Here's Why I Think DEI Is
Dead
The goals of these
programs are great, but the execution has been horrible. Entrepreneurs need to
tap into all kinds of talent for their startups--but this isn't the way to do
it.
Expert Opinion By Howard Tullman, General managing partner, G2T3V and Chicago High Tech Investors @howardtullman1
Jul 30, 2024
Serious entrepreneurs
who are heads-down, completely focused, and worrying about building their new
businesses don't have a lot of bandwidth, or even much interest, in many of the
woke, self-righteous and virtue-signaling campaigns that consume the mainstream
media, elite academics, college kids, and click-bait driven social media mavens
and "influencers." Committed entrepreneurs have real work to do,
modest bank accounts to conserve, impending milestones and benchmarks, and an
entire team to recruit, build, motivate and lead.
Pondering pronouns, satisfying snowflakes,
and solving the world's problems overnight aren't high priorities.
In fact, so many of the
men and women I deal with every day would readily admit that they don't even
know, care about, or understand the latest issues and outrages that allegedly
are so upsetting and unsettling to absolutely no one they know or do business
with. They've largely tuned out the noise and carefully filtered their feeds
because they're smart enough not to waste endless hours staring at, and
sharing, the factoids, falsehoods and stories constantly streaming on their
phones and screens, which can trigger enragement rather than
engagement, and ignorance rather than education.
At the same time, when
this clutter, confusion, and conflict threaten to interfere with the company's
operations, smart new business builders step up and shut the arguments down. Instead of
"centering" (whatever that means) on the critics along with their
countless grievances, the best small business owner entrepreneurs work to
refocus their teams on the things that really matter in the short and long run:
mission, metrics, work ethic, and results. Prioritizing the needs, desires, and
morale of your strongest performers is essential. All the rest of the
nice-to-haves--diversity, equity, and inclusion--will have to wait until the
company can afford them after it's comfortably making payroll and profits.
There's an equally
important philosophical reason why true entrepreneurs simply can't tolerate the
scourge of idiot wokery, identity politics, and DEI devotees in general.
They're meritocracy absolutists--plain and simple. While you can't win without
passion, perspiration, and preparation, the bottom line is that attracting,
energizing, and retaining critical talent is the whole ballgame, and it's never
been a harder battle than it is today. Talent comes in all colors, sizes, and
shapes, so anything that narrows the scope of the search leads to
less-than-optimal results. We want creative and innovative people, and we know
that they're a "package deal" that includes their own quirks,
concerns, and oddities. All of which is perfectly fine if they're the right
folks for the job.
The best man, woman, or
dog in the fight is the one who brings home the bacon. Schemes like diversity
statements, which unfairly skew the selection, evaluation, promotion, and
compensation procedures, have no place in business to begin with. But in the startup
world, where each hire adds or subtracts exponentially from the team's
strengths, these considerations along with trigger warnings and
intersectionality concerns (whatever those are), demoralize the true
performers; they drive the best candidates and prospects away, and deprive the
businesses of the personnel and skill sets that are essential to their ultimate
success.
Add to that the fact
that the hypocrisy inherent in these pretend programs--where job applicants
have to suck it up and compose bogus DEI statements about how they would
contribute to diversity, which contain all the approved buzzwords and
platitudes about improving the world--and you have a foolproof formula for
undermining and eventually destroying the true culture of the company which the
founders are trying to support and sustain. These tired and tedious
equity-and-fairness dogs and dogmas don't hunt in the real world of building
new businesses.
On the other hand, in
the largest corporations, East and West Coast colleges and universities, and
plenty of government bureaucracies, there seem to be infinite funds, interest,
and appetites to create new positions, roles and departments, such as the Institute
for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. These hives of
hipness are then stuffed full of the woke folks who have little or no relevant
experience, are provided with next to no guidance or supervision, and have no
idea of what they're supposed to be doing or whom they're actually serving.
They have lots of time on their hands and plenty of spendable funds, and face
zero accountability.
The only people ever
held to account are those fearless observers foolish enough to question the
goals and objectives of these individuals and entities and how anyone
determines whether their efforts are successful. No one who wishes to remain
gainfully employed should even consider asking any of these new and imperious
mini emperors about their wardrobes.
It's entirely possible
that things will never get better in higher education because the
self-satisfied people promoting these programs and the people who are employed
and paid by them are all drinking the latest Kool-Aid. These hypocrites are
basking in the approval of their equally deluded peers, suffering no pain or
penalties from the budget bloat they generate. They have no interest in any
financial metrics or accountability and are being entirely consumed by
appearances and campus politics rather than by actual impact or results.
The only good news on
this front is that--at least in terms of some of the most influential and
sizable tech firms--there's finally some light appearing at the end of this
very dark, narrow-minded and useless tunnel. Because, at some point, the market
does keep score and the math increasingly makes no sense. The goals of the DEI
programs may very well be laudable, but it's clear that the implementations
have been horrible and caused more pain and conflict than positive impact.
We're starting to see the same reckoning around these programs that we're
seeing with respect to the near-term nothingness of the vast amounts these same
firms have squandered on generative
A.I.
Microsoft recently
joined a host of tech leaders in laying off a DEI team after wasting millions
on a politically correct, but essentially useless, woke initiative. Previously,
Meta, Google, Snap, Lyft, Zoom and Tesla had all reduced or eliminated diversity-oriented
staff members and programs that had been added in the wake of the BLM protests
in 2020. Other firms moving to dump their DEI initiatives include John Deere,
Home Depot, and Wayfair. Unfortunately, at the same time as they're cleaning
things up, firms like Deere are also reverting to the old strategy of sending
jobs out of the country to cheaper workforces.
The message and the
bottom line are pretty simple. The hapless and the half-hearted are happy to
hang around as long as you're stupid enough to have them. When piety and
political correctness are prioritized over performance, it's the doers and the
highly valued talent that leave the firm and the DEI do-rights, the
do-nothings, and the dregs that remain.
