Rethinking DEI: Moving from Ideology to Impact-Part 3

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Leading DEI Forward: No Playbook, No Excuses

For the past two months, we’ve peeled back the layers of what’s really happening in corporate DEI.

In Part 1, we questioned whether today’s DEI efforts are truly fostering inclusion or unintentionally fueling new divisions.

In Part 2, we unveiled the silent panic gripping organizations: the fear of lawsuits, executive orders, and headlines driving companies to dilute or dismantle DEI altogether.

Now, it’s time to be brutally honest:

There’s no going back. Survival depends on how leaders move forward—strategically, not symbolically.

Because here’s the truth, most still aren’t ready to admit:

The organizations that thrive in the next era will be the ones who understand that DEI isn’t a side project—it’s a leadership strategy.

No More Performative DEI: Its Business Strategy or Be Left Behind.

The days of DEI being driven by “passion projects” or stand-alone trainings are over.

If your DEI efforts aren’t tied directly to your business outcomes, you are building a house on sand.

Winning DEI strategies now must:

Inclusion is no longer about who is at the table—it’s about influence, agility, bold leadership, and decision-making.

Companies that understand this will win the talent wars, dominate emerging markets, and create cultures where people don’t just stay—they perform.

Those who don’t?

They’ll still be hosting “courageous conversations” while the market leaves them behind.

Leadership Development Is the DEI Strategy

If your DEI efforts aren’t developing stronger leaders, you’re doing it wrong.

Future-ready DEI means building leaders who can:

  • Navigate discomfort without retreating.
  • Facilitate real dialogue across differences, not just echo what’s safe.
  • Align inclusion to innovation, productivity, and growth—not just compliance metrics.
  • Make decisions that reflect both legal intelligence and cultural intelligence.
  • Create psychological safety without creating ideological echo chambers.

 

Inclusion is not a communications skill anymore. It’s a leadership competency.

And the difference between good leaders and great leaders in the next five years?

It’ll be their ability to lead diverse, dynamic, and evolving teams—confidently and authentically.

Culture Doesn’t Happen by Accident. It Happens by Strategy.

A strong, inclusive culture isn’t a byproduct of good intentions. It’s the direct outcome of how leaders hire, promote, mentor, reward, and correct behaviors every day.

In the absence of a clear DEI strategy, you don’t get “neutral culture.” You get default culture. You get passive exclusion. You get silent attrition.

Real culture-building means:

  • Setting a vision for what belonging looks like—and backing it up with systems.
  • Equipping leaders to live out inclusive behaviors, not just endorse them.
  • Measuring impact not by attendance at trainings, but by the trust, safety, and collaboration on the ground.
  • Tying DEI success to your core business metrics—not a compliance checklist.

The Bottom Line

DEI isn’t dead. It’s evolving. And the organizations bold enough to treat DEI as strategic leadership development—not ideological window dressing—will be the ones who define the next decade.

The rest will be stuck wondering where all their best people went.

 

Rethinking DEI: Moving from Ideology to Impact-Part 2

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April 3, 2025

Why the Fear of the Feds Is Stopping Real Inclusion

Last month in Part 1 , we examined the increasing internal and external criticism of DEI, questioning whether current approaches are truly fostering inclusion or unintentionally deepening division. We considered how identity-based initiatives, legal uncertainties, and performative symbolism have prompted numerous companies to reassess their DEI strategies. The message was clear: it’s time to shift from ideology to impact.

In Part 2, we will explore why DEI is stalling and what it takes to progress. Here’s the truth that is becoming harder to ignore: Organizations are not retreating from DEI because they no longer care. They are stepping back because they are afraid.

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The Quiet Panic Behind the Retreat

Let’s be straightforward: companies are wary of violating federal executive orders, provoking legal challenges, or finding themselves in the headlines for “reverse discrimination.” The rollback of affirmative action and the shifting legal landscape have rattled corporate America. And what is the outcome? A gradual but consistent withdrawal from bold DEI initiatives in favor of sanitized, diluted versions of inclusion that emphasize legal safety over cultural advancement.

We observe it daily:

  • DEI programs have gradually been integrated into HR.
  • ERGs have been renamed or restructured.
  • Language has been removed from job postings.
  • Leaders who remain silent on equity issues do so not because they lack belief, but because they fear becoming the next headline.

But let’s be clear: fear is not a DEI strategy. Playing small won’t protect your organization—it will render your efforts irrelevant. If fear drives the process, the outcomes will never be sustainable. Inclusion cannot flourish in an atmosphere of hesitation.

Three Approaches to Leading DEI with Boldness and Precision

1. Anchor in Business Strategy, Not Buzzwords DEI that lasts is DEI that performs. Frame your initiatives around clear business goals: innovation, collaboration, retention, and leadership readiness. When DEI is integrated into your core strategy—not treated as a side project—it becomes non-negotiable.

2. Design with Legal Intelligence and Cultural Depth Inclusion does not necessitate breaking the law; it demands intentionality. You can create diverse pipelines, equitable leadership development, and inclusive policies that are legally sound and culturally resonant.

3. Empower Leaders to Navigate, Not AvoidEquip your people managers to handle complexity, discomfort, and diversity. The best leaders in today’s climate aren’t the ones with all the “right” answers—they’re the ones creating environments where genuine dialogue and authentic growth can occur.

This is your moment to reset, rethink, and realign your DEI strategy with clarity and boldness.

 

Deborah Biddle

Verona March for Racial Justice

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June 17, 2020

Good evening.

As the events of the recent months and days have unfolded—Coronavirus, the killing of Black men and women, and the hateful threat to Christian Cooper, my thoughts and emotions have wandered from deep despair to anger to frustration.  I’ve seen and heard about incidents like these numerous times over the course of my life.

So, I try to guard myself from feelings of numbness and futility. I wade my way through the concern for my husband and sons … knowing, but for the grace of God, they could have been Treyvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, or George Floyd.  Or, I could have been Sandra Bland or Breonna Taylor.

I am glad about the outrage and interest and protests from people … people who don’t look like me.  But, I am also conflicted about the fact that it took seeing a man murdered in broad daylight for people to engage … to finally see what we’ve been saying … what we’ve been living for over 400 years in this county.

People are now asking questions because they are frustrated, disheartened, challenged and perhaps even convicted by what they see happening around the nation. They ask because they fear what could happen next. They wonder about their own complicity, if they say or do nothing. They question whether or not their voices or actions really matter when it comes to solving what seems impossible to resolve.

I can’t speak for every Black person. I can only speak for myself. And my answer is this:  Yes, it matters. It matters when you stop and take note of what it is like to be Black in America. It matters when you protest. It matters when you use your voice. It matters when you show up. It matters when you take steps to engage and partner in doing whatever you can with your influence, your power, your privilege and your resources to eradicate the evil of racism and eliminate senseless killing of Black people, and the discrimination, racial and ethnic bias, assaults, insults and aggressions against Black people. It matters when you extend yourself in friendship and allyship to the just causes of civil rights, human rights, equity and inclusion.

As individuals and leaders discerning a right response to the injustices wrought from discrimination, racism, cynicism, anger, fear and division, begin with self-examination. Know that your biases affect what you think and do. Consider the consequences. Look for connections versus focusing on difference. Examine ways you can use your privilege and resources to be part of the solution to end racial inequity.

After you’ve done the self-work or while you’re doing it, take a look at what is happening around you.  If you look, you will see the poverty, disparate educational, health and socioeconomic conditions.  If you open your eyes and look, you can see the injustices and inequities in the criminal justice system and housing and employment practices.  Don’t look away.  Don’t ignore it. Get in the fight.  It matters.

Commit to racial justice. Wherever you have influence—in your home, community, schools, workplace, marketplace, government, place of worship—use it to make those places free from racial discrimination and harassment, bias, and aggression.

Respond when issues of discrimination or harassment arise and take proactive measures to monitor for and prevent them.  Say something–Do something. It matters. Don’t let those jokes, slights and insults slide by.  Be an ally.  Be a voice for the oppressed.  Be a voice for change.

Be willing to purposefully identify, discuss and challenge issues of race and color and the impacts they have on people and in your neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces. Challenge yourselves to understand and correct any inequities you see.  Shift your perspective to see that racial equity is a journey worth embarking upon and a journey that will benefit the good of all of people in society.

Without a willingness to grapple with the impact of racial bias and talk about the effects of systemic racism along with the effects on our decision-making, engagement with one another, policies, practices, education, housing, healthcare and jobs—progress is fleeting when it comes to eliminating racism.

Racism is insidious and it corrupts. It threatens. Racism is just plain wrong.

To everyone here today, recognize that it matters what you do and say.  Your presence and action matters.  So, use your voice, power, privilege, resources and influence. Don’t watch another Black person die—and act to end racism.

If you’ve gotten anything at all out of what I have said this evening—if unity and love and dignity and respect have made any difference in your life—if being in community means anything to you—if you have a heart—and a brain—eyes to see and ears to hear—if you care— then do me a favor:

  • Stand for justice—better yet fight for justice
  • love each other, be deep-spirited friends
  • don’t push your way to the front
  • don’t always have to be right
  • put yourself aside, and help somebody else get ahead
  • don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage
  • forget yourself long enough to lend a helping hand to someone else
  • make the hard choices, take the tough actions
  • agree to think better, do better and be better

And, end racism now.

Woman in a field with hands raised

Leadership Response During Troubling Times

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June 6, 2020

I am occasionally asked by organizational leaders, “What should I do?” in response to societal issues involving bias and racism. Questions like, “What should I say?” or “How can I help?” come from compassionate well-meaning leaders and colleagues who sincerely want to know what to do. Read more

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Becoming a More Inclusive Leader

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Recently, I trained for a group of leaders on unconscious bias and inclusive leadership. As we were discussing the impact of exclusion in work environments, particularly the impact of microaggressions, a leader commented, “Sometimes, I don’t have the time to worry about how I say something to a team member. Sometimes, they are wrong, and their ideas aren’t very good. Sometimes people are too sensitive. Where does it end? I worry that everything I say can be construed as offensive or microaggressive. How far is too far with all of this sensitivity and inclusion stuff?” Read more

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In Search of Workplace Civility During Uncivil Times

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In nearly every arena of our society, there is a measurable increase in “bad behavior.” From abusive relationships and marriages, bullying at every age in schools, rude and insulting co-workers, raging motorists, contentious politicians, ranting newscasters, and snarky comedians to abounding racists and supremacists, each are becoming all too commonplace in America.

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Ouch! Workplace Microaggression Hurts

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According to Derald Wing Sue, PhD, of Columbia University, “Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.”

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Overcoming Unconscious Bias

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You can find it in every work environment, but most of us don’t see it. It interferes with good management decision-making, affecting everything from hiring, promotions, layoffs, and teambuilding to advertising, marketing, product development, and product placement. It impacts our thought processes and can cloud our judgment.

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Leading in the #METOO Era

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In April 2018, Glamour magazine published an article, “Post-Weinstein, These Are the Powerful Men Facing Sexual Harassment Allegations.” The article referenced “legions of women” coming forward to share their #METOO stories of sexual harassment. With the recent news of allegations, convictions and the continued spotlight or sexual harassment, many companies are closely examining their work cultures, reiterating and reinforcing policy and requiring organization-wide training.

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EEO, AA, Diversity — What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter?

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You’ve probably heard someone ask, “Why should I care about workplace diversity when the government has already taken care of it with the Equal Employment Opportunity Act?” or “Why do we need diversity when we have affirmative action?” Keep reading to learn the differences and best practices of recruiting and hiring a diverse team.

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