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Unconscious Bias Training
- 1. UNCONSCIOUS BIAS WORKSHOP Prepared by HR Anew
- 2. WORKSHOP OVERVIEW Workshop Agenda • Welcome, Overview, Ice Breaker • Module 1: Key Concepts & the Neuroscience of Bias • Module II: Common Biases & Subtle Messages in the Workplace • Module III: Experiential Activity & Applied Learning • Wrap Up
- 4. GROUND RULES: WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER • Participate fully – you have various experiences and skills. • Encourage others – open communications are the key to establishing trust and positive relationships. • Listen carefully – focus on what is being said rather than passively “hearing” the message of the speaker. • Parking lot – questions for later discussion. • Mobile phones – silence your cell phones. • Confidentiality and non-attribution. What happens in training… stays in training!
- 5. WORKSHOP LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Recognize unconscious bias and its impact on diversity, equity, and inclusion. 2. Understand and practice strategies for recognizing and responding to unconscious bias in the workplace. 3. Describe biases that are common to the workplace (e.g., “in- group” bias, confirmation bias, etc.). 4. Gain greater awareness about micro-inequities in everyday life, and the power of micro-affirmations at work.
- 6. WORKSHOP ICEBREAKER: IMPLICIT BIAS ASSESSMENT This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA- NC
- 7. MODULE I: Key Concepts & the Neuroscience of Bias
- 10. We receive 11 million bits of information every moment. We can only consciously process 40 bits.
- 12. YOU ARE BIASED. (So am I.) IT MATTERS.
- 13. UNCONSCIOUS BIAS IS… the act of using patterns, assumptions, and interpretation of past or similar events and circumstances, based on our own experiences and environment; and to make judgments without fully exploring the current situation, typically without conscious awareness of our actions. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
- 15. OVERT BIAS = INTENTIONAL DISCRIMINATION Overt bias refers to observable/tangible behaviors that are discriminatory and may be litigable. Unconscious bias refers to actions or omissions that result in inequities in which the perpetrator is unaware of the harmful nature of his or her actions. UNCONSCIOUS BIAS = UNINTENDED DISCRIMINATION REMINDER --
- 16. MODULE II: Common Biases & Subtle Messages in the Workplace
- 17. FIVE TYPES OF UNCONSCIOUS BIAS IN THE WORKPLACE: • Affinity Bias • Halo Effect • Horns Effect • Attribution Bias • Conformation Bias
- 18. MICRO-AGGRESSIONS To avoid a toxic workplace culture, it's important to know which phrases and actions can make employees from different backgrounds or identities feel uncomfortable and targeted.
- 19. MICRO-AFFIRMATIONS Subtle or apparently small acknowledgements of a person's value and accomplishments. They may take the shape of public recognition of the person, "opening a door," referring positively to the work of a person, commending someone on the spot, or making a happy introduction.
- 20. FOUR FACTORS THAT CAN MAKE A SITUATION PRONE TO BIAS: 1. TASK 2. NUMBERS 3. CLARITY 4. PERCEIVER
- 21. FOUR WAYS TO OVERCOME BIAS: What does success look like specifically? STRUCTURE FOR SUCCESS MEASURE RESULTS EVALUATE SUBTLE MESSAGES HOLD EVERYONE ACCOUNTABLE
- 22. IS EMILY MORE EMPLOYABLE THAN LAKISHA? Applicant: Brendan, Greg, Emily & Anne Applicant: Tamika, Aisha, Rasheed, & Tyrone
- 23. ROLE-PLAY PRACTICE IN GROUPS: STRUCTURED JOB INTERVIEWS This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
- 24. Curious Helpful Intuitive Creative Understanding Neat Aware of others' feelings Vulgar (less) Self-confident Desire responsibility Industrious Assertive Consistent Logical Firm Aggressive Steady Skilled in business matters Vigorous Emotionally stable Forceful Analytical ability Direct Frank 71% 10% WHAT MAKES A GOOD MANAGER?
- 25. FOUR WAYS TO OVERCOME BIAS: You can’t improve what you can’t measure! STRUCTURE FOR SUCCESS MEASURE RESULTS EVALUATE SUBTLE MESSAGES HOLD EVERYONE ACCOUNTABLE
- 26. GENDER OF GOOGLE DOODLES AROUND THE WORLD
- 27. FOUR WAYS TO OVERCOME BIAS: Recognize the power of signals! STRUCTURE FOR SUCCESS MEASURE RESULTS EVALUATE SUBTLE MESSAGES HOLD EVERYONE ACCOUNTABLE
- 29. FOUR WAYS TO OVERCOME BIAS: • Question your first impressions • Justify your decisions • Ask for feedback STRUCTURE FOR SUCCESS MEASURE RESULTS EVALUATE SUBTLE MESSAGES HOLD EVERYONE ACCOUNTABLE This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND
- 30. MODULE III: Experiential Activity & Applied Learning
- 31. THE CIRCLE OF TRUST
- 32. SCARF: A BRAIN-BASED MODEL FOR COLLABORATING WITH AND INFLUENCING OTHERS
- 33. Learn from vigilance of your own biases and fears. Be aware of and manage your own biases. Interact with people different than you. Avoid defensiveness in difficult interactions and use them as learning opportunities. Be open to discussing your own inadequacies, attitudes, and biases, and how they might have hurt others or in some sense revealed bias on your part. Become an ally or an accomplice. Amplify, support and stand personally against all forms of bias and discrimination. KEY BEHAVIORS
- 34. GROUP REPORTS AND PRESENTATIONS This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
- 35. WRAP UP
- 36. REVIEW OF WORKSHOP LEARNING OBJECTIVES 1. Recognize unconscious bias and its impact on diversity, equity, and inclusion. 2. Understand and practice strategies for recognizing and responding to unconscious bias in the workplace. 3. Describe biases that are common to the workplace (e.g., “in- group” bias, confirmation bias, etc.). 4. Gain greater awareness about micro-inequities in everyday life, and the power of micro-affirmations at work.
- 40. HR ANEW For more information, contact: Deborah Stallings, MA, SHRM-SCP, SPHR President and Chief Executive Officer HR Anew 6350 Stevens Forest Road, Suite 250 Columbia, Maryland 20146 410-381-5220 office Deborah@hranew.com
Editor's Notes
- To get the most from this training:
- By the end of this training, participants shall be better able to:
- I’m going to give you a very quick primer on how our brains have evolved, why we have unconscious biases, and how most of the time they’re super functional and help us get through the day. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, we were competing on the plains of Africa against animals with claws, and horns, and teeth. Many of the decisions we made everyday were life and death choices. We needed to be able to very quickly judge our surroundings. Let’s play out a little scenario. Let’s say one day one of our cave-dwelling ancestors decides they want to bust their biases. So they set out and walking across a forest clearing they spot a creature approaching. Now, instead of jumping to conclusions, they carefully consider - “Well, it’s thick and has a short tail, so it’s not a wolf. It’s bigger than a coyote but smaller than a moose. It’s black, got long claws, and can stand on its hind legs. I’m going to conclude that this animal is probably a bear and I should probably run.”
- ...and THIS is what would likely be the result of our ancestors bias-free day. This is to show you that bias is an extremely functional (and potentially life-saving) trick our brains have learned. Unconscious or implicit our cognitive biases help us get through the day and make thousands of quick decisions without us having to think about them. Our brain is perfectly suited for quickly filtering huge amounts of information, prioritizing, categorizing, and summarizing our surroundings for us unconsciously. This served us well for millennia, when our unconscious biases helped us avoid being eaten.
- We live in a different world today, but the need for filtering is just as important. Avoiding cars, ordering your coffee, deciding where to sit on the bus… Most of what we’re feeling and deciding is driven by unconscious processing. This is very functional. While it’s not the lions, and tigers, and bears we’re worried about, the threat is data overload. And it too can have costly implications. But sometimes it can lead us astray, so today we want to focus on these corner cases, and how they play out in our work environments.
- If we can only consciously process about 40 bits of information, this means 99.99996% of our mental processing is ruled by our unconscious.
- If there’s one thing we hope you learn today it’s that YOU’RE BIASED! Surprise! But don’t feel bad. This is one of the key goals of our talk today - to have everyone here acknowledge that we, as humans, have unconscious bias. And so does everyone in your company. You also need to know IT MATTERS! Just because we all know everyone is unconsciously biased doesn’t mean we’re doomed - we can and must consider our biases for the good of our companies, the industry, and society.
- The Neuroscience of Bias (Video) System 1 thinking is about automatic judgments – reflexive responses to situations we encounter. System 2 Thinking is about “objective” and “rational” decisions or actions that can be influenced by a flaw in logic.
- 1. Affinity Bias Affinity bias leads us to favor people who we feel we have a connection or similarity to. For example, attending the same college, growing up in the same town, or reminding us of ourselves or someone we know and like. This can have a big impact during recruitment. For instance, interactions with people we feel we share an affinity with will differ from people with no shared affinity. If a candidate we have an affinity with tells us they’re a little nervous we may smile more or offer more words of encouragement to try and set them at ease. Whereas, if a person we shared no affinity with told us the same thing, we wouldn’t behave quite as warm towards them. After the interview, the first candidate would seem to be a better fit than the second candidate. 2. Halo Effect The Halo Effect occurs when we perceive one great thing about a person and let that halo glow of that one thing color our opinions of everything else about that person. For example, if we notice that someone went to a highly regarded college where they received a certain high grade, or that someone had received a prestigious award, we tend to let this achievement influence how we see everything else about that person. 3. Horns Effect The Horns Effect is the direct opposite of the Halo effect, and occurs when perception of someone is unduly influenced by one negative trait. For example, if we do not like the way someone dresses we might assume they are also lazy and unprofessional, even though professionalism and competence are not related to attire. 4. Attribution Bias Attribution bias affects how we assess other people and their achievements. It can be particularly impactful during recruitment. When assessing ourselves, we tend to think our achievements are direct results of our merit and personality; while our failings are the result of external factors, including other people that adversely affected us and prevented us from doing our best. When it comes to assessing other people, however, we often think the opposite is true. We are more likely to consider the achievements of others as a result of luck or chance; and their failings as a result of their personality or behavior. 5. Confirmation Bias Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, focus on and remember information that aligns with our preconceived opinions. Recruiters have to be very careful regarding this bias. If we make a judgement about a candidate, we subconsciously look for evidence to back up our own opinions. We want to believe we are right and that we have made the correct assessment of a candidate. The danger of confirmation bias in recruitment, is that our own judgement could inaccurate and result in the loss of a great candidate for the job. Being aware of these various biases can help you counter their influence over you, and aid in more sound decision making during hiring and promotion.
- Micro-aggressions are statements, actions, or incidents regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unconscious bias. They are the everyday verbal, nonverbal slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages based on an unchangeable characteristic such as race or gender. They come out in seemingly innocuous comments by people who might be well-intentioned.
- There are four major factors that can make us very prone to the influence of our unconscious biases: Task - if the job we’re assessing has common stereotypes associated with it our unconscious will immediately bring those stereotypes up in our mind. For example, nursing and teaching and stereotypically female-gendered jobs. If we’re assessing these jobs we may be more likely to be unconsciously biased to think that women are better suited to these jobs. Numbers - When looking at a group of things, like a group of job applicants, if there’s a clear minority group (“minority” here just meaning a group that is outnumbered by others) our brains are more likely to bring up any unconscious biases we have associated with that group. This doesn’t happen as often if there isn’t a clear minority in the group. Clarity - Whenever we don’t have all the information (which is pretty much all the time) our brains will work to fill in the gaps using our own unconscious biases. This can be helpful, but especially if we’re missing lots of critical information it can be dangerous and can lead us to make poor assumptions. Perceiver - You, the perceiver, can be influenced if you’re stressed, rushed, or emotional. We’re always trying to get things done quickly, but when making important decisions it pays to slow down.
- And while there’s lots of science (which we’ll share) that shows our unconscious biases do in fact have a negative influence in the workplace, there’s unfortunately still precious little science showing us the best ways to prevent this. But there are a few basic methods that have been proven effective and that can be adapted to work in any organization in any environment. The first is to use structure to gauge success. Use consistent requirements/criteria/structure - pre-define requirements and goals for success. Write it down. How are you ensuring your consistently evaluating success if you don’t know what you’re looking for?
- A 2004 study highlights the need for defined criteria. [Explain study methodology, outcomes, and implications] In this study two groups of resumes were sent out for the same entry level sales and marketing jobs - one had an African American sounding name and the other had a European American sounding name. It took 50% more resumes for the African American candidates to get a callback. 50% more. Imagine the impact this has over time on someone’s career possibilities. Resume review - European vs. African American sounding names (resume as a data source is limited and unstructured). Source: Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination, Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan
- So what can you do about this? Build in structure and criteria. One way all organizations can do this is by adopting structured interviews. Research has consistently demonstrated that structured interviews result in increased predictive validity and decreased differences between demographic groups and structured assessment tools (what the researchers call “behaviorally-anchored rating scales,” and what we call “rubrics”) are more predictive than unstructured interviews. Sources: A meta-analytic investigation of the impact of interview format and degree of structure on the validity of the employment interview and The employment interview: A review of current studies and directions for future research This is something you and your teams can think about as you develop your hiring practices. What does success look like for a particular role? What questions will inform whether or not someone can achieve that? Apply those standards consistently across candidates.
- [Explain study methodology, outcomes and implications] In another study, researchers show that there is significantly more overlap in the words used to describe a typical man, and a successful manager, than those used to describe a typical woman and successful manager. In the study, 268 male managers used a 92-item attribute inventory to rate 1 of 7 target groups: men (in general, managers, or successful managers), women (in general, managers, or successful managers), or successful middle managers. Results: men in general are described as more similar to successful managers than are women in general. All 268 study participants were working managers with 1 to 42 years of managerial experience (median=6yrs). They were drawn from a variety of departments (e.g., sales, HR, production, purchasing, accounting, marketing, etc.) in a wide range of industries (e.g., chemical, steel state government, oil business machinery, etc.). The original study included people from nine insurance companies. The area of concern comes when you look at the overlap of descriptors. What was find is that 56 attributes out of 79 - 71% - were rated more similarly to men. Think about when some of your unconscious associations might influence who you select for a team, for a project, for a promo... how they influence your expectations about a role and who is/is not qualified. Note: There are two different approaches described in the study, one using Duncan's vs. Bonferroni multiple comparisons. The latter seemed to produce the results in table 5 and 6, which showed 56 and 8 item overlap (vs. 59 and 7). This study is a bit older, conducted in 1989, but the study has been replicated more recently with similar results. Source: Has Anything Changed? Current Characterizations of Men, Women, and Managers
- Data is far less prone to unconscious bias than our own cognition (though not immune). How are you collecting and using data to inform decisions and reduce the influence of unconscious bias? Are you collecting data about yourself and the decisions you’re making? As you build your organizations one of the most important things you can do is collect data, for many reasons. If you don’t have data, you can’t track progress. Collecting data about yourself and your org will allow you to see patterns and learn new insights you might have otherwise overlooked. Also, when you have data about individuals, you’re less likely to stamp on your pre-defined expectations of them.
- If you’re not collecting the data, someone else might be. Google has long enjoyed celebrating birthdays of famous scientists, explorers, and innovators on our homepage. Experimenting with logo and creating Google Doodles has been a fun way for employees and users alike to celebrate the achievements of important historical figures. But, as it turns out, they were mostly celebrating the achievements of men. This was pointed out by a STEM educator who tracked all of the Doodles and posted a gender breakdown and an open letter imploring us to improve. The Doodler team, which is about half women, was shocked by this and immediately went about setting up processes to track and improve the gender representation in their work. One year later, after being exposed to the harsh truth of the data, the gender representation in our 2014 doodles was 50%. They continue to track Doodle diversity today.
- Micro-aggressions are statements, actions, or incidents regarded as an instance of indirect, subtle, or unconscious bias. They are the everyday verbal, nonverbal slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages based on an unchangeable characteristic such as race or gender. It’s important to ask yourself, what signals are you sending? In your body language, in your casual comments and feedback? What signals is your environment sending? What does your office say about your company’s culture? What signals is your company sending externally? From the images on your product site to individuals chosen to speak externally, you’re sending unconscious messages.
- Social networking is a term that can be used to describe your connection to other people in the workplace. You are the red dot. Every line is your connection to another person. You can see how many people you are connected to and how connected they are. Networks are critical to personal and career success. Social networks related to respect, political deference, access to information. People with strong networks have been shown to have faster career trajectories. If you’re just going to people like yourself, then you’re not only limiting the information you have access to, but you also limiting who has access to you. You want to be at the center of the network (who have more influence, you have access to more information, it’s related to your career trajectory, more positive performance), and have a strong connection to really important people.
- Research supports the idea that you can help make the unconscious conscious if you give yourself a moment. Don’t close on the first decision that comes to your mind, especially when you're determining who to promote, hire, join the team, even who you’re going to have lunch with. Justify decisions: If you’re held accountable, you’ll be less unconsciously biased. Tell people why you decided what you did. If no one will listen to you, write it down. Make decisions collectively: We can keep each others' unconscious biases in check. Ask people to repeat back what you heard - keep each other in check. Call each other out: Call out unconscious bias when you see it, as it can be a learning moment. Sometimes you will be wrong and that's ok too.
- The Circle of Trust is a powerful exercise for demonstrating the effect of affinity bias. In this exercise, participants are instructed to write down in a column on the left-hand side of a blank piece of paper the initials of six to ten people whom they trust the most who are not family members. The facilitator then reads out some diversity dimensions including gender, nationality, native language, accent, age, race/ ethnicity, professional background, religion, etc., and participants are instructed to place a tick beside those members of their trusted circle who are similar in that dimension to them. For example, male participants will place a tick beside all men in their trusted six, white participants will place a tick beside all white individuals in their trusted six etc. Participants discover that their trusted six often displays minimal diversity – for most participants, their inner circle include people with backgrounds similar to their own. The facilitator explains that this tendency or preference for people like ourselves is called affinity or ingroup bias and is well-researched. Studies show that, in general, people extend not only greater trust, but also greater positive regard, cooperation, and empathy to ingroup members compared with outgroup members. This preference for people like ourselves is largely instinctive and unconscious. Affinity bias manifests not only as a preference for ingroup members — but it may also manifest as an aversive tendency towards outgroup members. For example, we are more likely to withhold praise or rewards from outgroup members. Participants are then prompted to consider the implications of this for the workplace? For example, as leaders, when they assign responsibility for a high-profile piece of work, to whom do they entrust that responsibility? The facilitator suggests that participants will likely offer opportunities to those individuals whom they trust the most. Those people, it turns out, are people who are similar to themselves. Now, because success on high-profile assignments is critical for emerging as a leader, a tendency to favour people like ourselves when assigning stretch assignments leads to self-cloning and promotes homogeneity in leadership. Though not intentional, people who are not like us get overlooked and left behind.
- Feeling threatened blocks our creativity, reduces our ability to solve problems, and makes it harder for us to communicate and collaborate with others. But, when we feel rewarded, our self-confidence soars, we feel empowered, and we want to do a good job. The SCARF Model can help you to minimize perceived threats, and to maximize the positive feelings generated through reward when working alongside others. Doing this can help us to collaborate better, to coach people, and to provide more effective training and feedback. Use the following practical tips to maximize your colleagues' sense of reward and to eliminate perceived threats, for each domain of the SCARF Model: Status Eliminate Threats: mishandling feedback can threaten someone's sense of status, and may even cause him or her to become angry and defensive. A gentler approach could help here. For instance, you could offer the person the chance to evaluate his own performance first, or try to reframe your feedback in a more positive way. Or, perhaps you feel that your status as a manager is threatened by people on your own team, particularly if they are highly skilled. This may cause you to "lash out." For instance, you might try to downplay their ideas or focus on their mistakes, even minor ones. You can avoid this kind of self-sabotaging behavior by facing your fears and challenging them. Learn to appreciate the positive aspects of your talented team – this will help you to get the best from them, and you'll earn a reputation as a great manager. Maximize Reward: give your team members regular praise when they perform well, and provide them with opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge. For example, you could give them more responsibility, or involve them in new projects. However, avoid over-promoting them , particularly if they aren't quite ready, or you may set them up for a fall. Certainty Minimize Threats: when we're uncertain of something, the orbital frontal cortex of our brains starts to work overtime as it attempts to make sense of the unknown. This can cause us to feel threatened and to lose focus. Reduce the likelihood of this happening by breaking down complex processes into smaller, more understandable chunks. And, to help people to cope better with uncertainty , encourage them to develop their flexibility and resilience . Maximize Reward: the human brain prefers predictability. When we know what to expect, we feel safe. This safety is a reward in itself, and you can maximize it by being clear on what you expect from your team member. This will give her direction, and she'll feel safe in the knowledge that she's on the right track, no matter how uncertain the wider environment is. Autonomy Minimize Threats: micromanagement is the biggest threat to autonomy. Try to avoid getting too involved with people's day-to-day work. Instead, show that you trust their judgment by including them in decision-making processes, and be sure to delegate tasks instead of holding onto them. Maximize Reward: encourage your people to become more autonomous by allowing them to take on more responsibility, and to use their initiative. Give them the freedom to try out new ideas. Relatedness Minimize Threats: a lack of relatedness can leave us feeling isolated and lonely . This can reduce creativity, commitment and collaboration. Combat this by introducing buddy systems or mentoring arrangements. And take particular care to check in regularly with vulnerable team members, such as virtual workers . Maximize Reward: when we connect with others, our brains release the hormone oxytocin (also known as the "love hormone"). The more oxytocin that's released, the more connected we feel. So, work to build up strong team bonds by scheduling in regular one-on-ones , or by organizing a team lunch or team-building event. Fairness Minimize Threats: if someone believes something to be unfair, it will activate her insular cortex – the region of the brain that is linked to disgust. This results in a powerful threat response. Minimize the impact of this by being open and honest with the person about what's going on, and why (insofar as it is appropriate or ethical to do so). Most importantly, make sure that you treat everyone fairly. Encourage mutual acceptance , and never show favor or exclude people on purpose. Maximize Rewards: unfairness will more likely occur where there is a lack of rules, expectations or objectives. Setting up a Team Charter , which clarifies individual goals and roles, team hierarchy, and day-to-day operations, can remedy this. But remember to get your people's input and approval before you introduce it!
- By the end of this training, participants shall be better able to:
- 1. What is implicit bias? Making decisions based on unconscious thoughts or feelings. Workplace misunderstandings between two people. A human resources policy for how to handle employees. Overt discrimination based on feelings or beliefs. 2. Implicit bias may be based on which of the following? Education Weight Race or ethnicity All of these answers are correct 3. What is meant by confirmation bias? Looking for information that supports our beliefs about someone. Believing something because others choose to believe it. Creating stereotypes based on groups people might belong to. Being more receptive of people who resemble us in some way.