The Grassroots DEI Organizer Playbook
By: Claire Veuthey
Tags: Work, Startup, Women In Tech, Diversity And Inclusion, Diversity In Tech

II. A Few Arguments for DEI Efforts

If you’re trying to jumpstart DEI initiatives within your organization, here are a few angles to argue for time, money, and engagement.

Ethical — It’s the right thing to do

“There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist. The claim of ‘not racist’ neutrality is a mask for racism.” — Ibrahim X. Kendi

“A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.” — John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

“No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger than its weakest people, and as long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you might otherwise.” — Marian Anderson

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” — Desmond Tutu

America has a problem with prejudice and inequality. Bigotry across a myriad of divisions is ingrained in modern American culture. Policies and practices that increase inequality across these constructed divisions are written into our laws. They have caused unjust inequality to persist in our society for centuries.

American companies, including those in the technology industry, reflect that larger American reality. They are not separate from America’s culture, laws, or society. Instead, they are important participants. As such, our companies have a problem with prejudice and inequality. What makes them different from that larger American reality is that we, their workers, have the power to change them and they can be changed faster due to strong centralized power-holders with the ability to take unilateral action (CEO’s for instance).

Our companies, teams, and products are fragments of the world that we can have outsized control on. By catalyzing change where we have control, we can be leaders of change on a larger scale. By doing nothing, we stand in the way of change. It is our duty to use the influence and power we receive from our roles in our companies to make those companies open and equitable forces for good in the world.

Resources — Ethical:

Studies

News/Commentary

Personal Press

Business — Diverse and inclusive organizations make for better businesses

This shows up in a number of ways: a) financial performance, through better decision-making, problem-solving and innovation, b) employee engagement and retention, and c) regulatory and legal compliance.

a) Financial performance, innovation, and decision-making, stakeholder empathy.

Research has shown the business case for DEI for years, yet it’s often the area where advocates see pushback. Some hiring managers or recruiters will resist DEI-oriented changes to hiring and recruitment processes because they don’t want to “lower the bar” — this phrase can be a telling sign, as it assumes that seeking to recruit and hire from diverse identities necessarily means bringing on less qualified individuals, and belies the structural racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry ingrained into organizational cultures and expectations.

In fact, teams composed of members with different perspectives — identities, training, geographic origin, etc — tend to outperform homogenous teams, as has been demonstrated repeatedly by research. Diverse teams may feel less familiar and comfortable, but for those very same reasons, members of diverse teams tend to do a better job of preparing, checking their assumptions, planning for alternative viewpoints, and expecting that reaching consensus may take some effort. All of this makes for better decision-making, and diverse teams have been shown to correlate with more innovative solutions and better financial performance.

The implications for these findings are profound, and in small startups, they are most obviously applicable to product, tech, and founder teams.

Take product: diverse teams are more likely to benefit from a range of experiences, and therefore have deep stakeholder and customer empathy. This empathy can help them develop insights that translate into designing better products. A diverse product team will think about accessibility in product colors, functions, and device and browser compatibility, and test accordingly, avoiding potentially exclusionary and embarrassing product roll-outs, such as the Google Photos app labeling pictures of Black people as gorillas. The benefits of diverse and inclusive teams apply to any team whose job it is to solve problems (read: every team.)

Bringing on different experiences and perspectives isn’t a new idea. In fact, it’s been an accepted and understood way to improve organizational knowledge and decision-making in companies for years: if a company plans to expand into new geography, it looks for someone with experience in that geography. The same goes for a new product line, technology, or industry.

Other stakeholders like investors and partners may also have expectations that may incentivize companies to have more diverse decision-makers. For example, in early 2020, Goldman Sachs pledged not to take companies public unless they have at least one “diverse” director on its board, with a focus on women. Procurement and other forms of partnership are also increasingly affected by growing expectations for diverse teams.

Resources — Financial performance:

Resources — Decision-making and innovation:

Resources — Stakeholders, including customers, product users, and investors:

b) Attracting, engaging and retaining talent

Companies with a diverse employee base and inclusive cultures also tend to be better at retaining their employees. While the coronavirus crisis has dramatically changed the global economic context, unwanted employee turnover is expensive, and the war for talent may become even more acute as organizations face pressure to keep costs down and retain their best performers. Employees who feel a strong sense of belonging and loyalty are less likely to look for opportunities outside of the company. Companies who focus on DEI in a substantive way will have access to a broader swath of candidates, including those looking for an organization that values DEI. In short, good DEI programs can help attract and retain talent, including through tough times, by helping companies make better hires in the first place, and keep prized talent from leaving. (Note, though, that inclusive hiring is difficult!)

Resources — Talent

c) Legal

Discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other protected categories is illegal. Federal law (Title VII) forbids employers from making employment decisions based on an employee or candidate’s protected status — the only exception is when employers have affirmative action plans.

While good DEI programs and culture don’t necessarily protect employers from engaging in discrimination, they can certainly help inadvertently building a homogenous and potentially exclusionary organization. The EEOC has concluded that harassment (a form of discrimination) is more likely to happen in workplaces that lack diversity.

Bringing on people who come from similar backgrounds is easy — we tend to like people who are like us (homophily.) But this may make it less likely that people who do not come from this background will feel welcome or included, creating a vicious cycle of homogeneity and groupthink.

Resources — Legal: