Tuesday, July 30, 2024

NEW INC. MAGAZINE COLUMN ON D.E.I. FROM HOWARD TULLMAN


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 WellbeingThese 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.