Tag: 2013: The D&I Tipping Point – 9 Key Trends
Some argued that designations such as black, white, Asian and Hispanic are outmoded classifications with little valid meaning for understanding genetic variations. The other side opined that meaningful DNA variations can track racial lines and to not explore them might jeopardize the effectiveness of the emerging concept of personalized medicine, aimed at developing treatment based on a person’s genetic makeup.
Opening a country’s borders to people from “foreign lands” has been a controversial issue for centuries but as globalization, due largely to technological advances, has made it much easier to be borderless, the issue is front and center.
The need for culturally competent leaders will be ever more urgent as the workforce becomes more and more diverse on a number of different dimensions.
We all have multiple identities. No one is uni-dimensional. President Barack Obama exemplifies the conundrum of intersection of multiple identities well. His father is from Kenya and his mother was white American, officially making him bi-racial. He lived in Indonesia and Hawaii during his formative years, making him what anthropologists call a “Third Culture kid. However he is most often identified in a uni-dimensional way as “African American”.
While D&I practitioners have been aware that the issues of diversity and inclusion span the globe, until recently the popular sentiment was that the term “diversity” was a US idea that did not play well in other parts of the world.
Women hold the majority in the global population; the majority who are earning baccalaureate and advanced degrees but are still woefully underrepresented in positions of power. We see this dynamic changing rapidly not only because of the demographic reality but because of the global economic imperative to level the playing field.
The veterans issue has raised the visibility of the needs for people with disabilities and diversity and inclusion practitioners need to be sure that they are adequately equipped to address these issues in your organizations.
2012 was certainly a tipping point year for LGBT rights in the US and abroad. Probably the most significant event in the US was President Obama’s reversal on his previously held stand against gay marriage. Even with this controversial stand, he was re-elected, which is a testament to the fact that attitudes are definitely changing.
Religious Diversity, a topic that many organizations shy away from putting on the diversity agenda will gain more significance in 2013.
2012 was a tipping point for many diversity and inclusion (D&I) issues in this country and around the globe. We saw a number of defining moments, many of them controversial and misunderstood, that will require the attention of D&I experts this year and beyond.
