These are the proceedings of the IoD People Forum held on the 22 Oct 2013. They represent a summary of the various topics discussed at the event.

1. Hampshire and IoW Branch
Proceedings of the People Forum – 22/10/2013
The resistible impact of unconscious bias
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2. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
We are expecting a lively discussion on the subject of unconscious bias and its
impact in organisations. Of course we don't know where our conversation
will take us - that is up to all those who come.
However we propose to start by breaking through some taboos, by exploring
the concept of implicit association and how we make connections between
pairs of ideas that are already related in our minds.
If you want a head start you might like to pick up Malcolm Gladwell's 'The Blink'
and read his chapter on the 'Warren Harding Error' before trying the online
Implicit Association Test (IAT) at www. implicit.harvard.edu.
If you have not done this before, the results normally surprise and go a long
way to explain why organisations find it hard to shift their people profiles and
broaden their talent base.
It also provides some clues as to what can be done to change this that we can
build on. Not essential, if you don't have the book on your kindle or
bookshelves…or the opportunity / time to do this pre-work…as we will
provide a brief introduction to the topic.
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3. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
How many of us would admit to believing that tall men make better CEOs than
shorter men or that a man is a more effective director than a woman? Yet within
organisations something seems to happen when these types of decisions are
made. As a result we get some interesting workforce statistics. For example:
• In the FTSE 250 women account for 13.2% directorships
• In a sample of the Fortune 500 CEO’s a third were 6 feet 2 or taller (compared to
3.9% of the American population)
The fields of psychology and neuroscience offer an explanation for these results.
At least in part it comes down to the way the unconscious mind associates pairs of
familiar and unfamiliar ideas. At the Forum, we will explore what this means and
how this leads to unconscious bias. As usual we will open with a short introduction
to the topic before moving into smaller group conversations to share experiences
and ideas.
This is often the kind of topic that generates a lively debate. Also, expect to get
some personal insights into the workings of your own unconscious mind!
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4. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
Implicit Association
www.implicit.harvard.edu
Take a pen and assign each name to the category to which it belongs by putting a check
mark either to the left or to the right of the word. Do it as quickly as you can. Don’t skip
any words. Don’t worry if you make a mistake
Male
Female
John
Bob
Amy
Holly
Joan
Derek
Peggy
Jason
Lisa
Matt
Sarah
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5. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
Now we are going to mix two entirely separate categories together. Once again put a check mark to the
right or the left of each word, in the category to which it belongs
Male
Or
Career
Female
Or
Family
Lisa
Matt
Laundry
Entrepreneur
John
Merchant
Bob
Capitalist
Holly
Joan
Home
Corporation
Siblings
Peggy
Jason
Kitchen
Housework
Parents
Sarah
Derek
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6. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
Now try this…
Male
Or
Family
Female
Or
Career
Babies
Sarah
Derek
Merchant
Employment
John
Bob
Holly
Domestic
Entrepreneur
Office
Peggy
Cousins
Grandparents
Jason
Home
Lisa
Corporation
Matt
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7. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
• Most people will take a little longer to put the word
‘entrepreneur’ into the career category when the career
category was paired with female than when the career
was paired with male.
• ‘When there is a strong prior association, people answer
in between 400 and 600 milliseconds. When there isn’t,
they may take 200 to 300 milliseconds longer than that –
which in the realm of these effects is huge’.
•
Tables extracted from “Blink, the power of thinking without thinking”,
by Malcolm Gladwell. Courtesy of lizbuckle@lftf.eu
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8. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
Bias can be defined as
• an inclination or prejudice for or against one person or
group, especially in a way considered to be unfair
• a concentration on or an interest in one particular area or
subject
• a systematic distortion of a statistical result due to a
factor not allowed for in its derivation
• a set of pre-conceived ideas, opinions, notions
• a systematic mis-representation of a population
with the capability to influence a decision making
process.
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9. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
• Bias is unavoidable as it is part of human nature
• Often recruitment processes are standardised in
such a way that we would like to eliminate bias,
but the risk is of having eliminated good
judgement as well – good process poor results
• Recruitment processes may become the safe
option rather then an effective tool to assist in
taking a business-critical decision.
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10. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
• Social interaction cannot be reduced to a
scientific process.
• The purpose of a scientific process is to verify an
hypothesis and to produce knowledge. The
purpose of a selection process (for hiring or
promoting a member of staff) is to verify skills
and competences and to assess the goodness
of fit of an individual to a complex social
framework (company, team, type of customers,
location, culture, values).
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11. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
• Bias is a reflection of some sort of tribalism
which we all have; it is the us and them.
• Bias doesn't necessarily bear a negative
connotation; when there are non-quantifiable
factors, it is impossible to achieve complete
knowledge, time is running out, bias is part of the
“gut feeling” which may lead to a necessary
decision.
• Bias, when unconscious is the shadow side of
intuition
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12. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
• Bias is unavoidable and we are all biased when
we make all sorts of decisions
• As business decisions may have an
overreaching effect on people and processes we
owe it to ourselves and to others that we know
and mitigate our own biases
• Leadership makes the difference with this as
with all people management
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13. The resistible impact of unconscious bias
• For any questions regarding this topic or if you wish to
propose a topic for future discussion, please contact Liz
Buckle, lizbuckle@cdpartnership.biz
• For any questions regarding the IoD, its activities in the
Region, please contact Claire Fisher, Hampshire and
IoW Branch Administrator, admin.hants@iod.net
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