The Dov Baron Show Part 2 of 2:🎙"Selective Inclusion: Jessica Pettitt: the Dark Truth Leaders Avoid."
🎙 "Selective Inclusion: Jessica Pettitt on the Dark Truth Leaders Avoid."
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What if the biggest threat inside your organization is not bias, burnout, or politics, but your obsession with looking good instead of doing good?
Description
In Part 2 of this profoundly honest conversation, Jessica Pettitt tears open the quiet delusions organizations hide behind. She is the person companies call when their well-intended DEI efforts start doing real harm. And today, she exposes the dirty secret no one wants to admit.
Why have companies poured millions into DEI, culture, and engagement initiatives, only to, as she puts it, spit-polish landmines and make the situation worse? Why do leaders cling to performative rituals they know do nothing? And why does most DEI fail, even with the right intentions and endless resources?
Jessica names patterns that almost no consultant will say out loud. And you, as a leader who cares about actual impact, not optics, need to hear them.
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Inside, we dissect: • The truth about performative DEI and why companies cling to it anyway • Why leaders cancel consultants the moment real change begins • How organizations reward their own lies • Why discomfort, not dollars, determines whether DEI succeeds • The emotional and psychological cost of pretending something is "inclusive" when it's not • Why leaders lack the courage to dismantle systems they built • How curiosity and courage must intersect for genuine cultural transformation • Why belonging fails without intellectual honesty • What leaders must do next to stop "spit-polishing" and start transforming
This episode is for leaders who are tired of fakery, exhausted by corporate theater, and ready to see reality clearly enough to change it.
In this episode, you will learn:
• The real reason DEI breaks down inside elite organizations Jessica exposes why companies prefer marketing optics over meaningful change.
• How performative problem-solving increases harm, even with "good intentions." Her metaphor of "spit-polishing a landmine" is unforgettable.
• Why most DEI consultants are forced into performativity just to get hired The industry pressures that sabotage real work from the inside out.
• The unseen cost leaders never account for Not just financial cost, but the human cost of ignoring voices outside the preferred ideological bubble.
• Why companies reward lies about inclusion And what it reveals about their true cultural values.
• How leaders can no longer hide behind the "I didn't know" excuse Ignorance is no longer neutral. It is a leadership choice.
• The courage-curiosity intersection that marks real leadership The moment where truth becomes more important than comfort.
• Why belonging must include the people you silently wish it didn't A devastating critique of selective inclusion.
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Exclusive Inner-Circle Invitation
If you are listening to this show, you already stand apart from the many. But there is another level. A level where your nervous system stops reacting to life and begins redirecting it. If you are one of the few ready for that threshold, join the inner circle at DovBaron.com.
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👊 About Jessica Pettitt
Jessica Pettitt is the DEI strategist organizations call when their "good intentions" start causing real harm. She is the author of Almost Doing Good, a professional truth-teller, and one of the few people who has deeply analyzed Project 2025 from 1972 to today. Her approach blends candor, humor, deep research, and a refusal to hide behind Instagram-friendly platitudes.
Guest Links
Jessica Pettitt's work, newsletter, and resources: JessicaPettitt.com
🔗 Connect With Jessica Pettitt
Website & Project 2025 Resources: https://jesspettitt.com/project-2025 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@JessPettitt Playlist (32 chapter discussions): Search "Jess Pettitt Project 2025" on YouTube Book: Almost Doing Good
YouTube Hashtags (Algorithm-Optimized)
#LeadershipTruth #CorporateCulture #DEIFailure #PsychologicalSafety #EmotionalIntelligence #CourageousLeadership #OrganizationalChange #DovBaronShow #JessicaPettitt #BelongingAtWork