Progress isn't about perfection - it's about persistence.
Five years ago this Sunday, George Floyd's death sparked a global reckoning. In the midst of a pandemic that had already isolated and divided us, his killing became a unifying call for justice that transcended communities, industries, and borders.
Leaders and organizations stepped forward with unprecedented urgency. DEI budgets were allocated. Training programs launched. Pledges were signed. Commitments were made with conviction that felt different than before.
But here we are, five years later, and that conviction was waned dramatically
The corporate response was swift and substantial: billions allocated, new Chief Diversity Officers, mandatory unconscious bias training. Yet if we're honest, how much has fundamentally changed in our workplaces, our communities, our systems?
The gap between saying and acting has cost us as a society.
When promises aren't kept, trust erodes. When budgets are reduced, cynicism grows. Many are now wondering if those mandatory trainings and initiatives that were prioritized without long-term vision or authenticity are to blame for DEI getting "cancelled" with broad strokes. When it becomes a checkbox rather than transformation, we lose the opportunity to connect the human experience and business outcomes. So many of us participated in those meaningful and important conversations. What happened? Did we throw it away?
I'm not asking these questions to diminish the efforts that were made, but because George Floyd's legacy deserves our honesty.
So let's get uncomfortable with some hard questions:
We jumped into action assuming that the outcomes would be obvious. Did we get tired or back down when they weren't?
Were the initiatives a signal of the times, or can we stay the course for the work that we said we would do?
How has the political climate changed this conversation? When the winds of policy blow back and forth, can we make commitments that resist these winds to stay the course of meaningful progress?
Progress isn't about perfection - it's about persistence. It's about leaders who ask difficult questions of themselves and their organizations, even when the cameras aren't rolling and the headlines have moved on.
George Floyd's daughter said she wanted her daddy to change the world. The question isn't whether that's possible - it's whether we'll have the courage to continue to do the work required to make it real.
#GeorgeFloyd #DEI #Leadership #Accountability
