What DEI Gets Wrong — and How to Do It Right | Paolo Gaudiano | TED

TL;DR

Inclusion is crucial for organizations to thrive, and the lack of understanding and focus on inclusion has led to a backlash against diversity and equity efforts.

Transcript

I'm Paolo Gaudiano and I always like to start by addressing a couple of elephants in the room. The first one is the white elephant and it's me. (Laughter) What is a white, cisgender, heterosexual, fully privileged guy doing talking about diversity and inclusion? Now, normally I tell people about my history, how I was really interested in diversity,... Read More

Key Insights

• ❓ The diversity disconnect arises from solely focusing on diversity without considering inclusion and equity.
• 🖤 Lack of tools to quantify the impact of diversity on organizations hinders progress.
• ◀️ Accusations of reverse discrimination contribute to the backlash against diversity and equity initiatives.
• 🥳 The emphasis should be on creating inclusive organizations where individuals can perform at their best, rather than simply increasing diversity ratios.
• 🤪 Inclusion is invisible and often goes unnoticed, but exclusion is immediately noticeable and has detrimental effects.
• 🥺 Inequality within organizations leads to decreased productivity, higher turnover rates, and significant financial losses.
• 🆘 Measuring exclusion can help organizations identify areas for improvement and understand the impact of their policies, leaders, and cultures.

Questions & Answers

Q: Why is there backlash against diversity and equity efforts?

The backlash can be attributed to the exclusive focus on diversity without considering inclusion and equity. This leads to accusations of reverse discrimination and creates a perception of unfairness.

Q: How does the lack of inclusion negatively affect organizations?

When organizations fail to create inclusive environments, individuals who feel excluded become less productive and may leave the company. This results in decreased performance, higher turnover rates, and significant financial losses.

Q: What is the relationship between inclusion and diversity?

Inclusion is what organizations do, while diversity is what they get. Focusing on inclusion leads to diverse and equitable organizations. Simply increasing diversity ratios without addressing inclusion is ineffective and wasteful.

Q: How can organizations measure inclusion?

The speaker suggests measuring exclusion instead. By encouraging employees to share specific instances of feeling excluded, organizations can identify areas of improvement and understand the impact of their policies, leaders, and cultures.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The speaker highlights the issue of focusing solely on diversity without considering inclusion and equity, which creates problems and leads to backlash.

• Organizations lack the tools to quantify the impact of diversifying their human assets, making it difficult to navigate diversity initiatives effectively.

• The speaker emphasizes that the goal should be creating inclusive organizations where everyone feels valued and can perform at their peak, rather than focusing on diversity ratios.