Unconscious Bias and Its Impact in the Workplace
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