TCT
From our new Editor's Insights feature inside the latest issue of TCT Magazine, Laura Griffiths addresses the risk of reversing on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives and why the additive manufacturing industry shouldn't follow suit.
What is that rolling sound? Is it my eyes spinning to the back of my head or is it the sound of DEI initiatives tumbling back to the dark ages?
Oh, it’s both.
The bros have spoken. DEI is dead; failed experiment, board up the windows, abandon ship. As I write this, NASA has become the latest to join a disappointing list of high-profile organisations that have decided to decommission their DEI programmes. Day by day, big names, many of which we’ve featured in this very magazine, are being added, each making it easier than the last to get rid of recruitment goals or scrub their websites of anything that sounds like progress. It’s a trend that has been slowly creeping in as organisations have begun to phase out initiatives – initiatives which have accelerated since 2020 – that were brought in to promote more inclusive workplaces but are now rapidly decelerating in response to new government mandates and concerns around litigation.
Setting intentions
During a Q&A about creating intentional workplace cultures (which you can watch in full in our TCT Women in 3D Printing Innovator live stream here), I asked Eliana Fu, Business Development Manager, Aerospace at TRUMPF, for her thoughts on whether, in light of all this recanting, we are now at risk of quickly reverting to ‘the way we’ve always done things’? Fu said, “Going backwards would be a detriment to everything we’ve learned and developed so far.” We should all be inclined to agree. Intentionality, as Fu argued, is key. I have no doubt that the language around every back pedal will have been communicated to employees as levelling the playing field to provide equal opportunities for all staff, disguised under ‘common sense’ statements about ‘securing the best talent’. And that all sounds lovely, doesn’t it? But it’s just not reality. Sometimes, you must be intentional to make change happen.
In some ways, additive manufacturing, a 40-year-old technology, doesn’t really have a ‘the way we’ve always done things.’ We’re still a young industry, relatively, and while we straddle the line between manufacturing and technology, the traditional and new, innovation is supposed to be at our core. DEI is as much about diversity of thought as it is about diversity of people. In a conversation about binder jet developments just last year, Atomik AM CEO Prof Kate Black told TCT, “I believe that the technology we need already exists and it’s scattered around the world like a large jigsaw. It needs people to bring those pieces together, but we can’t bring those pieces together when we have cultures that alienate half the population.” In an industry like ours with its unique challenges and untapped opportunities, that mix of minds is crucial. So why wouldn’t we want to work harder to engage them?
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In another conversation on our Additive Insight podcast, Stacey DelVecchio, former Additive Manufacturing Product Manager at Caterpillar and former president of the Society of Women Engineers, cautioned that diversity initiatives were at risk of going underground due to political climate change, with companies “pulling back on publicly supporting diversity.” She suggested that if the job is left to non-profits to move the needle without the support of big players, it makes it harder to push change through with policymakers. The reversals being made today, which risk turning DEI into a hushed topic, are surely only going to place the burden on those groups more heavily.
Priorities in order
I understand that when times are tough, companies have to choose where to prioritise. As businesses grapple with challenging economies, DEI initiatives might not top the list of concerns. But when I see huge, influential companies reversing decisions on supplier diversity spending goals or removing DEI-related content from training materials, it all just sounds a little bit too much like a case of hard work. I understand the sense of fatigue around DEI but it’s being treated like a trend that can be discarded like a pair of skinny jeans, as if all the initiatives and resources that have been invested in over the last five years were some sort of failure. And it’s being allowed because companies have effectively been given the signal that ‘hey, you don’t need to do this anymore!’
Despite what these recent moves may seem to suggest, representation does matter, visibility matters, role models matter, and we need to keep going because, to paraphrase DelVecchio again, we are not where we want to be. So please, AM community, let’s not roll back on how far we’ve come. Let’s do things differently because that’s something we, as an industry, are really good at.
This article originally appeared inside TCT Europe Edition Vol. 33 Issue 1 and TCT North American Edition Vol. 11 Issue 1. Subscribe here to receive your FREE print copy of TCT Magazine, delivered to your door six times a year.
