Diversity: Why JEDI makes your Business Better for Everyone

“J.E.D.I. space is the outer space I want to visit and the space I want to create and inhabit right here on Earth.”  — Dr Sian Proctor, Astronaut, Scientist & Science Communicator

Forget switching out business wear for Star Wars cosplay and fancy dress, though the effects on your business may be just as transformative…

JEDI stands for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and is a recent evolution of the popularized acronym DEI. Whatever the wording, as a woman business-owner and leader you’re already testament to how diversifying the status quo—which has long seen men at the helm of important decision-making—repeatedly yields better results, even Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary thinks so!

Even if the bottom-line is the only driving force behind your business strategy, a recent report showed various forms of diversity directly driving up to 25% greater financial performance!

Because as a female founder, you have to face the fact that gender is only one facet of diversity; companies with executive teams more culturally and ethnically diverse are shown to be 33% more likely to see better-than-average profits, rising to 43% at board-of-directors level.

Taking a diversity pledge can seem like an intimidating commitment, but is it one your business can afford not to make?

Let’s break down the basics together—a first lesson, if you will, on the importance of accessibility.

Start with Diversity

Diversity is the beginning point, by which you can assess the presence of difference and variety in your team that may include, but is not limited to; race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status or ‘class’, (dis)ability, age, political stance and neurodiversity.

It’s important to note that a ‘diverse candidate’ doesn’t exist. A team or organization may be diverse, but no matter how many norms a person may differ from, diversity is about the collective and exists only in relation to others. As a unique individual, one hire cannot be diverse; they may bring diversity into your workforce, but in themselves cannot be described as ‘a diverse person’.

Diversity is not the removal of individuality, but rather the recognition and celebration of it—

a person of color, a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, a woman.

Start with assessing how diverse your workplace currently is and specify how you might make it more so (with ethnic diversity for example, it’s not enough to just say ‘make it diverse’ consider how, and in which areas you are currently lacking), but whatever you do, don’t stop there.

Inclusion is Essential but Distinct

If diversity is getting difference through the door, then inclusion is integrating it into your interior design and culture. Striving for change can be deemed worse than useless if talent fought-hard-for is forgotten once over the threshold.

Without inclusion, diversity efforts may not only get wasted, but have damaging effects. Take the example of Under Armour, whose CEO had to address diversity criticisms and toxic work  culture in 2019. Despite above-average gender ‘diversity’ (females representing 22% of the board of directors and 33% of the company’s leadership) employees are reported to have repeatedly expensed visits to strip clubs, amongst inviting women to company events based on attractiveness.

Just having women or underrepresented groups in the office isn’t enough if they feel unwelcome or uncomfortable being there. Think of ways to intentionally integrate diversity into your culture, an example may be equally recognizing religious holidays such as Diwali, Lunar New Year or Ramadan as you would Easter or Christmas, but do it in a way that doesn’t single out or put unnecessary spotlight or strain on your minority talent.

Be sensitive, willing to listen, learn, adapt and accept you may get it wrong a few times before you get it right, but the important thing is not to get defensive of your intent, but empathic of your effect.

Think of Equity as Closing-the-Gap

Picture a racetrack, with three runners. The circular shape means a runner in the inner ring must start further back than a runner on the outer ring, to account for the shorter distance to make one full circle.

This is the concept behind equity; recognizing that not all employees will have started in the same place, or with the same access to resources. In a crude sense, we can say that a well-to-do, white businessman from a good family is running the inner circle, whereas a woman, or neurodivergent person may be running the middle rung, and an ethnically-diverse or disabled person may be at the outer (a study showed white names receive 50% more callbacks for interviews than African-American). So your place as a female leader is to stagger the starting line, and account for this in making business and hiring decisions.

It’s equitable then, to provide additional support (such as training) or factor this into decision-making (like removing the requirements for expensive qualifications) for those who started their business journey at the ‘outer circle’.

AI-powered hiring platforms can be risky. Removing distinguishing information may mean you can’t account for these. A working single-mother applicant may have overcome some serious challenges just to get the undergraduate degree that another may have had a trust fund to support (and as a result has extra volunteer work and unpaid internships on their application). Realistically, the mother might have the transferable skills that are more important for the role you are looking to fill (and are harder to teach!)

Justice (or Action)

What happens when we fall short? In the same way that success is not linear, arguably an essential part of a DEI journey is accepting that you will, inevitably, fall short sometimes, and as a result need to be held accountable and actively seek to create change and act on the learnings along the way.

Try not to get distracted by wording. As Dr. DeShana Collett says “DEI for me is really JEDI — it encompasses justice, equity, diversity, and inclusivity,” and as long as your DEI efforts are DEI actions over words and pledges alone—backed with data and feedback just like every other part of your business—then don’t sweat the alphabet soup.

That you took the time to read and research this topic means you’re already taking action towards a fairer workplace for all. Have faith in your good intentions, whatever feelings and pushback you encounter on your JEDI journey, and know, that a better business is already in your stars, and that the results when you work for it, will be out of this world.

Written for Empowering a Billion Women, April 1 2021