DEI

In recent years, as economic pressures have forced companies to scale back their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, a familiar debate has resurfaced about the relationship between business imperatives and social responsibility. While many view these cutbacks as a moral failure or a retreat from progress, such perspectives often overlook a fundamental truth about the nature of business itself: A business doesn't care about you. It doesn't because it can't.

This isn't a cynical observation but rather a recognition of what a business fundamentally is: a collection of processes and systems crafted to work together, facilitating the exchange of value between parties. It is, by definition and necessity, clinical in nature. Understanding this reality is crucial for having honest discussions about what we can and cannot expect from businesses, particularly during economic downturns.

The Human Element in Business Transactions

The complexity arises because while business itself is clinical, it operates through and affects human beings who are anything but. Consider a hospital emergency room - a perfect metaphor for this dynamic. The ER must operate according to clinical protocols and triage procedures. A patient arriving with a life threatening condition will be treated before someone with a broken finger, regardless of how much pain the second patient is in or how long they've been waiting.

This isn't because the hospital staff doesn't care about the patient with the broken finger... many of them likely entered healthcare precisely because they deeply care about helping people. Rather, it's because the system must prioritize survival over comfort to fulfill its fundamental purpose. The protocols exist precisely because allowing emotional responses to override clinical priorities would ultimately result in more suffering, not less.

Similarly, businesses must prioritize their fundamental survival mechanisms - revenue, profitability, market share over internal comfort or social initiatives, no matter how worthy those initiatives might be. This isn't because business leaders are heartless, but because failing to do so threatens the stability of everyone who depends on the business.

False Feel Good Business Philosophy

Modern business culture often tries to obscure this reality with feel-good corporate philosophies about putting people first or prioritizing social responsibility above profits. While these sentiments are admirable, they can create dangerous illusions about the fundamental nature of business operations.

Consider a small software company facing an economic downturn. The company has a talented developer, Alex, who is undergoing gender transition and benefits greatly from the company's inclusive policies and supportive environment. The company also has several large clients, including a healthcare provider that uses their software to manage patient records. The healthcare provider is threatening to leave due to service issues that would require resources to fix - the same resources currently dedicated to maintaining extensive DEI programs.

The company's leadership might genuinely care about Alex's wellbeing and believe deeply in the importance of maintaining an inclusive workplace. However, if they lose the healthcare provider as a client, they may have to lay off multiple employees, including Alex. The clinical business reality is that maintaining the revenue stream must take priority over maintaining the ideal workplace environment, because without the former, the latter becomes impossible anyway.

Ripple Effects

This prioritization becomes even more crucial when we consider the broader web of dependencies that rely on business stability. In our software company example, it's not just about Alex versus the healthcare provider. It's about:

• The other employees who depend on their salaries to support their families
• The patients whose healthcare might be impacted by poorly functioning software
• The local businesses that depend on the company's employees as customers
• The broader tech ecosystem that might be affected by the company's success or failure

When viewed through this lens, maintaining business fundamentals isn't just about cold profits, it's about preserving the stability that numerous people depend on. This is why businesses must sometimes make decisions that seem to prioritize clinical metrics over human concerns.

Diversity Within Clinical Constraint

It's crucial to acknowledge that diverse teams often create better business outcomes. Different perspectives, backgrounds, and ways of thinking lead to more innovative solutions, better problem-solving, and deeper understanding of varied market needs. Research consistently shows that companies with diverse workforces often outperform their more homogeneous competitors. This creates a compelling business case for diversity... not as a social initiative, but as a competitive advantage. However, this advantage only exists when diversity operates within rather than against business fundamentals. A team can and should be diverse, but the core business processes cannot be individualized or compromised to accommodate personal needs. Using our earlier example, while Jerry's presence on the team might bring valuable perspectives that improve business outcomes, the business processes cannot be restructured around Jerry's transition needs at the expense of Annie's job security or the company's stability. The goal is to build diverse teams that strengthen rather than compromise the clinical efficiency of business operations.

Remember, this isn't about arguing against considering team composition or diversity - it's about understanding that every policy and process you create must be designed with clear business value (including diversity) and scalability in mind.

Early stage founders, particularly those building in concentrated talent markets like a rural Canadian village or a specialized technical field, need to make decisions based on their specific context and constraints. The goal isn't to ignore diversity, but to build business systems that naturally select for whatever traits - including diversity of background, thought, or experience - create measurable value in your specific situation. Sometimes this means you'll end up with a homogeneous team because that's what your business needs right now (everyone speaks Spanish addressing the Spanish market) and sometimes you'll end up with a diverse team for the same reason. The key is that these outcomes should flow from clinical business decisions based on value creation, not from trying to engineer specific social outcomes through broad, feeling-based policies that might create unintended constraints as you scale. When founders ignore this reality and implement overly broad 'inclusive' policies without considering their downstream business implications, they risk creating situations where they become hostage to well-intentioned but poorly designed systems.

In this, I hope you see it creates opportunity for everyone by fundamentally recognizing there is business opportunity IN everyone. I diverse company is the byproduct of a diverse business.

Honest Discussion

One of the greatest obstacles to understanding this dynamic is our natural resistance to acknowledging harsh realities. It's more comfortable to believe that with enough creativity or commitment, businesses can always find ways to maintain both profitability and ideal working conditions. This wishful thinking often leads to accusations that businesses making hard choices are simply lacking in empathy or moral fiber.

However, true empathy and moral courage sometimes require acknowledging and directly facing uncomfortable truths. When businesses pretend they can indefinitely maintain programs or initiatives that compromise their fundamental stability, they often end up causing more harm than good. It's more honest and, ultimately more helpful - to acknowledge that businesses must prioritize their clinical metrics precisely because of how many human lives depend on their stability.

The Role of Clear Eyed Compassion

None of this means we should abandon efforts to create more inclusive, equitable workplaces or that businesses should ignore their social impact. Rather, it means we need to be more strategic and realistic about how we pursue these goals. Instead of demanding that businesses ignore their fundamental nature, we should:

1. Acknowledge the clinical realities of business operations openly and honestly
2. Design social initiatives that align with rather than compete against business fundamentals
3. Focus on creating sustainable programs that can weather economic downturns
4. Be transparent about priorities and limitations rather than making unsustainable promises

This approach requires a different kind of compassion - one that prioritizes long-term stability over short term comfort. It means sometimes having to tell valued employees that worthy programs must be scaled back not because their needs don't matter, but precisely because they matter too much to risk the stability they depend on.

The path forward isn't about choosing between being clinical or compassionate - it's about understanding how these elements must work together in the context of business operations. This means:

• Acknowledging that the clinical nature serves a crucial purpose
• Understanding that stability often requires prioritizing revenue over internal programs
• Recognizing that this prioritization isn't a moral failing but a functional necessity

When we accept these realities, we can have more productive discussions about how to advance social goals within the constraints of business operations. We can focus on developing initiatives that enhance rather than compete with business fundamentals, creating sustainable progress rather than unsustainable promises.

In an age where businesses are increasingly expected to serve as agents of social change, it's crucial to maintain clear eyed perspective about what businesses fundamentally are and what they can sustainably do. A business is a clinical entity designed to facilitate value exchange, and it must remain so to fulfill its essential function in society.

Again: This doesn't mean abandoning aspirations for more equitable and inclusive workplaces, people should feel safe at work. Rather: it means pursuing these goals with a clear understanding of business realities and limitations. Only by acknowledging and working within these constraints can we create sustainable progress that survives economic pressures and truly serves the people who depend on business stability for their livelihoods.

The path forward requires the courage to face these realities honestly and the wisdom to work within them effectively. It's a path that might sometimes seem less idealistic, but ultimately leads to more sustainable and meaningful progress.