Did you know that every couple of seconds your brain is bombarded with 11 million bits of information but can only process 40 bits of them*? In order to handle this information overload, our brain has developed categories and rules of thumb based on our experience and background that guide us through our daily life, support us in taking decisions, interacting with others, speaking your mind. Even though these categories and rules may differ per person, what we all have in common is that we are all biased unconsciously.
Especially in in the workplace unconscious bias of each of us influences, even constrains our relationships, increase conflicts and possible discrimination as well it decreases innovation and productivity. This is why diversity is getting more focused.
“It ain’t what you don’t know that get you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
Josh Billings
In this article we take a closer in look on what we can learn from Neurophysiology (Zimmermann, M., 1986*, Hewlett,S.A., Rashid, R., & Sherbin, L., 2017), Social Psychology (Greenwald, A.G., Banaji, M. R.,1995/1998, and the implicit project), Evolution theory (Frey U. & Frey J., 2011), Google and from the United Nations Leadership Coach Marilyn O’Hearne to make unconscious bias more conscious.
Unconscious bias was defined as predefined categories, patterns or rules of thumb based on own experience and background that we build up a distorted perception over time consciously. What sounds negative at first is actually a very useful relict of evolution that enabled the human species to survive over decades (Frey U. & Frey J., 2011). Not only in stone age but also today these are very useful mechanisms e.g. being very attentive when walking alone on a dark alley, though these anchors also holding us back from seeing the real world as it has developed today.
From unconscious bias to more conscious decisions
In order to make the unconscious more conscious, creating awareness by reflection, questioning and stepping back as well as emphasizing diversity, is key.
Social psychologist Greenwald & Banaji (1995/1998) came up with the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to test yourself and better understand what implicit connections or associations your brain has already constructed as a concept in your memory and how strong they are. To give an example, whether your concept of a Scientist is rather associated with a male or female person will unconsciously influence you. Banaji further confirmed that stepping back and start thinking slower supports awareness of these subconscious associations and biases.
Emphasizing on the diversity factor further creates awareness as well it supports productivity and innovation. By the way, teams not become better because another of another divers’ contributor that was added, it becomes better because the enriched diversity effects the whole group as it stimulates rethinking of each team member.
In organization creating awareness of unconscious bias is various and especially fostered by diversity management and human resources. To get a sneak peak of how this can looks like Google’s people management published 2015 their unconscious bias training, which is still worth watching.
It was well understood that the organization will not make use of their full potential and get the talents they need for the future if the anchors of unconscious bias will be holding them the back. Awareness training can though only be a starting point as developing a diverse biasfree-workplace needs more tailored processes and a conscious mindset, especially from leaders.
Deepdive:
With IMPACT against unconscious bias
Supporting organizations and leaders all over the world as well as supporting the United Nations as Leadership Coach, MCC Coach Marilyn O’Hearne has experienced the consequence of unconscious bias. She developed a straight forward six-step approach – IMPACT – to unleash from unconscious bias which comes along with tailored coaching questions to ensure an implementation on suitable empathy level.
- I stands for identifying unconscious bias,
- M stands for managing unconscious bias
- P stands for planning to unleash your potential
- A stands for acting strategical with awareness and accomplishments
- C stands for communicating confidently
- T stands for taking stock and repairing success
Marilyn’s motivation is based on the intercultural situations in her private and professional life as Executive Coach, where she provides support through coaching. Knowing that 60-80% of all difficulties in organizations are due to conflicts between employees and that dealing with such conflict situations currently takes up 25-40% of managers’ time, demands action – from all of us!
More insights now available in our exclusive Interview with Marilyn O’Hearne here.
How can you become more aware and reduce your own unconscious bias?
Summarizing what we have seen from other sources we let’s put into practices how to deal with the anchors that are holding you back.
Here are some practical tips on how you can start reducing your unconcious bias today:
Give yourself the possibility to become aware of your bias by identifying them. Give yourself permission to see it as you may not like what you see.
- To get more aware you can make use of Harvard implicit Bias Assessment. Do it your self and do it with your team to see where you are struggling. Remember it may to be comfortable but being true to yourself is key here for your own learning.
- Check your empathy level as well as those of the people around (e.g. on in coffee breaks, next team meeting, after work conversations, free time). For teams it may also be interesting to get into this more playful by doing a quiz.
- Reflect on regular basis your behavior at work when you are collaborating with others; especially for leaders think about how possible biases are impacting you / your team/ your organization?
Now you know where your anchors are, understand by reflecting how you can adjust, stretch and manage your biases, especially if they harm you, your team or your organization. Review your process and routines by asking yourself, can I see beyond my bias here? Focusing also on empathy can be a great help here. Exercise to see the world through the eyes of another person with a different perspective or background. No need to say that coaching is a very effective tool to support you and your team here.
Create awareness within your team and for the people around you about your bias and support them in understanding theirs. How will you support others in identifying their biases? Start coaching your team members by emphasizing empathy and curiosity. As leader you can start by define for yourself what a good example looks like and then practice to life up to this, reflecting and gathering feedback on regular basis. Explain your thinking behind decisions more to your surrounding (especially if you think this is common sense) and challenge yourself by spending more time with people who are different from you.
I look forward to our continuing conversation about unconscious bias and my Breaking Free from Bias book, Marita. https://www.marilynoh.com/breaking-free-from-bias/
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