Getting to Diversity

Management experts Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev sift through decades of data to show why workplace diversity training fails and what works. Arguing that it’s time to focus on changing systems rather than individuals, the authors make data-driven recommendations for diversifying management and creating workplaces where everyone can thrive.

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“This book has the potential to change CEO mindsets, human resource practices, manager behavior, and employee well-being—if only enough people grab it and heed its powerful messages.” —Rosabeth Moss Kanter, author of Think Outside the Building

“Dobbin and Kalev have spent their careers studying why diversity initiatives fail and what it takes to fix them. Their data-driven book doesn’t just spotlight the problems—it’s packed with solutions.” —Adam Grant

“Essential reading for anyone who wants to learn which practices can actually improve managerial diversity in organizations.”—Edward Chang, Science

“Too many companies don’t know how to walk the walk of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Getting to Diversity shows them how.”—Lori George Billingsley, former Global Chief DEI Officer, Coca-Cola Company

“This is the book all leaders need to read to achieve results.”—Adia Wingfield, author of Flatlining

Every year America becomes more diverse, but change in the makeup of the management ranks has stalled. The problem has become an urgent matter of national debate. How do we fix it?

Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev draw on more than thirty years of data from eight hundred companies as well as in-depth interviews with managers to show just how little companies gain from standard practice: sending managers to diversity training to reveal their biases, then following up with hiring and promotion rules, and sanctions, to shape their behavior. Almost nothing changes. It’s time, Dobbin and Kalev argue, to focus on changing the management systems that make it hard for women and people of color to succeed. They demonstrate how the best firms are pioneering new recruitment, mentoring, and skill training systems, and implementing strategies for mixing segregated work groups to increase diversity. And they argue that as firms adopt new systems, the key to making them work is to make them accessible to all—not just the favored few.

Powerful, authoritative, and driven by a commitment to change, Getting to Diversity is the book we need now to address constructively one of the most fraught challenges in American life.