Biden’s cabinet is a masterclass for unlocking the ever-elusive diversity results- whatever your political ideology!
I am of the affirmative action generation of the 80’s… when colleges, corporations and government prided themselves on recruiting the best and the brightest to provide opportunities to thrive in new spaces and places! It was a step toward diversity initiatives of the 90s. Over the decades, I have observed and been a part of the diversity fatigue-frustration cycle which manifest in today’s alphabet soup, DEIB, with letters and attributes being added to each iteration reinforcing the intent and results are not being achieved.
What is Biden doing so differently that works? He said, “as the Commander in Chief of the United States, the buck starts and stops with me!!” He is leading his team through CHANGE and ensuring the ever-present hindering factors, aka resistance, that typically derails diversity efforts, will not become greater than his goal of having the most representative cabinet in history! There is no doubt likely resistance inside and around his team which has been expressed in the media as, “the picks are not diverse enough and well, he should be careful about considering the race and gender of candidates,” having to stop short of questioning the qualifications given the candidates in every case are well credentialed.
So, as you observe Biden’s leadership in a change management context, it gives insight into why diversity efforts, for the most part, fail so miserably!
Biden is doing what leaders must do for diversity to have the chance to take root! In June, after George Floyd’s murder and the consciousness awakening across the globe, CEO’s were asking ‘what must I do to make changes’? I wrote an op-ed proffering, organizational change must be led by chief executives & boards and when it is not, the results will not be commensurate with the investment and accomplishments (numbers) will be unsustainable. As a Xerox alumna, I was involved in Xerox becoming the most diverse and inclusive company on every metric. Beginning in the late 60’s, Xerox first chairman/CEO and the president, began the company’s commitment to affirmative action. By the 70’s, David T. Kearns, appointed CEO in 1982, became the advocate-leader of affirmative action/diversity insisting every organizational people system must become open and inclusive for ALL. We learned the systems were adversely impacting most employees across gender, sexual orientation, age, race, geography, lived experience, education, POV, job, etc. It was an arduous road that Kearns believed was necessary to make the Xerox business thrive long before the reams of data that now exist citing the ROI of diversity.
So, as you reflect on your organization’s past diversity accomplishments and 2021 goals, it is time to disrupt the pattern!
Time to toss out the tried-and-true failures of outsourcing the responsibility of diversity to those with the least influence and accountability to make change happen. Now is the time to re-evaluate and eliminate the failed solutions- readiness training, diversity officers, bias training, task teams, surveys, research, studies, affinity groups, social/media statements, allyship, buy black and all the other activity that distracts from leaders taking the responsibility to ACT to get results!
Heading into 2021, I guarantee the results will be exponential if the focus shifts to the CEO, C-suite leadership team and board embracing the personal change required of them, their mindset and their every action.