Science & Technology

What DEI Gets Wrong — and How to Do It Right | Paolo Gaudiano | TED

Social entrepreneur Paolo Gaudiano explains why many companies are taking the wrong approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives — by overly focusing on one thing. To avoid backlash and costly turnover, he shows the key change leaders can make to create thriving, equitable workplaces while also increasing profits. If you love watching TED…

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Social entrepreneur Paolo Gaudiano explains why many companies are taking the wrong approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives — by overly focusing on one thing. To avoid backlash and costly turnover, he shows the key change leaders can make to create thriving, equitable workplaces while also increasing profits.

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68 Comments

  1. @RISCGames

    June 17, 2024 at 9:12 am

    Listen to this guy equating diversifying financial asssets to the color of someone’s skin. Anyways doesn’t matter, the core of DEI is racism. NEXT

  2. @ba8e

    June 17, 2024 at 9:38 am

    The best way to do DEI is to not.

  3. @Ninja9JKD

    June 17, 2024 at 9:49 am

    Better question, what doesn’t DEI get wrong? Boeing planes AFU, falling out of the sky since DEI. Kinda sounds like DIE doesn’t it? Can we go back to people getting jobs because they are qualified instead of their skin color? DEI is very racist.

  4. @Waxcanon

    June 17, 2024 at 9:54 am

    I’m a simple creature but let me ask a question.

    If the problem has been that some people get an unfair advantage and others are unfairly disadvantaged, why is there such a push for the groups to switch places as supposed justice and payback, instead of just removing the unfairness which would actually be fair and balanced?

    • @ajwalker4416

      June 17, 2024 at 1:19 pm

      The simple answer is because the imbalance has been so profound and so out of balance for so long it’s going to take purposeful actions to create that balance that was lacking from the beginning. Once you actually get to equity and not “equality” then there is no more need for specific policies. But that is not America and has never been America except for those already favored.

    • @scorogarola

      June 17, 2024 at 1:54 pm

      This is sort of addressed in the video and sort of not, but a lot of companies grow and that growth should fill in gaps in knowledge, “diversify the portfolio”. If you think it’s about payback, you didn’t watch the video.

    • @Waxcanon

      June 17, 2024 at 3:00 pm

      @@scorogarola Sort of does and sort of doesn’t, are not a difference. I did watch the video, though.

    • @Waxcanon

      June 17, 2024 at 3:04 pm

      @@ajwalker4416 Let’s consider that some people are inflating their victimization, and put them aside. Now we have actual victims and actual victimizers through, humor me, ‘applied privilege’. Is it better to now give the applied privilege to the victims to use against their victimizers, or remove the ability to apply privilege in the first place?

      Shouldn’t we be removing policies that do this instead of adding new ones that just do the same thing in reverse proportions?

    • @Cosmo1093

      June 17, 2024 at 5:42 pm

      @@ajwalker4416 That’s a very simplistic, almost Black vs. White way of looking at the issue. It becomes much more complex when you consider the impacts to other groups. For example, it’s usually “over-represented” minorities like Asian-Americans and Jews that are disproportionately impacted by DEI/AA policies — in spite of the long history of discrimination those groups have also faced.

      If White men are used as the benchmark for success, then we’re effectively penalizing any minorities that happen to outperform the benchmark. It doesn’t really make sense.

  5. @ThizzMarley

    June 17, 2024 at 10:01 am

    didn’t mention merit once ..weird

    • @JakeMGolle

      June 17, 2024 at 11:32 am

      There’s an implication that if you include your team in the process of remove barriers, they can exercise their full potential. Assessing merit needs to come once you’ve stopped getting in the way, as a manager.

    • @ingislakur

      June 17, 2024 at 1:36 pm

      @@JakeMGolle dafuq u talkin bout

    • @scorogarola

      June 17, 2024 at 1:50 pm

      Yes he did… is this an ESL issue? Most of the talk is about merit. Find the synonyms.

    • @andy_fs1

      June 17, 2024 at 8:34 pm

      @@scorogarola no, i don’t think any of the talk was about merit. he talks about how feeling included boosts performance and retention.

    • @scorogarola

      June 17, 2024 at 8:45 pm

      @@andy_fs1you don’t consider performance a merit? Do you know what synonym means? Just asking.

  6. @marcvolpe8252

    June 17, 2024 at 10:07 am

    DIVERSITY EQUITY AND INCLUSION IS WHAT WE REALLY NEED AS A HUMAN SOCIETY HOWEVER TED DOESN’T PRACTICE WHAT THEY PREACH AMERICA HAS SPOKEN WE NEED MORE VIDEOS ON THE BEAUTY OF THE VAGINA THE VAGINA GOD’S GREATEST CREATION

  7. @tomasgomes

    June 17, 2024 at 10:08 am

    Starting with “what is a white, cisgender, heterosexual, fully privileged guy doing talking about diversity and inclusion?” is a great way to make me stop this video.

  8. @CornPopWazABadDude

    June 17, 2024 at 10:10 am

    Before video starts: DEI – Driving Extremely Intoxicated?

  9. @meanderinoranges

    June 17, 2024 at 10:13 am

    You end racism by ending racism. Not by perpetuating it.

    • @jonathans.9488

      June 17, 2024 at 2:43 pm

      This is a comment on the internet.

    • @andy_fs1

      June 17, 2024 at 8:36 pm

      not talking about it does not make it go away

    • @meanderinoranges

      June 17, 2024 at 8:43 pm

      @@andy_fs1 talk about it as much as you want. I have zero issues with talking about it. My problem is this “fix” of giving jobs to the people who check the boxes, instead of to the best qualified people, actually makes things worse.

    • @ashlibabbittcroakedit9108

      June 18, 2024 at 11:11 am

      ​@@meanderinorangesYou mean like Jim crow

    • @ashlibabbittcroakedit9108

      June 18, 2024 at 11:14 am

      ​@meanderinoranges Diversity, equity and inclusion is a term used to describe policies and programs that promote the representation and participation of different groups of individuals. DEI encompasses people of different ages, races, ethnicities, abilities, disabilities, genders, religions, cultures and sexual orientations. It also covers people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, skills and expertise.

  10. @keithfiredive

    June 17, 2024 at 10:29 am

    Bring back Coleman Hughes

  11. @JakeMGolle

    June 17, 2024 at 11:33 am

    Comments here should be quite nuanced and educated.

  12. @c.a.6972

    June 17, 2024 at 12:49 pm

    “The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.” – MLK

  13. @braintwirl

    June 17, 2024 at 12:53 pm

    lol. Another grifter making $$$ off DEI.

    I’m a minority. I want nothing to do with this.

    Make it on your own and stop playing victims!!

  14. @banzairunner7860

    June 17, 2024 at 1:02 pm

    Putting people in positions they aren’t qualified for is ruining our society. Everywhere you go now is poorly operated whether it’s a doctors office or a grocery store. COLOR DOESN’T MATTER…..are you QUALIFIED???

  15. @SurfbyShootin

    June 17, 2024 at 1:44 pm

    As a fellow Ashkenazi Jew, I think we are overrepresented in positions in opportunity that could go to African Americans. There is so much disparity of manual labor positions between us, we need to take a step in their shoes more than we need to give them shoes beneath our positions.

  16. @sebastiaanstok

    June 17, 2024 at 2:16 pm

    Selling your product in a TED talk, congrats. This didn’t teach me anything I didn’t know already.

    Diversity should happen naturally, not (en)forced.
    When you select people on the basis of diversity alone, and not skills it’s wrong. Always, it gives of the impression that these people can’t do things on there own, and need a (white) savior to help them as there skills aren’t enough. Which plays in nicely with the postmodernist claim about systems of power, and victim hood.
    So lets exclude the popular majority (which is still discrimination) while ignoring personal dynamics, and give it a fancy name.

    Inclusion means inclusion of ideas and letting everyone have a say, in DEI it means you must respect everyone even if there opinion ignores science or fact.
    You must agree trans women are women otherwise you are being exclusive, and that as a white person you are privileged.

    Equality is always used (for DEI) as equality of outcome, while the input isn’t same. You are playing the Marxist game, and this led to the death of over 100.000,000 people! Women make less than men because they work less hours, this has been discussed to death, a female economist did some heavy research into this and even received a nobel price for her work.

    Bias has been confirmed NOT to be a factor in selection, the statical majority of people are people of color, women are surpassing the men in college degrees.
    And creating a more diverse team has actually shown to be less effective as there is cohesion in the group, humans always form there own groups in a natural way, the more this is forced the less effective the result.

  17. @BartT75

    June 17, 2024 at 2:22 pm

    Melanin is neither a virtue nor a vice. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk

  18. @lucasLSD

    June 17, 2024 at 2:40 pm

    The top will never be diversified, because the ones with power will never give it ip

    • @TomNook.

      June 17, 2024 at 9:24 pm

      Power is taken, never given.

  19. @generalnawaki

    June 17, 2024 at 2:50 pm

    Privilege is when an entire system is created to get people hired based on their skin color or gender instead of their resume and character.

  20. @f8ofk8

    June 17, 2024 at 3:13 pm

    How Caucasian. 😡

  21. @koyegebil

    June 17, 2024 at 3:35 pm

    I recently sold some of my long-term position and currently sitting on about 250k, do you think Nvidia is a good buy right now or I have I missed out on a crucial buy period, any good stock recommendation on great performing stocks will be appreciated..

    • @peroumjefe

      June 17, 2024 at 3:36 pm

      I managed to grow a nest egg of around 120k to over a Million. I’m especially grateful to Adviser Bruce Murdock, for his expertise and exposure to different areas of the market…

    • @SvetaMink

      June 17, 2024 at 3:37 pm

      My colleagues had a good laugh at me when I told them I started my journey with $50k capital and how I accumulated over 6 figures within a span of 7 months. They never believed me until I pulled out my P&L

      I know that learning the ins and outs of the market isn’t for everyone, that’s why personally, Bruce Murdock oversees my investments

    • @peroumjefe

      June 17, 2024 at 3:37 pm

      Without a doubt! Bruce Murdock is a trader who goes above and beyond. he has an exceptional skill for analyzing market movements and spotting profitable opportunities. His strategies are meticulously crafted based on thorough research and years of practical experience.

    • @koyegebil

      June 17, 2024 at 3:37 pm

      nice! once you hit a big milestone, the next comes easier.. How can i reach him, if you don’t mind me asking?

    • @koyegebil

      June 17, 2024 at 3:38 pm

      I’ve just looked up his full name on my browser and found his webpage without sweat, very much appreciate this..

  22. @bruce9108

    June 17, 2024 at 6:37 pm

    You diversify assets to hedge risk.

  23. @ATHIP12

    June 17, 2024 at 8:55 pm

    Do DEI right by hiring his company to evaluate your company and give the speaker more money. Got it. I was expecting so much more from the talk based on the start. This talk was still all just lip service to appease the same DEI agenda. They want equality of results above equality of opportunity. I can give everyone, regardless of race, the secret to success: Keep your head down, work harder than your coworkers, stop whining when things don’t go your way, and find another job if you aren’t happy. Nobody owes you anything, and you are in control of your destiny. Companies want to promote the best person for the position, and the best person isn’t necessarily you. If not, take a good look inwards and fix what is keeping you back. Blaming the company is a copout.

    There’s my Ted Talk, and I’m not selling you anything.

    • @TomNook.

      June 17, 2024 at 9:28 pm

      Just like Sweet Baby Inc

  24. @tjismpresentation

    June 17, 2024 at 9:13 pm

    lol no one’s in the audience

  25. @TomNook.

    June 17, 2024 at 9:22 pm

    Equity = discrimination.
    Equality = equality.

  26. @miguelsuarez-solis5027

    June 17, 2024 at 9:30 pm

    Hey almost got it. Almost understood why dei is not good and then just lost it… probably be cause he gets paid for it

  27. @patrickfrierson8714

    June 17, 2024 at 10:05 pm

    A solid Ted Talk here-where inclusion can lead to a diversification of ideas. My biggest problem with DEI is its premise of fighting systematic racism with more racism. It’s exchanging a set of problems with the same set of problems-it doesn’t make sense. Furthermore, as a Blackman, I wouldn’t want the uncomfortable spotlight of DEI placed on me in the workplace. Fortunately, I’ve worked at the same place for seven years and I can definitively say that all of the perks I earned on my job was because of the hard work I’ve put in over the years-not because I was “model minority” that they decided to throw a bone to. When you in a workplace, where everyone have a singular objective, it should be about the quality of talent more than anything.

    • @airenmarie1250

      June 18, 2024 at 10:48 am

      How is it racism? This premise honestly baffles me. How is including more marginalized people in a company a threat to the less marginalized? And please don’t say anything about “merit.” How many highly qualified women, minorities, LGBTQ candidates, etc., have been turned away over the course of history, in favor of a white, male, and/or straight person who is less qualified?…

    • @patrickfrierson8714

      June 18, 2024 at 2:50 pm

      @@airenmarie1250 Because by hiring someone on the basis of their skin color, you’re missing out on “more qualified” individuals across the board-regardless of race. Don’t get it twisted, I under that “some” companies who employed predominately white people been doing preferential hiring for years. But the best way to counter that is by showing your talents and speaking out when you feel like you’re being undervalued. But the moment you do under-represented or minority based hiring, that means giving preferential treatment to a group of people at the expense of others. It opens up the possibility for racism and discrimination to continue-only in reverse. My skin color and ethnicity “should” be merely a cultural marker. I shouldn’t jump in front of the line of anyone who are more qualified than me to do a job. When it comes to a job like “Anti-Terrorism”, I’d rather have the job because I take safety of the nation seriously and I’m qualified to handle a job as critical as that one. That’ll make me confident in my abilities than being a “minority hire” that they just threw in the position-but I don’t have a single clue in what I’m doing. DEI is reversed discrimination and racism no matter how you slice it.

    • @Cosmo1093

      June 18, 2024 at 6:11 pm

      @@airenmarie1250 Just to be clear, “over-represented” minorities like Asian-Americans and Jews are disproportionately forced to give up their seats under race-conscious policies — in spite of the long history of discrimination they have faced. It’s quite literally institutional racism and antisemitism against minorities.

    • @Cosmo1093

      June 18, 2024 at 6:13 pm

      @@airenmarie1250 Just to be clear, “over-represented” minorities like Asian-Americans and Jews are disproportionately forced to give up their seats under DEI and affirmative action policies — in spite of the long history of discrimination they have also faced. How is it not racism, or antisemitism?

    • @Cosmo1093

      June 18, 2024 at 6:15 pm

      @@airenmarie1250 In practice, “over-represented” minorities like Asian-Americans and Jews are usually the hardest-hit under DEI and affirmative action policies, in spite of the long history of discrimination they have also faced. How is that not racism?

  28. @patrickfrierson8714

    June 17, 2024 at 10:05 pm

    A solid Ted Talk here-where inclusion can lead to a diversification of ideas. My biggest problem with DEI is its premise of fighting systematic racism with more racism. It’s exchanging a set of problems with the same set of problems-it doesn’t make sense. Furthermore, as a Blackman, I wouldn’t want the uncomfortable spotlight of DEI placed on me in the workplace. Fortunately, I’ve worked at the same place for seven years and I can definitively say that all of the perks I earned on my job was because of the hard work I’ve put in over the years-not because I was a “model minority” that they decided to throw a bone to. When you in a workplace, where everyone have a singular objective, it should be about the quality of talent more than anything.

    • @patrickfrierson8714

      June 18, 2024 at 2:50 pm

      @@airenmarie1250 Because by hiring someone on the basis of their skin color, you’re missing out on “more qualified” individuals across the board-regardless of race. Don’t get it twisted, I understand that “some” companies who employed predominately white people been doing preferential hiring for years. But the best way to counter that is by showing your talents and speaking out when you feel like you’re being undervalued. But the moment you do under-represented or minority based hiring, that means giving preferential treatment to a group of people at the expense of others. It opens up the possibility for racism and discrimination to continue-only in reverse. My skin color and ethnicity “should” be merely a cultural marker. I shouldn’t jump in front of the line of anyone who are more qualified than me to do a job. When it comes to a job like “Counter-Terrorism”for the Pentagon, I’d rather have the job because I take the safety of the nation seriously and I’m qualified to handle a job as critical as that one. That’ll make me more confident in my abilities than being a “minority hire” that they just threw in the position-but I don’t have a single clue in what I’m doing. DEI is reversed discrimination and racism no matter how you slice it.

  29. @Rybot9000

    June 17, 2024 at 10:44 pm

    Those examples of things that people said are good examples of an underlying issue with those people’s attitudes. I do see an inherent problem with measuring ‘inclusivity’ though. There are more variables determining the position people hold in a company than demographics. The only thing race or gender could factor into is a choice not to hire or promote them or to include them, but there are numerous other factors determining whether they are even there to begin with. Like nobody has ever asked me to dance, but I don’t go to dances so there would be no possible way I could be asked. Its not discrimination that I have never been asked. I have worked in highly inclusive work environments where half the mid-level leadership were women and 1/5 were of color, precisely proportional to the local demographics, but they had a really hard time meeting those goals due to a lack of applicants. In my 10+ years there I worked with three different office administrators, all female, and all three of them studied for human resources and later worked in HR. The only men in that role were temporary hired hands for when the regular girls needed a vacation. One guy worked in an HR team of 5 over 10 years and was studying for something else so he eventually moved on. Its not due to lack of diversity or inclusion on part of the company that no men ever applied for those positions. This is a phenomena in all fields, I was in service desk and we had lots of men but only one woman over the course of a decade. We had plenty of men of color but no women of color. That problem can’t be solved internally. I have also worked in a government organization that is 95% women and all levels of leadership up to the national director are women. This is in provincial health laboratories where the manager and site director of the lab, the district manager and the provincial health director are all women. How does that happen? Discrimination is not the only reason a role or profession might be disproportionally one race or gender, and so you aren’t measuring ‘inclusivity’ that way, you are just measuring proportionality which might have other causes besides inclusivity.

  30. @hdlc4635

    June 18, 2024 at 12:20 am

    It really isn’t difficult to understand in business terms. If 35-40% of the country are racial “minorities” and you want to market and sell products to this segment of the population to grow your business, then you’re going to want a workforce that includes people who can best help you sell your stuff to people you want to purchase. In 2024, there are plenty of exemplary “diverse” candidates to fill most any role a company has and if hiring them meets the company’s objectives, then so be it. 1965 is over. People need to get over it.

  31. @dianetx9501

    June 18, 2024 at 12:24 am

    Did I hear him correctly? If 10 people working on marketing optimization, the same company should have 300 working on DEI?! I need someone to make this make sense to me. Yes, I did watch the full video

    • @nannybannany

      June 18, 2024 at 9:01 am

      I am also curious if this means like 300 dedicated people to just DEI? Or if it means, like, all employees have some aspect of actively working on it? I need more clarification.

    • @fire--fly

      June 19, 2024 at 6:48 am

      It’s an absolute joke. Imagine all the people running around policing and micromanaging every action comment and thought. It sounds like an absolute nightmare.

    • @RenatoCarvalhoS

      June 23, 2024 at 8:45 am

      His point is that dismantling practices that promote exclusion should concern everyone in a company, instead of being just a task of a DEI officer. It’s not different from safety. Companies do have a safety officer, but detecting and fixing unsafe situations is a responsibility of every employee.

  32. @alidev425

    June 18, 2024 at 7:48 am

    DEI (or DE&I) stands for diversity, equity and inclusion.

  33. @andycordy5190

    June 18, 2024 at 10:23 am

    I did not recognise the acronym DEI even though I am a gay man, so I very nearly passed over this excellent talk. I clicked, partly to find out what the acronym meant and even then it was not immediately apparent. Thank you for hosting this subject. It means a lot to me. Don’t let your audience slip away with a title that excludes them.

  34. @timothygalvin3021

    June 18, 2024 at 11:30 am

    Respectfully, no this is not.What DEI gets wrong is the idea that the most important qualities of a worker are their skin color, gender, or sexuality instead of their sense of hard work, business savvy, and intelligence. When people hear that airlines are hiring pilots based on their skin color and not on their ability to fly an airplane, it makes consumers “push back” as he said.

    • @caitlinsummers888

      June 21, 2024 at 8:50 am

      That’s exactly the point the speaker is making. The focus is too centered around diversity and not equity (a fair system for everyone)

  35. @dudeamongus

    June 21, 2024 at 7:39 pm

    This concept makes the same problem every single DEI promotor makes, and that is that it entirely ignores merit from the discussion.

    You CANNOT force diversity and sustain merit based performance if merit based performance is not the goal.

    DEI completely ignores the scientific, biological fact that everyone is NOT possible of performing the same job or at the same level.

    And yes, i watched the entire video.

  36. @dandrespruill1165

    June 21, 2024 at 10:05 pm

    It’s not the 1980s anymore, it is year 2024 and people are into diversity. So no matter if it is DEI, the world needs (diversity). The workplace needs diversity and people need it. reply

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