The Current State of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and How to Fight “Diversity Fatigue”
After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the world exploded with energy. We saw riots and protests erupt; prominent companies got involved and communicated with their entire workforces; and some of our braver world leaders responded openly, calling for immediate and meaningful change.
Even then I knew that kind of energy couldn’t last. We can’t protest forever (at least not in those numbers). We can’t talk about the same issues forever (not least because the issues evolve rapidly). And we certainly can’t expect everyone to fight the good fight in the exact same way everywhere all the time.
This is especially true of corporate contexts. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion strategies and practices have existed in many industries for decades, and the surges of focus yielded by high-profile cases of discrimination aren’t silver-bullet solutions. If anything, they complicate and deepen the issues – they make expectations higher, emotions stronger. Which is why in 2020, as enterprises around the world became responsible for assisting governments in the biggest public health crisis in recent memory, we all expected them to do much the same in the fight for workplace equity and racial equality.
These increased expectations have led to many positive outcomes. More companies than ever before hired Chief Diversity Officers in 2020 and 2021. Many organizations report improved metrics when it comes to diverse hiring and recruitment practices. And in some reports , it’s become clear that a majority (a slight majority, but a majority nonetheless) are beginning to set formalized DEI strategies for their businesses.
But already the DEI strategies, challenges, and needs of most companies are evolving. As they go into the 2023 budget planning season, most organizations are weighting their DEI budgets toward retaining the diverse workers they invested in over the past two years. Corporations are recognizing that after spending billions, it’s critically important to double down on retention and promotion from within. This focus is in contrast to the attention and money spent on diverse talent acquisition since 2020.
The role of the CDO continues to be a contentious one, beset with frustrations and high turnover. Many companies have found that it’s easier to hire for the role than it is to equip it with the proper resources to keep new talent where they are. Most CDOs who leave cite a lack of clear strategy, appropriate budget, and properly staffed teams as reasons for their frustration. Figuring out how to make this role meaningful and impactful has become an urgent task for companies in the DEI space right now. And it is largely up to corporations to teach themselves how to run DEI strategies as a whole – rather than expecting one senior officer to transform their workforce single-handedly.
Finally, contrary to what we might expect after the surge in 2020, VC funding toward diverse founders continues to be dismal. In 2021, less than 2% of funds went to Black founders, and less than 3% to women-led businesses.
We all know and feel that a wave has passed since 2020. And while progress has been made on some fronts, like talent acquisition, it’s clear that other challenges have rapidly changed or even taken a step backward.
We continue to sense that we do not yet live in truly equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplaces or societies. The demand for change and tangible action remains strong. But the will to see them through to meaningful execution has ebbed to some degree.
This is completely natural. One of the reasons I expected this boom-and-bust cycle back in 2020 is that I’ve seen it before. In some ways I think it can be easier to move forward culturally – to change societal expectations and standards and beliefs – than it is to enact lasting change in their name.
The problem, though, is that the process can be very emotionally taxing. As change agents, we want to see results in the world. As human beings who believe in progressive change, we need to know that our efforts are making an incrementally improved difference over time. It is stressful work, because it is meaningful work. The stakes are high.
The emotional toil of working on the complex, structural, and systemic issues that fall under DEI’s jurisdiction is familiar to many of us who have worked in this space for longer than the past two years. We refer to it as diversity fatigue. It’s a common, very human response to the arduous work demanded by seemingly intractable challenges and the inherently long term of DEI issues.
At its simplest, ‘diversity fatigue’ refers to the emotional resistance, stress, and frustration that can build up over time, especially as an organization works to address DEI issues within its own walls (and in society at large).
It can show up in a variety of ways. Sometimes it’s frustration at the lack of results seen in hiring and recruitment, despite the establishment of diverse hiring criteria, metrics, and goals. Other times it can take the form of senior resistance to investing more resources in diversity programs that don’t seem to be changing very much in practical terms. Or it can be employees’ lack of enthusiasm for antiquated forms of diversity training that feel irrelevant (and excessively negative or patronizing).
Often, in its most widespread and simplest form, diversity fatigue can simply refer to people’s general resistance to talking about these issues. This can be especially common at organizations that talk a lot about DEI without doing very much to set a strategy and goals or implement change.
Skepticism and resistance have always been part of the DEI story. From a historical perspective, these are actually built-in to much of the work I’ve done – and in some ways they’re easier to overcome. Most people want to see positive change in the world. When you make the business or human case for diverse workforces to them, the skepticism tends to evaporate.
But what’s much harder to deal with is the personal emotional burden – which only magnifies when it’s shared by a team, department, or entire organization – that comes with fighting for change in a world that’s resistant to it.
In the world of DEI, resistance to change can derive from many factors.
Resource scarcity is often a big one: DEI issues can become a “nice-to-have” in companies with limited time, money, and human capital. They wrongfully believe they can take their foot off the pedal and not experience negative long-term consequences.
Another is the classic human bias of preferring short-term gains to long-term rewards. Building a diverse, inclusive workforce takes time – you can’t just quota-hire your way to an optically “sufficient,” diverse team. Changing culture (and people) is a long term game: many of us find it difficult to work on tasks whose completion won’t yield immediate or obvious benefits to us personally.
But perhaps the greatest source of built-up resistance comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of the specific goals derived from DEI work. Most organizations inundate their people with abstract, unspecific future aspirations that make it difficult to see DEI as a strategy, rather than a dream.
When we’re at work, we all want to be a part of successful projects that enact change. Better results, promotions, more money for everyone, stronger teams, edging out competitors – there’s a number of ways to feel successful in a corporate environment.
But the tyranny of this feedback mechanism – put in hard work and get out tangible rewards – means that deeper, harder, more complex work – like DEI – falls prey to the same expectation. And the reality is that DEI is not a singular project in any business. It’s a strategic muscle. One that requires honing and development and a lot of pivoting over time – not to mention external support and internal discipline.
I almost think of it in terms of hit TV shows. We all want to be a part of big, one-hit wonders like Game of Thrones. Something that changes culture and creates a feeling of impact. But DEI is more like Survivor or Jeopardy. Something with 30+ seasons that knows how to evolve, stay relevant, and eventually become a cherished staple of people’s lives. These shows became a part of culture over time – so ingrained and so reflective that we can’t quite imagine our society without them.
DEI is a behavior change challenge, first and foremost. If we continue to imagine it as a set of utopian wishes, we’ll continue to get tired of working towards pipe dreams. Instead, we have to recast DEI as a routine, a discipline that requires regular training, planning, evaluation, rewards, and recognition. New hires shouldn’t ask what your DEI initiatives are – they should ask how your employees embed DEI into their working lives.
The first step to fighting diversity fatigue entails this kind of re-brand. As with any social justice work, we expect progress to be linear, but it’s actually highly contextual. I wrote about this in a previous piece, connecting it to the experience of working on climate change. Context changes the nature of the challenge. And the expectation that racial and social equality is any less contextual or complex is foolish.
Beyond that, there are some practical deterrents to diversity fatigue that every organization must consider.
Setting relevant, attainable metrics is a hugely important one. What are the right benchmarks for your industry and your team? There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. It takes time and humility to learn how to set metrics that are achievable and meaningful to people.
Building incentives into the plan is also critical. As I said, this is a behavior change challenge. Smokers don’t quit smoking simply because it’s the right thing to do. They do it for their health, for their families, for their athletic performance, or even just to seem mature. However big or small, emotional or rational, symbolic or practical – your team will need incentives in place to keep their fire for this issue burning. There’s no shame in that – it’s simple human behavior.
Related to that point is the importance of making noise about your efforts – including failures and successes. Your talent, current or prospective, want to know what their organization is doing to make things better. They want to brag about you. Or they want to be able to. If your DEI initiatives are not newsworthy to them or the people in their lives, why wouldn’t they get fatigued when the going gets tough (which it invariably does)? If you’re not proud to shout about what you're doing in this space, then chances are it’s probably not meaningful or exciting enough to keep people motivated.
Another excellent shortcut is obviously to hire diverse leadership. DEI is a personal issue to diverse leaders, who are critical for setting an example of personal and organizational accountability. With that mechanism of emulation in place, championing DEI becomes a potential conveyor of enhanced status in an organization. If you can ensure DEI is championed by diverse leaders, then the rest of your workforce will see it as a potential path to improving their standing (which of course it should be anyway).
Finally, always stress the need for strategy. Strategy is specific, achievable, relevant, and inspiring. But it also has to be flexible. As I said earlier, DEI is a highly contextual issue. Organizations should set clear, achievable strategies in hiring, recruitment, and culture change, but they also need to be able to respond to a demanding world that expects more than internal policy changes. Strategy must be set at both levels – the macro and the micro – to ensure that measurable change is made while aspirational change is experimented with.
“Diversity fatigue” is just another word for the natural flow of human energy in difficult situations. We take the paths of least resistance – even when they are irrational or detrimental in the long term. As human beings engaged in long-term projects of social justice, we have to recognize that it’s natural to become frustrated, irritated, disheartened, and skeptical. That’s why it’s important to name and understand diversity fatigue.
But if we give into those behavioral and neurological traps, we insult the incredible work and tireless fighters who have come before us. Diverse, equitable, inclusive workplaces, and societies take years to achieve and even longer to maintain. If we can start with that, with the humble recognition that this is a collective marathon, not an individual sprint – then we’re already on the way to overcoming the pitfalls of “diversity fatigue”.
Porter Braswell
