Inclusion Infusions: A Primer on Bias

Posted on Friday, November 6th, 2020

I’m writing this week to get you thinking about our biases in advance of our Livestream event on November 12th at 1:00pm with Howard Ross author of the Washington Post bestseller, Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives and seminal thought leader on the topic. You can register here if you haven’t yet!

What is Unconscious Bias?

A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that occurs when people are processing and interpreting information in the world around them and affects the decisions and judgments that they make. Biases often work as rules of thumb that help you make sense of the world and reach decisions with relative speed. (Source: Cherry, Kendra. 2020. What is cognitive bias? https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-cognitive-bias-2794963)

Fake News on Unconscious Bias**:

  1. I can’t do anything about my unconscious bias. By starting the analysis of your biases, and knowing where to look, you will build your mental muscle to avoid biased brain shortcuts, thereby making better decisions. The best predictor of whether people can reduce their biases is simply whether they have the desire to!
  2. Bias is all about disliking certain groups. This is absolutely one area where bias occurs, but just as often bias creeps into our decision making about who we do like. This can include things like a recency bias, halo effect, in-group bias to name a few. Really effective self-reflection on biases will involve considering both who you are biased towards as well as who you are biased
  3. People are talking about unconscious bias because conscious bias isn’t much of any issue anymore. A review of the headlines from the CBC this week will quickly halt that line of thinking with police beatings of Indigenous people, disproportioned numbers of COVID cases in Black communities, and on and on. Bias, prejudice and discrimination in society and in the workplace are still very much occurring in Canada today. However unconscious bias is an area where you can check yourself, identify bias, and make a conscious decision to change.

**Source: Seven Misconceptions about Unconscious Bias. Franklin Covey. http://pages.franklincovey.com/rs/524-AUO-315/images/MRK1928350_UB_SevenMiscon_Guide_%5Bv1.0.9%5D.pdf

 

DON’T MISS THE NOVEMBER INCLUSION INFUSIONS LIVESTREAM EVENT – come and bring colleagues and students! Building Belonging: Race, Allyship and Work in a Time of Crisis with Howard Ross. Register Here
Over the past 10 years, research has exploded into the diversity and inclusion field, built on breakthroughs in the neurocognitive sciences and hundreds of new studies. What insights do they provide into how we think and how that thinking shapes our workplace behavior? Are these insights being misunderstood or misused? And how can we examine the data—and our own biases—to prosper in an increasingly diverse and global workplace, society and competitive landscape? In this game-changing presentation, based on years of neuro-cognitive and social science research and practical experience, Howard Ross shares proven strategies that both individuals and organizations can use to create more culturally competent and inclusive organizations. Revealing new research, case studies and practical applications that have diversity practitioners re-thinking old strategies, Ross shows how we can overcome unconscious bias to truly transform the way we work on both a personal and organizational level. This highly reflective and often inspiring presentation gives participants the opportunity to explore their own relationship with bias and its presence in their own organizations—beginning the journey toward self-discovery that is at the heart of inclusion.

 


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