It was about a year ago that George Floyd was murdered, plunging the country into a crisis of conscience. A day of reckoning had arrived for the US, and then the world, on many levels—a reckoning that is still playing out today. This national trauma did not escape the corporate community. At the time, company after company pledged—or reiterated past promises—to focus on diversity, equality and inclusion. A turning point in the business community seemed to have arrived. 

So it is only natural we use the anniversary of Floyd's death to look back to see what progress has been made. Have these corporate promises been fulfilled? At first glance it is tempting to say yes. It is no longer rare, for example, to see a chief diversity officer in the C-suite. And it is downright commonplace for companies to point to their diversity initiatives in hiring and human relations. To be sure, one could make the case that that progress has not been enough. It is difficult to find companies that actually measure the progress they are making with diversity, for instance. And few companies disclose actual numbers to the public, although some states are pushing for that and the Securities and Exchange Commission may take up that as well.

But few companies would be bold enough to claim that they have mastered DEI. It is, they might rather say, a work in progress.