I run a small company called Cabral Co., which works with big businesses. We have a tiny team. Despite the widely promoted American dream of “Scale up!” for businesses, we abide by an idea coined by my accountant, Keila Hill-Trawick: “Build to enough.”
We want to make enough money to operate, enough to pay everyone equitably, and have enough in reserve to help the business through tough times. Our goal is to deliver high-quality work that makes an impact, not a super high volume of work. The work I do is what a lot of folks call the DEI space.
As a small business, when we recently thought of preparing for tough times, we meant eight to 12 months of tough—not an entire national campaign targeting the kind of work I do with deep disinformation and misplaced hatred for two years-tough.
Unfortunately, depending on where you sit on the U.S. political divide DEI or diversity, equity, and inclusion can mean wildly different things. But as I shared at the start of my TED talk, what I really do is teach people how to be good humans.
Despite what has been portrayed by some folks, I do not spend my workdays contemplating ways to change children’s genders or force companies to hire underqualified talent. I teach people how to consider the broader implications of their actions and beliefs as they navigate the world. I give people the language to speak up and hold people accountable for their actions. I encourage people to be better listeners and leaders and connect across their uniqueness.
I have never been a fan of the “DEI” title because it felt ambiguous and too clinical. What I do isn’t clinical. It is about helping all humans be successful, thoughtful, respectful, resilient, and well-connected leaders.
Since late Fall of 2022, my industry has been in a major decline. Companies have been shifting away from DEI by cutting teams, budgets, and outside support. Add in a Supreme Court revision of Affirmative Action, a lot of anti-LGBTQ activism, a Roe v. Wade repeal, and a lot of DEI practitioners who either didn’t have support or flat-out did not know what they were doing and this decline is now a complete freefall.
It hasn’t helped that simultaneously, I have personally suffered a series of debilitating blows including my dad passing, having major surgery, and having my identity stolen (So now the IRS won’t release my much-needed refund. Have you ever tried calling the IRS? Yikes.)
I have tried very hard not to take any of these wild swings personally—but it all feels deeply personal. Two things kept me going these past couple of years: My little team deserves my very best effort and the work of equity is my passion.
But after two years of treading water and taking on debt, I may need to accept what appears obvious to at least half of the American population based on the outcome of this election. People want to be passive and angry and point fingers more than just doing the uncomfortable growth that moves us forward. Folks don’t want to listen or be accountable or move through disconnection. They don’t want to be better leaders. People don’t even want to be respectful. And the president-elect’s campaign exploited all of that frustration effectively.
It may seem extreme to decide to close my company mere hours after an election result, but let me paint the picture for you.
We usually get a small boost in autumn as clients realize they have a little extra in their “must-spend” budgets. This year? We got a boost of requests, like usual. Then, a screeching halt. In a few days, six-figures worth of contracts were canceled or postponed. When I asked why, almost all of them said, “We have been asked to wait until after the election.” Some shared with me confidentially that their leadership fears being targeted by Robby Starbuck.
It’s after the election now. And since the president-elect is so open about his position on so many things that harm so many people, it feels like it’s probably time to tip my hat and head on out. Despite all my and my colleagues’ efforts to clarify that the DEI rhetoric in the media is not what DEI is really about, between the debt my company has accumulated to survive, the money I expect I will need to refund to clients who will soon shift from postponed to canceled, and the inevitable industry decline to continue, we can’t afford it anymore.
This turn of leadership really feels like the end of DEI.
At least the end of how we have been doing it up to this point.
Even I know the steady and repeated stream of training about bias, allyship, and microaggressions isn’t working for many reasons. (And don’t get me started on the poorly structured, underfunded, and mismanaged ERGs that, left to their independent muscle and direction, become groups of deeply frustrated employees hosting barely attended Heritage Month events and trying to consistently execute influential mentoring circles).
The check the box, count the beans, approach has been failing. The “let me drown you in the data so you feel guilty enough to change” approach has been failing. It’s beyond time to put the current model to rest and with it, the clinical definitions, and the constant desire to describe and explain what our preferred diversity, equity, and inclusion acronym means and why it’s the right one. None of this is working. And if those of us teaching are as tired as those we are working to educate, what are we really accomplishing?
Confirmation for me came when my social media feed was almost immediately filled with a wave of blue “I voted for Kamala” bracelets. The deeply performative nature of wearing a bracelet to show where one stands politically is not only late—it impacts nothing. It’s also a clear confirmation that we haven’t moved beyond performative allyship, even on a foundational level.
I’m okay with letting DEI rest in peace.
Do I know for sure what is next? No. And I am scared for lots of reasons, honestly.
But there are a few things I do know for sure:
- Pretending salary gaps, race, gender, generational differences, disability, or microaggressions do not exist does not make them go away.
- Ignoring destructive leadership behaviors and avoiding challenging discussions doesn’t stop workplace conflict and does affect development.
- Narrow “culture fit” approaches to talent in a world that is growing more multicultural is a sure way to shrink a company’s talent pipeline—especially when considering the current generational wealth transfer.
- Folks will still be eager for workplaces where they can collaborate, connect, and do great work with the many identities that work there.
- There are still copious amounts of data that show what Americans of all stripes think of their workplace experience, and leading in ways that pretend that doesn’t exist will not suddenly make workplaces “neutral,” regardless of what Mr. Starbuck and his billionaire friends tell you.
There is still work that needs to be done. I am sure I will find some way to do it. Not only because it is the source of my income, but because my heart is in this work. I mean, whatever with these letters everyone is up in arms about—my heart is with developing good people. I care about us having the tools and resilience to human better together without hate, anger, and fingerpointing. And somehow, I know, regardless of the labels, that’s still the work I will do.
