I’ve worked in DEI for a decade, it won’t survive beyond 2025

It should be clear to anyone whose work touches diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), that the incredible strides we’ve made in the last half-century are fully under attack. The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down race-conscious admissions at Harvard and UNC last year has already extended into the workplace. Many of the corporations I worked with in the past are confused by the current climate and are already cutting back on their DEI programs .



What fewer people are talking about, however, is that things have long been due for a change. I’ve been in this business for 10 years, which is long enough to know that the current corporate approach to DEI, while admirable, has continually come up short. Given the pressures from the current legal and political climate, I’m sure it won’t survive beyond 2030, and maybe not even beyond 2025.



As it comes under increasing and intense scrutiny, it’s time to reimagine what DEI looks like in America. In the workplace, in particular, corporate DEI will only thrive if it evolves from a siloed organizational department into an integrated, cross-functional project. Only then will DEI have the chance to transform organizational cultures, in every department and at every level.



The need for DEI remains



None of the issues that gave rise to the need for DEI policies are going away anytime soon: 350 years of legalized slavery, Jim Crow laws, generational trauma, economic racism, segregated education, housing discrimination, land discrimination, genocide, the prison-industrial complex, conscious and unconscious bias: they won’t simply disappear from our collective conscious and lived realities.



More importantly, the number of people affected by these issues is increasing every day. People of color are fast becoming America’s new majority. By 2045, the non-white population will exceed the white population for the first time in the nation’s history. And this increasing diversity can already be seen in the workplace at all levels, albeit to varying degrees: from frontline and entry-level workers—where diverse representation swells—to executives at the top of the corporate chain—where it diminishes.



In a world where the size of the relevant audience is increasing, but the letters “DEI” cause fear, anger, and lawsuits, it’s tempting to think we’re due for a rebrand. But cosmetic changes won’t hit at the roots of the issue, nor will they provide a tangible road map for businesses to continue the work they’ve started.



Before suggesting solutions, though, it’s worth taking a moment to understand what’s broken. I’ve seen firsthand how historical approaches to diversity in the workforce, while well-intended, have fallen short or been thwarted. In order to understand what we should add or change, we need to trace the story of what we’ve already tried and achieved.



A short history of DEI in corporate America



Nothing in the current attacks on DEI is new. Since Brown v. Board of Education and the passing of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968, detractors have been quick to decry the fundamental “unfairness” of equitable programs that redress social inequities and economic disparities.



Today’s DEI detractors are operating in a long tradition of crusades against equity. Attacks on affirmative action have a history of their own, stretching back to the 1960s, when President Kennedy first signed an executive order compelling government contractors to “take affirmative action” to ensure that applicants were employed without regard to their “race, creed, color, or national origin.”



The rise of affirmative action in higher education would eventually bleed over into corporate America. In the late 1990s, America witnessed the advent of DEI as a corporate initiative after two scientists coined the theory of implicit bias and created the famous Implicit Bias Test. In the years that followed, many companies implemented some form of unconscious or implicit bias testing for their employees and managers, in an effort to course-correct systemically racist outcomes that many organizations didn’t even know they were perpetuating.



But even though almost all Fortune 500 companies use unconscious bias and diversity training, these programs rarely result in sustained changes in test takers’ behaviors . They may raise awareness, but they typically fail to translate that awareness into action and advocacy.



This period represented the height of “Diversity” as a virtue in and of itself—when corporations were busier celebrating the idea of diverse workforces than working through their complexities. It’s therefore unsurprising that many of these trainings were eventually shown to have resulted in increased levels of polarization and prejudice after participants engaged.  



Inclusion is often seen as the next frontier in DEI because it’s an oft-forgotten component of programs that only target diversity and equity. Early on in the history of these policies, organizations realized that bringing underrepresented communities into new jobs and schools was only the first step. The second was ensuring they were able to thrive and perform, and the third was an even subtler challenge: one that required an emotionally intelligent approach to creating psychological safety and interpersonal relationships so people felt they truly belonged.



In 1970, Xerox created the country’s first Employee Resource Group (ERG ), the National Black Employee Caucus, in response to race riots in Rochester where the company was headquartered. Over the decades since, ERGs have become a must-have at many companies. But despite their prevalence— 90% of Fortune 500 companies have ERGs— only 8.5% of employees participate in them .



More importantly, in 2022, less than half of ERG members felt their groups were effective in supporting their career advancement. It’s become clear that, while ERGs are an essential first step in giving people space to come together, they aren’t sufficient for transforming people, cultures, and organizations.



In more recent years, the industry has evolved to create change from the top down. We all watched the rapid rise of the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) , a role that was invented alongside many others as organizations grew. While I’ve been glad to watch the CDO role bring DEI work into more of a spotlight, Chief Diversity Officers themselves haven’t been able to effect the changes they want to see in their organizations. Over a third of CDOs said their institutions did not provide adequate resources for them to perform. Without executive buy-in and sponsorship, CDOs are disregarded and rendered inert.



After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, I watched companies shift their stances on DEI in real time and spend a staggering $7.5 billion on DEI-related efforts . And some real changes have taken place. In the two years following 2020, the percentage of board seats in the Fortune 500 held by minority racial and ethnic groups rose from 17.5% to 22.2% . 2020 began an era of budget reallocations, public statements, and increased DEI hiring, and for a while, this encouraged me and many others in my field.



But I soon realized the corporate actions that emerged out of the tumult of 2020 weren’t strategically designed to address the root causes that make DEI in the workforce necessary. Often, they were simply designed to check publicity boxes. As a result, DEI remains a siloed department within many corporations, rather than an integrated function in which every employee and manager plays a part.



The transformational path forward



As someone who has dedicated his entire professional life to promoting DEI in the corporate world and supporting underrepresented talent, the attacks on DEI have been exhausting to watch. Over the past 10 years, DEI has been more than the content of my workday—it has become my life’s mission. It’s easy for the recent attacks to feel personal and intentionally demoralizing.



Still, in the face of unprecedented levels of backlash, the majority of American workers think focusing on DEI at work is a good thing . As do I. I know people still feel the need for workplaces and schools that are diverse, equitable, and inclusive, and that unshakeable knowledge continues to hold fast.



We’ve made a lot of progress over the past two decades, and the current campaign against our work is being led by a small group of loud detractors. But, that shouldn’t suggest the threat is any less real: with the climate now openly hostile towards DEI, initiatives that touch the acronym in any way have become strategically risky. The siloing of DEI within organizations also helps make them a clearer target that’s easier to attack or jettison—this is why we’re now seeing DEI programs and teams eliminated at many corporations . 



The companies that have already integrated DEI sensibilities and initiatives into their organization—be it in their talent, product, innovation, supplier, leadership, strategy, marketing, or finance teams—will continue to be the most successful, with more diverse companies consistently outperforming less diverse ones by as much as 36% in profitability.



In the face of this reality, it’s time for organizations to do what CDOs themselves have been pushing for decades now: seamlessly integrate DEI into every part of an organization. This will be no small feat—it’s a long-term process that requires organizational and cultural transformation from the top down and the bottom up.



Inclusive leadership: top-down culture change



For DEI to become truly integrated from the top down, organizations need to help their managers become more inclusive leaders if they’re going to be successful in steering more and more diverse workforces.This has not historically been a priority in an economy that focuses on “leveling the playing field” and bringing entry-level talent into corporate America.



Inclusive leaders are those who go out of their way to understand diverse perspectives, build an atmosphere of psychological safety, support their employees’ growth, and keep them engaged. Inclusive management cuts down on employee attrition risk , increases team performance rates , and creates a culture where workers feel like they belong. These leaders are the people in your organization with the power to make a difference in the experiences of your employees—and, ultimately, a difference to your bottom line.



They are also—crucially—managers at all levels of the business. Today, a lot of focus is placed on training and empowering senior leaders at a company, while middle managers are neglected (which is an oversight, considering they suffer higher levels of burnout than executives ). But I believe that all leaders, regardless of race, experience, or seniority, need to be given the necessary tools to lead teams and cultures inclusively.



Personalized, one-to-one coaching is critical for training leaders and managers to be more inclusive at scale. Organizations that offer tailored solutions also demonstrate their investment in individuals , not slogans or undifferentiated trainings. DEI is first and foremost a personal and cultural challenge: the work has to be imbued with personalization at scale to take effect.



Technology is also a powerful enabler for organizations looking to foster inclusive leaders. Rather than being afraid of the latest advances in tech, especially AI, organizations need to leverage them to unlock the potential they hold when it comes to organizational transformation. AI can generate frameworks to help managers communicate with their diverse teams, compile useful DEI research for enhancing leadership development programs, create more inclusive recruiting and onboarding tools, and measure the impact of DEI efforts through data-driven analytics. In short—AI has the potential to create a more connected and inclusive leadership ecosystem, and it should be a tool in every leader’s toolkit.



Inclusive communities: bottom-up engagement



To make DEI part of the fabric of a company, you also have to build bottom-up engagement. This can be achieved through investment in an inclusive community—similar to ERGs—but crucially, these spaces must give professionals the opportunity not just to connect, but to advance and grow beyond the four walls of their office.



Despite increasing diversity within their organizations, employees from underrepresented groups still report lower levels of inclusion than their white peers. But those who feel more included at work are also likely to feel more engaged at work . And with a global cost of $8.8 trillion , no one can afford to ignore the financial and productivity downsides of low engagement.



Inclusive communities are those that actively encourage the participation of their members. By bringing together people with shared contexts and experiences, they create pathways for mentorship, sponsorship, knowledge sharing, and emotional support.



The trick is investing the appropriate levels of resources into these communities, which again reflect and communicate an organization’s investment in employees. Thoughtful programming and moments of reflection are what lead to engagement in these communities, not just budgets for cocktail mixers and extracurricular outings.



Community building is serious work, but if done right, it allows employees to grow with one another and feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves. In short, they make us feel like we belong.



The next phase of DEI



The current assault on DEI initiatives reflects America’s long-standing resistance to addressing the systemic inequities in our society. It also does nothing to change the fact that the need for DEI is still urgent, especially as our country becomes more diverse than it ever has been.



As we navigate the changing landscape, companies need to focus on building cultures rooted in equitable values and shared commitments to action .



I’ve witnessed firsthand the transformative power of inclusive practices in organizations large and small. The results I’ve seen in the past two years alone speak for themselves: 100% retention of Black employees at an advertising agency; hundreds of inclusive leaders trained at a telco giant in six months; tripled employee engagement rates due to mentorship programs at a unicorn tech startup. The stories of progress and organizational transformation are happening all over corporate America, no matter how many lawsuits are brought against us. Companies that invest in the diversity, equity, and inclusion of their employees will continue to attract, retain, and engage top talent, outpace their competitors, and drive innovation in their fields.



The next phase of DEI may see the disappearance or evolution of acronyms, the loss and addition of new job titles, or even the reallocation of resources to new teams and lines of business.



But the underlying values of diversity, equity, and inclusion—as well as the impact they have on businesses’ top and bottom lines—will only become more firmly rooted in our increasingly diverse nation. The more you integrate them across your organization, the more prepared your people will be to manage diversity and the growth that it brings.



As our diversity needs become more complex, it is time for every organization to continue this work on a cultural and human level. It is critical, above all, that we focus on driving change from multiple angles and perspectives. Leaders and employees both contribute to the creation of diverse, equitable, and inclusive organizations, from our largest corporations and schools down to our local communities and affinity groups.



We will only unlock the “next phase of DEI” in America when we realize that inclusive leadership and inclusive communities are the two-pronged key to building a truly inclusive future.