Unconscious Bias

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TIPS FOR A BETTER WORKPLACE

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According to a recent article published by McKinsey & Company,
unconscious biases can be shaping our thinking more than we know.
Julia Sperling is a medical doctor with a background in neuroscience.
She’s also a faculty member of McKinsey Leadership Development,
where she helps aspiring leaders see how their thinking is shaped by
cognitive biases, and how they can overcome them.

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Research has shown not only how unconscious bias can be measured.
using what researchers call ‘implicit association testing’ for example,
but also how it can be countered to achieve better results. Indeed,
Julia’s work focuses on shifting mindsets and behaviors by highlighting
beliefs and biases that constrain personal growth, learning, and job
performance.

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“Research suggests that we instinctively categorize people and things
using easily observed criteria such as age, weight, skin color, and
gender. But we also classify people according to educational level,
disability, sexuality, accent, social status, and job title, automatically
assigning presumed traits to anyone we subconsciously put in those
groups."

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"The ‘advantage’ of this system is that it saves us time and effort
processing information about people, allowing us to spend more of
our mental resources on other tasks. The clear disadvantage is that it
can lead us to make assumptions about them and take action based
on those biases. This results in a tendency to rely on stereotypes, even
if we don’t consciously believe in them” (www.mindtools.com).

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In other words, unconscious bias can sometimes lead to blind spots,
which can then lead to discrimination. It’s important to be aware of
your own biases (we all have them) so that you can shift your blind
spots and avoid discriminating against others.

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So how do you become more aware of your own biases and shift them
to avoid discriminating against those in your personal and professional
life?
Here are 4 strategies you can implement today.

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Self Awareness
Are you basing your decisions on 30-second snap judgments?
While you won’t be able to keep the thoughts from surfacing, that
doesn’t mean you have to subscribe to them and continue that line
of thinking.

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Self Awareness
Learn to pause your thoughts in their tracks and deeply examine
them to better understand where they’re coming from and why.
Practicing this habit will help you become more self-aware and
questioning your judgements will become second nature.

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Identify Preferences
The Implicit Association Test (IAT, www.implicit.harvard.edu) can
help with this. This free tool can help you identify patterns in your
life such as similarities in the persons you socialize with or tend to
hire. Patterns don’t automatically indicate bias. But if you see a
pattern, it would be wise to examine it further.

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Educate
Unconscious bias is something that can affect any employee, so it’s
important for organisations to train their team members on how
to identify unconscious bias and also overcome it. Keying
employees in to how people think results in more egalitarian
behaviors across the organization.

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Branch Out
If you discover that you view a particular group with discomfort,
make a conscious effort to learn more about that group. Expose
yourself to positive images and other information related to that
group. Don’t be afraid to question yourself. If others question your
decisions, instead of reacting defensively, try to listen to the
feedback. Be open to change.

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In order to create a fairer workplace for your team members,
it’s of the utmost importance that leaders learn to recognise
their biases and keep those biases from influencing important
decisions. When they do, employees will thrive and flourish,
making for a more robust organisation.

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And if you’d like to book an Unconscious Bias training for your
team, consider investing in Shaping Change’s Lunch & Learn
training all about Unconscious Bias.

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In this training, organisational behaviour expert Ros Cardinal
discusses the human instincts that drive our thinking, explores
some of the common unconscious biases that impact the
workplace, and gives you some key take-aways for challenging
the barriers to creating and valuing diversity at work.

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We hope you enjoyed this presentation!
Visit www.shapingchange.com.au for more resources on
leadership development, change management,
emotional intelligence, and more!

Unconscious Bias

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