Post ID: @3ngg+1ooVmdYK -
You are making excellent points. You'd have to rewind time and focus on those companies that were studied, to get a better estimate on cause and effect. It's quite possible that those "successful" companies (I'm assuming McKinsey's financial assessment is OK as there are many ways to measure financial success vs. non-success...) were previously successful, and therefore had the means to diversify before they could diversify. AND/OR they could have been successful because their motives and methods for DEI was not just to prefer minorities, but rather they took some kind of better hiring practices that were more blind to traits and focused on performance and experience - which should result in increased diversity as you overcome some biases. However, the reason for that outcome is the proper methods used, not BECAUSE the person was black/women/etc.
Like you said, I can then see all these companies point to such a study as "proof" that DEI is the prime cause of better outcomes. That's the easy headline, but the causal factor is incorrect. It's not BECAUSE you have different skin tones on your board. It's because if you adopt more purely outcome-focused hiring practices, or offer top $ to jobs so that it attracts the top of each talent pool, etc. - then your diversity should increase as well as your outcomes.
I'd be interested in the follow-up studies, and the comparing the leaders vs. the followers. What is the "diverse" groups experience and skill sets of the successful companies vs. the follower-companies that are trying to force DEI? Compare those in the top roles and I bet a lot of the leader companies, where DEI is a result of better hiring practices not a forcing of hiring practices, have a much more experienced and outcome-focused DEI staff.
VMware is heavily Indian-American in its senior leadership, and I wonder if this makes us considered DEI at senior leadership? As a non-Indian, it sure appears to me like Indians are preferred at the senior levels, and if that's considered diverse, then we should be doing great on the DEI-scale!