The learning-and-effectiveness paradigm is about cultivating a learning orientation toward diversity - one in which people draw on their experiences as members of particular identity groups to reconceive tasks, products, business processes, and organizational norms - enables companies to increase their effectiveness. However, businesses have largely failed to adopt a learning orientation toward diversity and are no closer to reaping its benefits. Instead, business leaders and diversity advocates alike are advancing a simplistic and empirically unsubstantiated version of the business case. Four private practice owners will speak to their experiences of the learning-and-effectiveness paradigm and the challenges and opportunities of the business case for diversity.
