I believe this is a very timely, relevant, and necessary topic. Yes, in this current climate, it couldn’t be more important to talk about unconscious bias and its impact in the workplace. Bias is a fact and it is something we all have. It is a part of our human makeup, it’s a part of our brain, and it is how we’re hardwired. It plays out in the workplace and impacts our decision-making everyday interactions. I want to share some strategies and tips with you for how you can address and mitigate your bias, and hopefully become more aware of what yours are so that you can also address them and move from having that unconscious bias to being more inclusive.
Global research, as well as our US census data, tells us that right now we’ve got 51% of women in the global workforce and that we also have five generations right now working alongside of each other. There are seven billion people on the planet and, out of those seven billion, at least one in seven people has a disability, visible or invisible. We’re living in the era of disruption and the three Cs, which are accelerated change, overwhelming complexity, and increased competition—as you think about that, the greatest amount of competition that we have is talent.
We’ve got different personalities, different communication styles, different needs, backgrounds, expectations, different faiths and different religious beliefs, and different values. We are certainly living in a more global, diverse, hyper-connected, but also multi-generational, multicultural, multiethnic, and now, a much more virtual workplace. I am certainly seeing companies focusing on this more and more, recognizing that the workplace is really complex.
Let’s talk a little bit about implicit bias. Implicit bias is defined as an unconscious opinion and it can be positive or negative. I want you to think about some positive examples of bias or unconscious bias. We make decisions all the time, sometimes based on that. Positive stereotype or unconscious opinion are stereotypes, attitudes that we have about people or certain groups of people.
Recognize that these messages, these rules, these stereotypes, and these opinions about other people were learned at a very young age and the more that they were reinforced through school and life experiences and the relationships that we had perhaps with our immediate family, but also with our extended family, our friends, our community, our places of worship, and certainly those things that we saw on TV and read in the newspaper and heard on the news. These are all the things that have shaped and formed who we are and they have created what we call “schemas” or “lenses.” The filters and the lenses through which we see the world are some of the non-conscious assumptions that we have simply because they have been reinforced over time through by all of those areas that I just mentioned: learned rules, our families, relationships, community, media, as well as experiences.
We know that there’s been messages historically that have been taught from generations and passed on from generation to generation. They become so ingrained into who we are, so subconscious, that we’re not even aware that we have them anymore. I am someone that has been shaped and formed by all of my experiences, all of the messages that I heard, all of the things that I have been taught and read and heard, all of those things now create who I am, so I actually see the world as I am rather than the way the world really is. We believe that the way that we see the world is the way that the world really is. We assume sometimes unconsciously that everybody should see the world the same way.
“I see the world out of a red-colored lens and you see the world out of a blue-colored lens and we’re trying to convince each other to see the world, the way that we see the world, when the beauty of all of this is that we get to see the world the way that it really is, but we learn from each other and we broaden our perspectives, we broaden our lenses and our frameworks in which we see the world. That’s how we become more effective at working across difference. But the more that we try to hold on to our differences and the way that we try to make our differences be the reality, be the truth, the more that we isolate people and the more that people feel a bit more excluded.”
There are two parts of the brain that inform our decisions, our interactions, and this shapes our ability to truly accept or not accept differences, to truly make great decisions, biased decisions, or unconscious decisions. The amygdala is what I consider the back part of your brain. The amygdala is really where the biases lie. It’s unconscious. This is what we call the “fast brain.” Bias is a quick, snap judgment that we make. It’s a tendency and an inclination that we have to have to be able to interact with the world. Quick responses are important to survive, to be protected from anything harmful and dangerous. That’s where it lies is in our amygdala, in the fast brain, the unconscious.
The other part of the brain is the prefrontal neocortex and what brain scientists say is our “slow brain.” This is also what we call the conscientious brain. This is where we are certainly being more reflective, more conscientious, and where we’re slowing down and being more aware of information. This is where we slow down and analytical thinking happens. This is where critical thinking happens because we’re slowing down, we’re processing, and we’re pausing to make a more informed decision.
When we’ve got to make those kinds of decisions about people we hire, who our go-to people are, who we pay more, who we pay less, who we promote, what feedback we give to this person or do not give to that person, who we sit beside, who we invite out, who we sit at lunch with, those are the kinds of decisions that we want to be more conscientious about. If we’re not, we’re making those quick, snap, fast judgments about other people that might not be correct, but they’re going to come from a place of what we’ve been taught early on.
The problem is it’s a quick decision and so when you think about bias and you think about decisions that you have to make, some of them are impacting people’s lives, their careers, and their livelihoods. We want to make different decisions and not necessarily make quick, snap, fast decisions, because if we’re thinking about it with bias and relying on our emotions and our feelings, that’s what we’re going to is judge people based on first impressions. All of those things that we see that really don’t define who the person is on the inside.
Harvard University has an “Implicit Association Test (IAT).” I encourage you to go take a look at it at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html. There are a number of assessments that you can take to identify what are some of your most pervasive associations or which ones are really slight or which ones might be in the middle. It’s not a matter of if we have biases, it’s a question of which biases are ours.
Let’s talk about how we can minimize our biases. How can we de-bias ourselves? One way is be recognizing that it starts with acknowledgment, awareness, as well as action.
The first thing is to acknowledge that we have bias. It is something that we all are wired to do. We’re wired to be biased, and we need it for a particular reason, but we should be very cautious and careful not to use bias as an excuse that we’re hard-wired, but to recognize that our biases also have an impact on the way we make decisions and the way that we interact with other people, and certainly, it can affect the way that we decide whether or not we include someone or not someone, how we decide to make decisions, how we look at people. Sometimes, it’s just wrong judgment. Acknowledge the fact that we all have biases and that we learned these messages at a very, very young age. Most of us are people watchers and we’re looking at people and making these snap judgments. What we have to do is ask ourselves: “Is this based on stereotypes? Is this biased? If this is a pre-judgment, where’s that coming from? Where did I learn that? Is that really true?” You really have to second-guess your first impressions.
The second thing to recognize is to acknowledge our own biases. Start to call them out, not just recognizing that we have these first impressions, but that they’re coming from place of what we’ve been taught.
The other things you can do is ensure that all voices are heard. That’s being intentional about inviting diversity of thought at the table. What I want you to think about the next time that you’re in a project meeting on a team meeting, or just talking amongst your colleagues is, do we have difference here? Is everybody agreeing on the same thing? Do we have groupthink here? There’s a whole lot of other research about the fact that groupthink doesn’t yield the best outcomes and that heterogeneous groups oftentimes outperform homogeneous groups because when you have a diversity of thought, you broaden your perspectives and oftentimes come up with better outcomes and solutions. You need to go by great data, facts, and objective criteria when you’re making decisions around the employee life cycle.
Expand those who you hang around, expand your network, engage with what we call “the others,” people who are not like you, people who think different, see the world different, come from different generations, different backgrounds, different experiences, different cultures, and different belief systems. Lean into that discomfort, lean into where you’re not necessarily familiar, and recognize that this will allow you to broaden and expand your schema, your lenses, and the framework in which you see the world.
Create a sense of belonging. Be more intentional about making sure that we create the kind of culture and the kind of environment where people don’t just feel like they’re invited to come to your organization or that they’re invited to the table, but that they feel a sense of connection and belonging, that they feel like they are an esteemed member of the team.
Hold each other accountable. Hold yourself accountable, accountable for learning, accountable for being more educated, accountable for being more authentic, accountable for recognizing that we have blind spots, and learning how to mitigate those blind spots.
Make a commitment today. Think about one or two actions that you can take over the next 90 days that will help you to minimize your own bias or help raise awareness about your blind spots or what actions you will take in order to really be more inclusive and certainly be less biased in your decisions. Not only the next 90 days, but think about a one-year plan: How do you continue to develop a less biased mindset and develop a more intentionally inclusive mindset?
Unconscious bias and the impact it has in the workplace is important to keep talking about. We all have some work to do. I’m wishing that whatever you do, you always make sure we are being inclusive and respectful and allow everyone to feel like they’re valued.
Questions? Comments? Please send them to me at www.drshirleydavis.com.
Recommended Readings: blink by Malcolm Gladwell; Thinking, Fast…Slow by Daniel Kahneman; Blind Spot by Mahzarin R. Banaji & Anthony G. Greenwald; Everyday Bias by Howard J. Ross
