Dr. Tiffany Brandreth is the visionary CEO of TBM & Associates, an organizational consulting firm founded in 2013 specializing in diversity, equity, and inclusion redirecting and transforming DEI.

Her team is dynamic, possessing 20+ years of experience each bringing unique expertise creating a powerhouse experience together consisting of Christopher Wilson, Dr. Jorge Melendez, Gail Herring, and Glenn Sanders. In an interview with Dr. Brandreth, she shares a “If you build it, they will come” Field of Dreams story where she took a sharp left turn and singlehandedly reengineered the entire D&I playbook that is changing the game working across Global Fortune 100, Fortune 500, and private organizations.

How would you characterize the current challenges in the DE&I space?

The industry’s DE&I solutions are relying on the same practices that haven’t yielded results because we are naturally more comfortable with what is most familiar. So we need to be receptive to a new playbook that will push through the plateau of our own status quo. This means downgrading best practices down to baseline so we can raise the standard of what is considered optimal moving forward.

In addition, bias, inequity, and oppression are hiding but thriving across every organization because the micro practices in hiring, performance reviews, talent reviews, and promotions are being ignored. More detrimental is the belief that diverse hiring panels are removing bias and belief that ambitious recruitment goals shows accountability when these are only perpetuating our setbacks.



We have to revise our rewarding methods that give permission to take the short cuts. What D&I rewards is where the tide goes. It’s time to incentivize doing the right work through entirely different award criteria. It is how to motivate the right decisions that lead to real growth, progress, and change.

How does your expertise set yourself apart in the industry?

In our DEI Leadership Imperative Report: A Pivotal Shift for 2023 and Beyond, we share the research that discovered the 5 biases causing the DEI Death Zone™ and the 5 advocacy attributes which blocks the biases and enables ascension of DEI. These 5x5 are the origination points for DEI’s success or failure.

These discoveries required going back to the drawing board and critically analyze every D&I effort to decipher the highest point of its effectiveness and precise point of its limitation. As a result, we formed an entire new playbook and had to convince leaders to trust different answers and an untraveled path.
To do this, we built a 1-Day Executive DEI Masterclass to help leadership teams digest and process this playbook. It’s a blended learning and strategy session and in the beginning, it kept getting pushed aside. Now it’s our most popular offering because we discuss topics leaders felt were off limits, and teaching DEI in a productive, engaging way.

How to build upon their existing strategy and pivot effortlessly where needed, we integrated the Masterclass into a 5x5 DEI Plan for every organization with a DEI strategy. The future of DEI is predicated upon these 5x5 so we took highly complex concepts and simplified them into 5 easy to follow and easy to implement steps.

Step 1, Leadership teams participate in the Executive DEI Masterclass. Step 2 and 3, we assess the presence of 5 biases and 5 advocacy attributes. Step 4, from the results we formulate a Development and Ascension Plan together and Step 5 is the initiation of next steps. The first 3 steps can be done in any order. What they appreciate is that in 30-45 days, companies have either established or course corrected their DEI strategy with an exciting upward roadmap.
Our goal is that in five years, DEI is on a brand new trajectory with new research, higher ascension, and a new set of best practices. We are seeing a remarkable difference and our commitment is to provide our 5x5 DEI Plan to every organization seeking new answers and a new path.

Another distinction with us is our nontraditional approach to learning. DEI isn’t successful because strategies are incomplete, due to education being incomplete. Therefore, we believe in building leaders’ DEI Intelligence™, through our 5C learning model designed from a cognitive science and behavioral psychology methodology so there is immediate application personally, interpersonally, and in the organization. Plus, we have real conversations so leaders want more. From any industry and any sector, we help executive teams lead DEI by increasing their Comfort,Confidence, Competence, Congruence, and Credibility across across the 4 DEI Sentiments where people feel Faulted, Inspired, Subdued or Failed by DEI. The impact and outcome is a tremendous breakthrough in the industry.

What is your multi-pronged approach to DEI?

It’s really important that DEI is led with efficacy, defined as the accuracy, wholeness, and upholding their principles in every discussion and decision. Our framework illustrates our multiprong approach to help organizations identify where to rebalance and reprioritize. We separate, connect, and triangulate DEI to showcase the reliance of each element. Companies are fast forwarding or short cutting virtually each element without understanding the Learning stage is the foundational prerequisite to Aspiring and Eradicating otherwise Achieving DEI is absolutely unattainable. There is no short cut unfortunately. This has been so helpful for leaders to align on the promise, potential and purpose of DEI.

A customer success story highlighting Dr. Tiffany Brandreth and her Associates expertise:

Recently a senior leadership team and diversity department participated in the Executive DEI Masterclass. The psychological safety they fostered even as discomfort arose at times created a deeper sense of loyalty and care for each other that was inspiring for everyone to be part of. The places they went created a very intimate learning experience that set a precedence for their honesty and transparency. It was the first time they were genuinely excited to learn and lead DEI. We’re deep in the 5C Scorecard learning plan. They aren’t being pushed, they are proactively prioritizing. This is happening with every leadership team earnest in their DEI commitment. The Masterclass and 5C’s combo is seriously a game changer.