my perspective on why DEI is good business and offer some suggestions for evaluating and talking about your DEI programs from a business perspective. I hope this helps you gain clarity about how DEI fits into your business strategy and be able to better communicate a clear strategy and direction to your team – whatever words you choose to describe it – so that everyone can keep enjoying building great business together.
What does Equity have to do with Business?
How do you define equity? Not the company ownership type of equity but the fairness type of equity. For years, I’ve defined equity as the point at which one’s demographics, absent from other variables, don’t predict one’s outcomes – whether it’s financial, education, career, or health.
I like this definition of equity because it keeps us moving forward: innovating and improving systems and processes and, ultimately, outcomes, especially for those most vulnerable or marginalized. And, in the course of trying to reach equity, we will solve challenges, create opportunities, discover better approaches, and, therefore, improve factors impacting everyone’s experience.
Recently, I’ve heard and considered a similar but slightly different definition of equity, which is that everyone has a fair chance to compete. The focus of this definition is on the system, the process, the playing field, instead of the outcomes. It recognizes that people experience different opportunities and chances for a myriad of reasons, many of which are difficult – but definitely worth trying – to solve.
However, one complexity with finding solutions – and why outcomes can’t be ignored – is that the outcomes contribute to the fairness of the system. So, if we stop making progress on outcomes, the system will become even less fair. Everyone having a fair chance to compete requires making progress.
As a business person, all of these concepts resonate. Businesses and markets do involve competition, and businesses should always be trying to improve – whether it’s products, customer service, analytics, or management. And, like most systems in business, it’s a cycle.
Having an equitable system for business means that companies and people are making progress so that we can bring our best to the competition in which excellence is pursued and innovation flourishes. And when we think about it this way, what is more aligned with business than equity?
So, if business, competition, and equity are all closely aligned, then why does it feel like equity programs and business priorities are at odds right now? And how does equity fit into your business priorities and strategy?
Perceived Conflict with Productivity
Beyond all the current political and societal noise, I think one business reason for the perceived conflict is that companies are very focused on productivity right now, and productivity and equity can feel like a paradox. Designing systems and processes within our organizations that are fair and give everyone a chance to compete does take effort, time, innovation, planning, and thoughtfulness. It does require an investment of resources.
I was sitting with a group of CEOs the other day, and one of them was talking about implementing a new technology system at their company. Another CEO who was listening said slowly and thoughtfully, “To do anything right, it takes time and effort.”
DEI programs and equity are no different. They do take time and effort. It can be much faster to hire your friend or neighbor or keep using the same vendor than develop a more inclusive and equitable hiring or vendor selection process that enables more people to compete. But, many times, I’ve seen that quick hire or selection cost far more time, effort, and lost productivity down the road than a decision that was thoughtfully and planfully executed.
It’s strategic and prudent for business leaders to evaluate their DEI programs. But you need to evaluate the programs from a strategic and long-term perspective and not just a reactionary one.
As you evaluate your programs, here are some questions you should be asking:
- How does DEI support our strategy?
- How productive are our DEI programs?
- What adjustments, enhancements, or improvements do we want to make?
Let’s break these down.
1. How does DEI support our strategy?
Can you clearly articulate the connection between equity and your business strategy? I can talk about DEI being the right thing to do all day, but, if it’s not connected to strategy, it can be tough to defend when resources – including time, effort, and especially focus – get tight.
Most DEI strategies include strategic priorities related to talent, culture, customers, and the broader market or supply chain (i.e., suppliers, partners, community, etc.). Remember, equity is about progress and a fair chance to compete. Where can a fair chance to compete – both internally and externally – help you make progress with your business, your people, your products?
Here are just a few examples:
- A more equitable process for employees to share feedback will lead to much needed product or process improvements
- A more inclusive culture and transparent career growth will improve turnover among business-critical production jobs
- A more diverse sales, product, or marketing team will help gain faster traction in a strategic new market
- A more intentional and accessible hiring process will recruit the best minds and research for your IP development
- A psychologically safe work environment will help retain your most passionate and innovative employees
- A workforce with more varied experiences will bring new ideas, perspectives, and innovation
- A more culturally experienced and aware workforce will be able to collaborate better with customers, colleagues, and offices around the world
- A more equitable process for evaluating project investment will lead to better decisions and fewer missed opportunities
If you can’t clearly identify the “why” behind your DEI programs, then, sadly, it might not be worth the time and effort you’re investing. However, if there is a strategic reason – and there almost always is – then zero in on it. “Doing anything right, takes time and effort.” Don’t let your competitive business edge slip.
2. How productive are our DEI programs?
As mentioned earlier, there is a perceived tension between equitable practices and productivity, but I think this stems from an incomplete and short-sighted understanding of productivity.
We recently conducted a study on redefining productivity for our workplaces today to try to look at productivity more holistically. (You can access the full white paper on the study here). The study resulted in a new framework for measuring and assessing productivity in our teams and organizations. While the framework applies to productivity more broadly, it’s also applicable for assessing the productivity of DEI programs.
The Paradox Productivity FrameworkTM
In this context, Movement measures forward progress towards your DEI goals and objectives. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- What progress have we made on our DEI goals and objectives?
- What has positively enabled forward movement and/or what has hindered it?
- Are those still the right goals and objectives for our business strategy? If not, why not? Be specific.
- What will help us make more forward progress on the goals that matter?
Usage measures people’s participation and engagement in your DEI programs and initiatives. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- Are people using, participating in, or implementing our DEI offerings?
- Are they participating in development programs?
- Implementing new processes or tools?
- Applying new learnings?
- Promoting or sharing programs with others?
- What is enabling this usage or preventing it?
Experience measures people’s experience with the programs and initiatives being offered. This really does mean everybody’s experience. We’ve found that people’s experience today has a significant impact on movement and usage tomorrow (i.e., future productivity) so be honest with yourself about people’s experience – both internal and external to your organization – and recognize that different people’s experience may be different.
- What is people’s experience with our DEI programs?
- How does people’s experience with the programs differ across different segments of our organization?
- What about the external experience with our DEI programs from prospective employees, customers, suppliers?
- How is their experience going to impact the future productivity of our programs?
- What is enabling or impacting this experience either positively or negatively?
The purpose of asking these questions is to get an accurate assessment of the productivity of your DEI programs so that you can continually improve and make sure that you are investing resources in a thoughtful and strategic way – both for the short-term and for the long-term.
3. What adjustments or enhancements do we want to make?
Based on the strategy assessment and productivity assessment you just completed, are there adjustments, enhancements, or changes you want to make to your DEI program?
What is strategically most important for your business? Be able to clearly articulate this and focus resources on those areas.
Where is your DEI strategy most productive and what would make it more productive? Are there adjustments that will help you make more forward progress, increase usage and application of the initiatives, and improve people’s experience so that they will continue to participate and make progress?
Obviously don’t go through this process alone. Incorporate different perspectives from your team: different functions, employee groups, career levels – and especially experts on DEI into the conversation, both internal and external to your organization. (You wouldn’t make decisions about your production strategy without involving your production experts, would you?)
Once you have a clear picture of the strategic reasons for your DEI strategy and the adjustments you want to make – and, perhaps most importantly, why you want to make those changes – communicate this clearly to the organization.
I expect your message, at its core, will be about your company and your people being able to compete at the top of their game. While equity and productivity may feel in conflict, it’s really a paradox. They BOTH need to exist together. Productive business requires a fair chance to compete, and a fair chance to compete requires productive business.
The best businesses have a clear purpose, thoughtful strategy, committed people, and productive culture. In my experience, DEI positively impacts all of these.
Conclusion
Businesses – especially private businesses – have both the responsibility and opportunity (dare I say luxury?) to act thoughtfully, strategically, and logically amidst external pressure and noise. So, take this opportunity to be thoughtful, strategic, and logical – and not reactionary. No one can fault you for making decisions and taking actions that keep you competitive – that’s just good business. Business leaders, this is your day to lead. Carpe diem.
Emma J. Browning is the Founder & Managing Director at Paradox Consulting Partners, a management consulting company and Certified B Corporation that aligns talent strategy with business strategy to create high-performing, great places for all to work. With almost 20 years of management consulting experience, she has advised hundreds of organizations including multiple Fortune 100 and 500 companies. Follow her at linkedin.com/in/emmabrowning.
