October 2023; CIO.com

Diversity and inclusion provide organizations with many benefits, including better financial results, access to talent, innovation, and improved problem solving.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion have become important social issues. In the wake of the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor murders of 2020, companies made massive, highly publicized efforts to correct for systemic bias and improve the mix of race, gender, and lived experiences in the workplace. According to a recent study from Pew Research, most employed adults in the US think this is a good thing.

Not all of those efforts have been successful, though. Opinions on the topic vary widely across demographic and political lines. And many of those campaigns seem, in retrospect, to have been little more than marketing.

Politics — and even marketing — aside, there is no doubt that your teams should be diverse.

“This is not for social justice or corporate altruism,” explains Cheryl Stokes, CEO of CNEXT, a leadership development and executive networking business. “It gives you better business results.”

This is especially true for technical teams, where innovation is your lifeblood, but it is true for every team, everywhere.

“There have been many studies that show that with greater diversity, companies succeed,” says Alphonso David, president and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. “It is true in every industry. It is true in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. The principle has been proven over and over again.”