Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

I worked for 55 years in the private and public sectors with various fair employment acronyms – EEO, AA, DEI, and others. I speak from experiences, both good and bad.

My experience shows that diversity works in engineering. Fully engaged people with diverse talents, knowledge, and backgrounds produce better ideas, better solutions, and better work. A team of near-clones yields to group think and makes mistakes that become obvious in hindsight. After seeing real-world results, my organizations chose diversity before it became part of an acronym.

We did not achieve diversity with quotas. We did it by recruiting widely, at the mostly white universities but also at those with substantial minority populations. We advertised  in publications, including those directed at disabled, Hispanic, Black and women engineers. Then, we made job offers to the objectively BEST QUALIFIED applicants.

The rate at which job offers were accepted appeared to be directly related to our REPUTATION for equal treatment and inclusion. For example, one element of a larger organization had a couple of engineers who opposed having women in the workplace. The supervisor of that branch had a hard time hiring and an even harder time retaining female engineers. Turnover and acrimony degraded their work, and the supervisor was replaced several times before management figured out the real problem. Other elements with diverse populations, treated equally, flourished.

I found that performance standards with wording which expressed EEO principles (treating all co-workers fairly, cultivating good working relationships, etc.) without using the "EEO" induced better behavior than those using the acronym. My diverse staff sometimes found formal EEO training either offensive or condescending. It didn't help our efforts to forge an inclusive workplace.

Politicians and news outlets like to cherry-pick misuses of DEI to allege that it means reverse discrimination. It doesn't; however, no good idea is so pure that it can't be misused. The Crusaders misused Christianity to invade the Levant. That didn't mean Christianity is flawed, it meant the Crusaders got it wrong. If DEI is misused, the individuals misusing it get it wrong. Criticism should be aimed at the specific misuse, not the good idea.

Thank you for your post sharing your experiences and thoughts. It is shameful that DEI is being attacked when all good people welcome diverse, equitable, and inclusive environments.

I hear you saying that many find formal EEO training offensive or condescending and wonder if you could expand upon that. What is is that makes them feel that way, and do you have any suggestions to improve the training?

I worked for 55 years in the private and public sectors with various fair employment acronyms – EEO, AA, DEI, and others. I speak from experiences, both good and bad.

My experience shows that diversity works in engineering. Fully engaged people with diverse talents, knowledge, and backgrounds produce better ideas, better solutions, and better work. A team of near-clones yields to group think and makes mistakes that become obvious in hindsight. After seeing real-world results, my organizations chose diversity before it became part of an acronym.

We did not achieve diversity with quotas. We did it by recruiting widely, at the mostly white universities but also at those with substantial minority populations. We advertised  in publications, including those directed at disabled, Hispanic, Black and women engineers. Then, we made job offers to the objectively BEST QUALIFIED applicants.

The rate at which job offers were accepted appeared to be directly related to our REPUTATION for equal treatment and inclusion. For example, one element of a larger organization had a couple of engineers who opposed having women in the workplace. The supervisor of that branch had a hard time hiring and an even harder time retaining female engineers. Turnover and acrimony degraded their work, and the supervisor was replaced several times before management figured out the real problem. Other elements with diverse populations, treated equally, flourished.

I found that performance standards with wording which expressed EEO principles (treating all co-workers fairly, cultivating good working relationships, etc.) without using the "EEO" induced better behavior than those using the acronym. My diverse staff sometimes found formal EEO training either offensive or condescending. It didn't help our efforts to forge an inclusive workplace.

Politicians and news outlets like to cherry-pick misuses of DEI to allege that it means reverse discrimination. It doesn't; however, no good idea is so pure that it can't be misused. The Crusaders misused Christianity to invade the Levant. That didn't mean Christianity is flawed, it meant the Crusaders got it wrong. If DEI is misused, the individuals misusing it get it wrong. Criticism should be aimed at the specific misuse, not the good idea.