Joelle Emerson has worked since 2014 as a consultant for several hundred clients on workplace performance as well as diversity and inclusion strategies, but last year, she changed the language used to describe her digital platform Paradigm.
Whereas before Paradigm marketed itself as helping clients "harness the power of diversity and inclusion to create a culture where everyone can do their best work and thrive," the company's website now states that its solutions "create an inclusive, high-performance culture where everyone can do their best work and thrive."
Paradigm began using DEI in 2020 after the term proliferated in the corporate response to protests across the country in the wake of George Floyd's death.