Macrocosm Into Microcosm
The world outside is already diverse — your job is to recreate it inside the building.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- 85%
Silver's D&I position is blunt: if you're not thinking about this, shut your doors immediately. Her framing is macrocosm into microcosm — we live in a world of all different types of people, and organisations must recreate that inside. Her end state is that the word diversity becomes unnecessary because it's just the way it is. Crucially she extends the definition past race and ethnicity to seen and unseen disabilities, values that aren't exactly like yours, and diversity of thinking. The operational lever is recruiting: where you recruit is essential, so not always the same schools and not always interns from recommendations, which skew. Employee resource groups, clear strategy, and universal bias training carry the rest.
Origin
Silver oversees diversity and inclusivity at VaynerMedia as an explicit responsibility, alongside her own lived experience of unseen difference — dyslexia and a sexuality she hid at work for a decade. As VaynerMedia expanded to London, Chattanooga and Singapore, she began running focus groups to work out what the company should stand for on diversity at a global rather than New York level.
Core principles
- 01We live in a macrocosm of all different types of people; organisations are the microcosm that must mirror it.
- 02The goal is to stop needing the word diversity — it should just be the way it is.
- 03Diversity goes way beyond skin colour: seen and unseen disabilities, thinking, values.
- 04Where and how you recruit is the lever, not what you say about diversity.
- 05Nobody is immune to bias — including you — so training is non-negotiable.
- 06Nebulousness reads as neglect: an unclear diversity strategy agitates people more than a hard one.
How to run it
- 1
Adopt the macrocosm-microcosm frame
Start from the fact that the world contains all different types of people and your organisation is a microcosm that should mirror it. That reframes D&I from a moral add-on to an accuracy problem.
Pro tip Silver's target end state: get to a place where you're not even using the word diversity, because it's just the way it is.
- 2
Widen the definition
Include race, creed, ethnicity — and also seen and unseen disabilities, people whose values are not exactly like yours, and diversity of thinking. Silver: it goes way, way beyond the colour of a person's skin.
- 3
Change where and how you recruit
Where you recruit is essential. Stop always going to the same schools. Stop always hiring interns who come from recommendations, because that skews. Do job fairs.
Pro tip VaynerMedia's format: Gary opens with 15 minutes, then every conference room runs as a speed-dating station, and the hiring manager then gives each candidate another half hour.
Watch out Referral hiring feels like quality control. It is a copy machine for your existing composition.
- 4
Back the ERGs that start organically
Support employee resource groups — Silver's have all started organically and are a big part of the strategy right now. Keep them open to anyone.
- 5
Train for bias, including yourself
Silver's only point on cognitive bias is that the training is essential — none of us is immune, and thinking you are is just not true. Bring it into the interview process and try to see every person as equal.
Pro tip Her grounding thought: we really are the same — same aches, same pains, very similar joys.
- 6
Be explicit, not nebulous
State the strategy. If you're nebulous about what your diversity strategy is, people become agitated and conclude you're simply not paying attention to it.
- 7
Re-cut it for global
As you add offices in other countries, run focus groups on what you want to stand for globally — the New York answer doesn't transfer to London or Singapore unexamined.
In the wild
VaynerMedia ran a job fair where Gary Vaynerchuk spoke for 15 minutes, The One Club came in, and every conference room was set up as a speed-dating station — after which the hiring manager spent a further half hour with each candidate.
→ Three immediate hires out of a single event, from a funnel that bypassed the usual schools and referral networks.
VaynerMedia has roughly 80 organically-started groups they call squads — Dungeons & Dragons, the Amigos group for people who identify as Hispanic, groups for people who identify as black and Asian, the Pride group, running club, sneakerheads — all open to anyone, whether or not you already like the thing.
→ Belonging infrastructure that people built themselves, which doubles as the backbone of the diversity strategy.
Common mistakes
Hiring interns from recommendations
Silver names this directly — recommendation-sourced interns skew the intake, so the microcosm keeps reproducing the same composition no matter what the strategy document says.
Believing you're immune to bias
Silver: to think that none of us is immune to bias, or that I'm immune and you're immune — it's just really not true. The belief in your own immunity is the bias.
Keeping the strategy vague
Being nebulous doesn't buy safety. It makes people conclude you aren't paying attention, which agitates them more than a clear position they disagree with.
Is it for you?
Best for
People leaders and founders with real influence over where and how the company recruits.
Not ideal for
Organisations unwilling to change recruiting sources — every other step is cosmetic without that one.
From the transcript
“my perspective is if you're not thinking about this then I would shut your doors immediately I want to get to a place where we're…”
“we live in a macrocosm where there are all different types of people we need to recreate that in the microcosm which are organizations”
“the way we recruit is essential where we recruit is essential so not always going to the same school not always hiring interns that are…”
“if you are nebulous about what your diversity strategy is then people will become agitated and think that it's just you're just not paying attention…”
“to think that none of us are immune to bias or that I'm immune and your immune it's just really not true”
From the episode
Claude Silver: Leading with Love
Claude Silver