The end of DEI

It’s refreshing to see the tides finally turning. The DEI experiment, with its lofty promises, has revealed itself to be a costly distraction for the business world. For years, organisations have bent over backwards trying to appease the loudest voices, crafting elaborate programmes that accomplished little more than creating new forms of resentment. Now, as we move past that, we’re finally realising that merit is the only metric that truly matters for success. Nature, it seems, is healing. These woke band-aids are being ripped off, and hopefully we can get back to building successful businesses based on skill and potential, not manufactured social quotas.

This charade wasn’t just a waste of resources; it was actively damaging to productivity and effectiveness. I, along with many others, watched as qualifications were devalued in favour of superficial characteristics. Hiring managers made poor choices simply to tick some invisible diversity box, creating an environment that penalised performance and rewarded checkboxes. This wasn’t progress; it was a self-inflicted wound that dragged down output and hurt the bottom line.

Moving forward, we need to learn from these mistakes and embrace a true meritocracy. What people bring to the table, their accomplishments, their ability to solve real problems - these should be the measures of success, not the arbitrary categories imposed upon us. We need a system that values excellence and fosters innovation. Finally, the world seems to be waking up to that reality, and I couldn’t be happier.