And Another Thing…

2020-2021 was a big year that we all seem to have cumulatively repressed – we were inside for much of it, but then, suddenly, we were emphatically outside.

Corporate life had quite the shakeup. Organizations were suddenly confronting injustice at all levels – race, gender, ability – and setting up teams and recruitment efforts to embrace diversity.

If there’s one thing this country likes (judging by the frequency with which it happens), it’s the social and cultural pendulum swinging violently between two poles: tolerance and intolerance. We’re in an age of intolerance now, a mere 5 years from the murder of George Floyd, and as quickly as corporations set up DEI teams and initiatives (and book clubs, and watch parties, and #anti-racism channels on Slack), they are now dismantling those efforts as quickly as they can.

At my last position, the team that I hired was the most diverse team in the company. I was given a lot of credit for this, but it wasn’t necessarily a deliberate strategy on my part – my method of hiring was to trawl LinkedIn and do direct recruiting based on people’s skill sets and experience. Obviously, most people have profile pictures – I wasn’t operating completely in the dark – but just focusing on skills and recommendations, I put together a delightfully motley crew from so many backgrounds – various ethnicities, economic backgrounds, age ranges (from sweet summer child to Old Nan). We were a minority-majority team.

It was the tightest crew I’ve ever worked with. They routinely blew my socks off with their innovative thinking, team cohesion, and empathetic approach to problem-solving. Rather than finding management a chore, this group made it a delight, and I learned so much from them. Even now, when I’m no longer there to lead them, they are all so supportive of one another, going to the mat for each other when necessary.

This group was (and remains!) the living embodiment of “E pluribus unum.” The company relied heavily on the proactiveness and rapid pivoting that we were able to do. Having all these different backgrounds made us not just a stronger team, but probably THE strongest team in the whole company.

I understand why this is a threat to those who want to claw back white male supremacy (as if it ever left). The results cannot be argued with – it’s abundantly clear that if we were a team comprised solely of white men, we would not have been as productive and effective. The infighting and friction that I’ve witnessed in more homogenous teams throughout my career – the fiefdoms and obstinacy – just didn’t exist on this team. There was a generosity that I’d never witnessed before – and I’ve had a long career.

I’m unlikely to be in a position where I can recreate this magic – I seem to be moving into more of an “individual contributor” kind of role. And that’s a loss for me, professionally. It’s an even bigger loss that the emphasis on variety, diverse viewpoints, expansive experiences is being actively removed by an administration that is increasingly operating in an ex-judicial style.

We were making progress from 2020-2024. And that’s the point. The progress had to be stopped.

Well, good luck with that. Seems to be working out well for you. I’m sure there’ll be a huge boost from all the positive press.