DEI Is Not a Defect — It’s the Operating System for High-Performance Organizations

By Effenus Henderson

In the 1980s and 1990s, a wave of organizational innovation swept across industries, driven by the study and implementation of High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS). Scholars, engineers, and organizational leaders asked a transformative question: how can we optimize organizational performance toward the goals of reliability, efficiency, innovation, and stakeholder satisfaction?

What they learned — and what some ideologues have since forgotten — is that performance doesn’t emerge from machines alone. It doesn’t come solely from hierarchy, power, or even product superiority. Sustainable, high-performance outcomes stem from how organizations align social and technical systems to maximize human potential in service of shared goals.

The False Frame: DEI as a Defect

In 2025, a dangerous fallacy has taken root: the idea that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a liability — an unwanted deviation from the “normal” operating system of a business or government. Far-right politicians and pundits have latched onto this framing, treating DEI as a defect, a bug to be eliminated from the code of American governance and corporate culture.