In the 1995 movie Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey playing the role of Verbal/aka Kaiser Soze, says, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” And I would say the greatest trick many corporations pull on themselves, which often stands in the way of actual DEI progress, is convincing themselves that they are starting from a place of neutrality.
The fact is that corporations today are, for the most part, patriarchies driven by specific preferences across all dimensions of diversity. And the bulk of their inclusion efforts does not look at changing the organization but instead seeking a diversity of people that can somehow conform and connect to these existing preferences. The results have been, needless to say, less than stellar. Women and other underrepresented people come into organizations they believe to be progressive only to discover that they must discard portions of themselves and adopt the organization’s preferred characteristics and behaviors to have a chance of succeeding.
Our guest for this episode of ERG PowerTalk is an expert at disabusing people and organizations of this false and damaging belief. Yael Nevo is an award-winning Gender Consultant and the Founding Director of Gender Rise. Through her 20 years of gender work, she’s collaborated with industry leaders such as Virgin StartUp, The Guardian, and Amnesty International. Her work has made her a sought-after commentator who appeared on BBC World News, Link Magazine, Business Impact, and DiversityQ.
Nevo specifically helps organizations identify and modify their deeply rooted gender imbalances that result in pay gaps and other disparities. While her work focuses on gender, the same approach can be used to identify and address a host of different types of imbalances.
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