MIT Sloan Management Review Article on How to Stand Up When It Comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The backlash against DEI is out of sync with the opinions held by the most important set of stakeholders: your employees. Here’s how leaders can invite productive conversation.

Recently, several high-profile U.S. organizations have backtracked on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) commitments. Rural chain store Tractor Supply said it would eliminate DEI roles and goals, and farm equipment company John Deere said it would no longer sponsor social or cultural awareness events. Their reversals were joined by what might seem like an unlikely ally: the Society for Human Resource Management, which in July announced that it would drop the term equity from its initiatives toward fairer workforces to focus instead on just diversity and inclusion.

I’m not a trained HR professional, nor a SHRM member, but I’ve talked to enough of them to know that SHRM’s decision caused an uproar. SHRM CEO Johnny Taylor tried to explain the decision by telling Axios in an interview, “We can’t come in and have a legitimate conversation with senior management when people are debating [what the ‘e’ means].”

About the Author

Brian Elliott is an executive adviser and speaker. He is coauthor of How the Future Works: Leading Flexible Teams to Do the Best Work of Their Lives (Wiley, 2022).

Learn more about MIT SMR.