How to innovate diversity for a changing global world

Diversity initiatives, often called DEI, are in the political and business crosshairs. In recent weeks, Meta, Walmart, Target, Ford, and McDonald’s are among global companies ending their formal DEI initiatives. Some of the bluster is performative. And yet, for many employees and global firms, there’s a sense that this is an opportunity to rebalance the goals and rethink the strategy by innovating diversity practices to better meet the global business goals.  

Most DEI programs were crafted years ago, and their relevance and impact has been diminishing. Many initiatives overreached and have not adequately evolved to meet the changing environment. Like with any business process, companies need to innovate their approach to global diversity initiatives.

There’s no doubt international companies recognize the value of having varied perspectives, experiences, and skills in all areas of their business. The global firms we work with know that having different voices and perspectives is essential to enhancing how teams function. It improves processes, productivity, and innovation. Companies are able to better understand their global customers’ needs and expectations, ultimately leading to increased profitability. The focus is then on how to ensure that there are diverse perspectives at every stage of a business process.

Diversity is defined different ways

A core element of our work focuses on applying social sciences, including cultural anthropology, to understand how local factors impact how companies achieve their business objectives. This is distinctly different from diversity initiatives, which are more focused on getting everyone to follow one standardized playbook for engagement, not necessarily prioritizing business goals.

In the DEI playbook, there is only one accepted definition of diversity, when in reality diversity’s definition differs across cultures. In the U.S., U.K., and Canada, for example, there’s a tendency to focus on visible characteristics given the countries’ multicultural demographics. American companies have tried to export this version of DEI, but it does not work in every culture. The way American firms approach diversity has been stuck at the visible characteristics phase.

In other countries, invisible characteristics like region, rural/urban setting, income, education, religion, tribe, caste, etc. can be more relevant, impacting how people communicate, interact, operate, and manage. It’s essential to recognize that people who look different can actually think alike. And people who look alike can think differently.

We already know that having people of different socioeconomic backgrounds provides more varied perspectives that can impact business objectives and innovation. For example, diversity of educational backgrounds means that companies are increasingly recognizing that they need to recruit from a wider range of colleges and universities around the world.

Rethink diversity

It’s time to innovate by rethinking and expanding how we talk about diversity, making sure that it’s globally relevant for all stakeholders. And in this current environment, we have a unique opportunity to innovate diversity initiatives to meet the evolving needs of employees and customers worldwide.

To be effective, it’s essential to integrate cultural nuances and localize any global strategies, including diversity initiatives, to achieve business objectives. There are key points to keep in mind as global firms integrate varied perspectives, voices, and roles into their business operations and processes.

First, the current DEI concept is heavily influenced by American perspectives and values and it may not translate to local cultures. Focusing on shared values and business objectives, our cultural framework uses a methodology integrating social sciences and business. Companies should focus on how to improve their stakeholder engagement—with employees, customers, and partners—to achieve business goals.

Diversity as the end goal is insufficient. It has to integrate into how people communicate, interact, and manage. Integrating cultural frameworks helps focus companies on making sure their teams work more effectively across cultures to better achieve business goals.

For example, global hospitality and travel firms we work with recognize that global customer engagement teams with varied experiences result in better overall customer experience and satisfaction metrics, including higher NPS (Net Promoter Score) and improved profitability.

What are the company’s goals, and how can everyone collectively work together toward those goals? Starting with that premise enables teams to focus on how to communicate and interact more effectively across cultures, engaging local teams to better understand the opportunities and challenges for getting all team members involved.

Share perspectives

Second, ensure that everyone throughout your organization can provide their perspective wherever relevant and useful. Ensure that virtual and in-person teams are cognizant of local cultural communications patterns so all ideas and perspectives are shared. For example, our cultural framework integrates a number of cultural factors to compare and contrast cultures.

• Individualistic versus collective. It’s not surprising that on a comparative basis, the U.S. is the most individualistic culture in the world. American business metrics tend to reward and advocate for the individual. In contrast, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, and Latin American cultures value group goals and teamwork more. So, any diversity and business initiative that focuses on the individual ahead of the group may not work locally. It’s more valued to be respectful of the group dynamics. For example, throughout Asia, the focus is on the collective good. Highlighting individual differences—visible or invisible—is considered a negative.

• People from diverse backgrounds and cultures communicate differently. A fundamental concept is verbal and nonverbal communications (high-low context). People who expect direct communications and clear verbal directness—e.g., in the U.S.—will miss nonverbal cues from colleagues who are accustomed to reading the context, such as in East Asia. Add in hierarchical cultural value, where junior team members are less likely to speak up in the presence of respected senior team members. Other factors can complicate communications and team dynamics including invisible characteristics such as local income, education, caste, tribe, etc.  

These are simple examples of invisible characteristics, but they illustrate that companies need to be clear about diversity goal efforts. Diversity for the sake of diversity may not be as successful across cultures, but diversity as a way to achieve shared corporate values and goals is more likely to resonate.

When developing a diversity program, be careful not to tell people how to be diverse but rather provide a conversation forum. We need to innovate how we view diversity, integrate invisible characteristics across cultures, and focus on shared purpose and business goals. In the long run, our goal should be to infuse diversity in every business process and team rather than a separate business unit. It will become ubiquitous.

Sanjyot P. Dunung is founder and CEO of Atma Global.

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