Diversity efforts are Acronym Soup. Can we find a single frame?

Diversity initiatives inside companies can feel like a carnival ride of nothingness — lots of decks created, meetings held, and “data analyzed,” but not much real change year-over-year. You try to wonder why that is and one thing we easily come to is, well, companies are run by middle-aged white men typically, and they’re out of touch and step with these issues. That might be one thing. Then we come to the whole “well, companies’ goal is to make money” rabbit hole, and people scream passionately about that. Then we fight through our keyboards and again, little happens.

One of the big issues is honestly framing. Probably the most conventional way people describe their diversity efforts is DEI, but the “E” in that varies a lot by company: equality or equity, for example. Then you have some companies bringing in belonging, which in reality is similar to inclusion, and allyship, which is similar to and different all the other ones. So some companies call it DEI, some D&I, some DEIBA, some DEIB, etc.

It’s Acronym Soup. That doesn’t help the efforts scale.

I think we need a single frame for these efforts, but I’m honestly unclear on what that is. Here are some ideas, though.

• Put everything under the concept of “diversity:” Don’t bring in the other words except…