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Could you imagine some sweat hog panting and gasping for air because he just had to climb one flight of stairs running up to you, $200K salary in hand, and screeching: “What are you?” And yet, apparently this happens to people, and I’d virtually guarantee you it happens to people at the expense of SVPs and other important business types, because they tend to have the least filter (why do they even need one?) and the narrowest worldview of anyone inside an org. I’d probably grab the guy and push him back down the stairs he just huffed up, if that weren’t a felony offense.
So much about diversity initiatives is performative, especially in bigger places, and it’s so performative because the people with the most power and status have such narrow world views and we do literally nothing to change their incentives and make these discussions seem relevant and important to them. We often default to the “moral argument,” i.e. “Diversity needs to be a priority because morally, it must be so!” Right, Todd. But why? Let’s ask a few key questions here.
- What defines “diversity?” Is it race, gender, age, etc?
- What is the business case for diversity?
- Are companies supposed to be “moral,” or are they supposed to generate returns?
- How would an executive’s incentive structure shift so…
