Everything old is new again

Learn to lose, it’s easier that way
We’ve paid our dues, but we can’t make life pay
All across the world, people going mad
In their mother’s cars, the kids are feeling sad
That’s how it is, and I’ll see you later
Everything old is new again
Everything under the sun
Now that I’m back with you again
We hug and we kiss
We sit and make lists
We drink and I bandage your wrists

Ok, I know it seems I am starting the year on a less than optimistic note.  This quote from the Bear Naked Ladies "Everything Old is New Again" sums up how I'm feeling as I dive into the new year.  I have often said that my relationship with my employer (19 years) is the longest and most successful relationship I have had in my life. In many ways it reminds of other intimate relationships like marriage, or parenting...etc.  After a while it is hard to get excited and compromise and adjusted expectations becomes the norm. Years pass and you decide that staying is better than leaving so after you have decided not to part ways, you settle into a rhythm that just keeps things moving.

I have been working in the diversity and inclusion space for the better part of 8 years now, and I am settling into that frame of mind in relation to my work.  Don't get me wrong.  I am proud of the work that I do and proud of my organization's achievments.  But I don't think I am telling tales out of school when I say that some areas have seen little or no progress over the years.  And we are not alone.  According to a recent DiversityINC article, of the Fortune 500 CEO's only 3.8% of them are ethnic minorities.  Women hold a mere 4.2% of the CEO positions in those companies. Now, I know what you are thinking: " But haven't we been at this diversity thing for like...30 years?" At least. 

I don't have the answer.  I don't think anyone does, but we all keep trying. Every year I update the strategy and implement more programs and preach the gospel of the value of diversity to more people.  It reminds me of the line in the song that says "we hug and we kiss, we sit and make lists..."   I'm not going to say it is futile.  The moment I lose my passion for the work and conviction that my work makes a difference, I should hang it up.  So I will press forward, but not with the blind optimism I once had. I will press forward knowing that if I can impact the culture even a little bit, it is more than it was yesterday.  If I can help create an opportunity for a young college student, or a women new in her career, then I have done somethng meaningful.   Everything old is new again...including my 2013 Diversity and Inclusion strategy.

Inclusion 365 mission#3
I will remember that a pebble thrown in a lake creates ripples it doesn't feel or experience.  I will continue to urge my organization and those in my cirlce of influence to keep pressing for change.
  

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