I want to read a quote from Regina Lawless who was the head of diversity and inclusion at Instagram. She says, “It’s the leaders and every employee that creates the culture of inclusion.” That’s absolutely true. We cannot treat diversity, equity and inclusion like an initiative or a program and hire a diversity person and somehow hope that that drives results. It won’t drive results.
If diversity and inclusion is important to your organization, then if it is not, a cultural belief that is shared by all employees, it’s going to go nowhere. It will have no effect on the bottom line. And it will honestly just upset people because the people who feel like it’s a waste of time will be right. And the people who feel like there’s not enough investment in it and that it should be more of a focus will be right. Everyone will be mad. No one will be getting what they want. And you will have a story you can…tell, which is that you hired a head of diversity, but no results to show for it. It has to be lived and breathed. It has to be the way that people think and act to get results if it’s important to your organization.