The McKinsey study showed a correlation between diversity and profitability (maybe: but I’ll leave that be for now).
It did not show that:
- Diversity caused increased profitability
- Specific DEI policies resulted in increased diversity (or profitability)
And not to put too fine a point on it, but McKinsey sells DEI training programs. That doesn’t by itself make their study wrong, but one should perhaps turn a skeptical eye toward them.
The evidence that DEI programs work at all is mixed at best. For example:
Virtually all Fortune 500 companies offer diversity training to their employees. Yet surprisingly few of them have measured its impact. That’s unfortunate, considering evidence has shown that diversity training can backfire, eliciting defensiveness from the very people who might benefit most. And even when the training is beneficial, the effects may not last after the program ends.
But did the training change behavior?
This brings us to the bad news. We found very little evidence that diversity training affected the behavior of men or white employees overall—the two groups who typically hold the most power in organizations and are often the primary targets of these interventions.
The training wasn’t completely worthless–you can read the article for some of the positives. But it is not nearly as straightforward as proponents make out, especially since the cause/effect relationship between diversity and company performance is also very mixed.