CHAPTER 1
Setting the Stage: Going from Intent to Impact

You came to this book for a reason. Something compelled you. You might have been moved by a story in the news, a conversation with your team, or your own personal experiences.

When you think about diversity, you might first feel frustrated that not enough is being done. You might feel the pressure to drive results. You might be confused as to how. You might even feel guilt or shame.

When you look at your own organization, you might see where diversity is lacking, where representation is low and you haven't made enough progress. Like many people, you might be angry. You might be focused on the state of the world and the fear of what might happen if you now get this wrong.

But you might also be inspired by the possibility of getting this right.

Whether driven by fear or possibility, you, like many leaders, are likely feeling a burning desire to grow diversity in your organization. You have intent.

And because you picked up this book, you presumably have some degree of power: the power to choose, to reframe, to accept, or to influence. This book is designed to help you use whatever power you have to make a difference-not just in your own life or organization, but in the lives of people who deserve more opportunities than life has handed them.

Diversity is personal, perhaps more so than any other topic or decision we make during the workday. It reflects our values and our viewpoints, and it can trigger a surprising array of emotions. Advancing diversity isn't just about facilitating organizational change. It's about reaching the hearts and minds of our people. And it can't happen without leadership.

But leaders alone can't advance this mission. Despite what anyone tells you, there are few experts in this work, if any. There are few leaders with decades of experience in diversity hiring, and there isn't a single organization that has mastered it across the board. Today, this work requires collective learning, invention, and action. We are all writing the playbook that will guide diversity hiring in the years to come, and to do it well, we need everyone to contribute.

The path ahead is filled with extraordinary potential. If you travel it with dedication and persistence, it will lead to a better, more equitable world. Whether you are leading a company, managing a team, working in HR or recruiting, or simply aspiring to make things better, we wrote this book for you. Regardless of the role you hold, or your experience with diversity, your contribution matters, and you have the potential to make a difference. We hope this book gives you inspiration, direction, and support in this work. We hope this book reminds you what is possible and, most importantly, that you are not alone.

WHY THE TIME IS NOW

It took a series of unthinkable events, in a stunningly brief period, to force us all to reckon with injustices we'd been conditioned to tolerate.

We witnessed the murder of George Floyd and its aftermath, the agony of oppression erupting in massive, anguished protests. We watched the rise of Black Lives Matter, a global movement giving voice to people unwilling to remain disposable. We saw the COVID-19 pandemic force marginalized communities into even greater hardship and disparity. If our eyes were closed before, they have now been pried open. We are no longer willing-or able-to ignore the inequality and racism that surrounds us.

In a handful of months, the world discovered an urgent desire for change, and no facet of life has gone unaffected, especially the workplace and the makeup of our workforce. Most management teams and boards for the first time looked around and noticed the lack of diversity in the room. And employees across organizations demanded response and action from their employers.

Leaders were left asking, "Will things ever go back to the way they once were?" But the world as we know it has forever changed. Our new world calls us to move forward in innovative ways and to solve problems we've ignored for far too long.

So what changed? We've always had the intent to do better, to be better. And for the last decade, we have signaled how little diversity, equity, and inclusion is present in the workforce today, but that has yet to translate to real changes in our systems. There has been little impact from our efforts. We are now at a critical juncture. We can no longer tolerate our own lack of progress.

Our personal frustration is a direct indication of our desire for personal engagement. We can no longer say this isn't our responsibility, that this is someone else's problem. Each of us-from chief executives down to entry-level employees-has a sphere of influence in advancing diversity on our teams and our organizations. We each have the opportunity to build awareness of the need for diversity because of the systemic inequities across our hiring process. We have the chance to model new behavior for inclusive hiring in our own work personally, and we can play a role in influencing changes to the way our teams and organizations operate.

We also have more transparency around the lack of representation than ever before. Black individuals make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, yet only in four of the nation's 37 largest employers do they occupy 10 percent or more of the executive and management roles, according to Bloomberg. Hispanics make up 18.5 percent of the U.S. population, yet in only four of those companies do they occupy 15 percent or more of executive and management roles. Meanwhile, white people make up 60 percent of the U.S. population, and all 37 of the largest employers have at least 50 percent white representation at the executive and management levels.

To advance diversity in the workforce, we have often looked to changes we can influence in public policy. In June of 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court made history by declaring that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protected gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals from discrimination based on sex. For the first time in American history, employers were prevented from firing employees because of who they loved or how they identified. Although this was a victory, it shed light on the cruel reality that the LGBTQ+ community had always faced. It took 56 years for them to be granted the protection under law that their heterosexual and cisgender coworkers had all along.

Slowly but surely, progressive lawmakers are pursuing legislation to grant individuals access to the most basic protections in the workforce. But we can't wait for changes in the law alone to ensure equity for everyone at work. We all need to focus on what we can change, and that starts within our own organizations.

WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE

If we want to increase diversity in our organizations in a sustainable way, we have to abandon old ways of thinking and shift our approach entirely. This begins with stepping back to recognize why most organizations have struggled so immensely to grow their diversity. Most employers have lacked unity or alignment around the issue. They have approached the work with a short-term mindset that has limited the focus to isolated parts of their organizations. They have lacked a sense of shared responsibility in diversity hiring, which has left the work resting on the shoulders of far too few. These challenges combined have collectively stifled the march of diversity and prevented organizations from truly transforming. Here is what we believe must change:

To improve diversity we have to start with inclusion.

If we are serious about increasing representation in our organizations, we have to begin with a unified and inclusive definition of diversity. Many leaders look at diversity through a narrow lens, focusing solely on attributes they believe they can see. But there are visible and invisible aspects of diversity. To accomplish our mission, we can't paint diversity in broad strokes and leave people out. We need to ensure our definition of diversity encompasses all the underrepresented communities we hope to hire.

Next, to grow diversity among our teams, we have to constantly ensure our organizations themselves are places where people feel empowered and included. It's easy to think that driving diversity mainly depends on hiring, but this equality depends on investing in our existing teams and building cultures within our organizations where people feel embraced, supported, and have room to advance. As the civil rights activist Deray McKesson says, "Diversity is bodies. Inclusion is culture." In other words, diversity is the act of identifying and hiring the right people. Inclusion is about creating a space where those people feel welcome. They are two different concepts, but neither one is sustainable without the other.

We need to reframe diversity hiring as a long-term, strategic priority.

Many leaders see diversity hiring as an urgent but short-term effort, a terrible oversight that has often led efforts to feel more like one-off posturing rather than longterm sustainable change. But if we really see growing diversity in our organizations as a strategic priority, we must acknowledge that change often comes slowly. Just as we would never say that growing revenue is a near-term priority that depends solely on one department, we must never approach diversity hiring as a sprint, or a single team's "project." We need to pursue the work in a systematic way that persists regardless of short-term wins or losses. To do...