I don’t know about you, but I miss the good old days. I remember a time where you could take a family member to the airport and walk them all the way to their departure gate, watch them get on the plane, and wait until the plane pulled out of the gate.
I remember a time where after schoolwork was done the streets would be flooded with kids playing all kinds of games.
I remember a time where people were completely invested in a moment because there was no cell phone or social media platform to steal our focus and attention.
Times have changed. 
Now the good old days have turned into dropping grandma off at the airport curb and hoping the wheelchair representative gets her to her plane in once piece; kids stuck inside on video game consoles or cooped up in a room on TikTok. Every moment in life is now a “post-able” moment (yes, I made that up). People are more concerned with sharing a moment than actually enjoying it, and companies are being labeled as discriminatory, biased, and hateful because they can’t take an entire infrastructure and shift it to become more inclusive and diversified immediately. I miss the good old days where people gave people grace.
Cancel Culture and DEI
One of the most emphasized areas of companies being called to the carpet is in the diversity category. Organizational structures of multi-million-dollar corporations are now being labeled obsolete because of the lack of inclusion within its ranks. Now don’t get me wrong – diversity, equity, and inclusion are both necessary and important for sustainable growth today, but the idea that companies should be “canceled” because they haven’t effectively implemented a company-wide change to how they do business is a bit much in my opinion.
How to implement a DEI Strategy
The question is: how can a company with no understanding of certain demographics, diversification tactics, or inclusion methods implement such a strategy? I’m glad you asked. I have worked with several fortune 500 organizations who are actively pursuing understanding in this space, and I always tell them in order to effectively implement a DEI strategy you have to do a few things. Here are a couple of them.
- Offer Real Quality Advancement Opportunity – one of the main walls that companies run into is not having quality opportunity for advancement within its organizational structure for diverse candidates. I’ve talked to CEOs that somehow think the employees won’t recognize when an offered position is what I call a “fluff” (Fluff – nothing of real substantial value or authority) position. Trust me… THEY KNOW! Offer a real opportunity for real growth and your employee base will express their appreciation by working harder to achieve it.
- Slow and Steady – the kneejerk reaction to today’s economic climate is throw together systematic development plans and implement them immediately. DO NOT DO THIS! Resist the urge to appease the cries of offended and apply slow and steady systematic adjustments. It is better to go slow and get it right than to go fast and get it wrong. Then you’re labeled disingenuous and everything you do from there is a wash.
I’ll be leading a Stretch Chat on Tuesday, September 20 with more tips on implementing a DEI strategy. Register for this free webinar.
Mahatma Gandhi once said our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization. I believe every day is a chance to put our beautiful civilization to the test and make global impact one executive decision at a time.