“It’s easy to stand with a crowd.  It takes courage to stand alone.”  Mahatma Gandi

Besides my consulting work, I have signed on for two speaking engagements in April. One session is focused on early career women and how to overcome barriers in their careers. The second presentation is an HR/Benefits one day conference. I will be presenting on how to jumpstart DEI efforts at organizations. This audience is mainly HR and CFO folks.

I love presenting, sharing ideas and hearing stories from audiences. For the barriers presentation, this article provides a nice overview and some much-needed pre-work for audience self-reflection. I think back to my career and how I put up with so much “wrong” stuff early in my career due to fear, lack of knowledge on what to do and just overall naivete. Even in present day, the barriers are pretty much the same…women hold little power and are subject to so much bias. And then couple that with being a women within another marginalized group and imagine the obstacles, doubled or tripled!

I remember being told that you must “ask for what you want” yet even as recent as five years ago, when I did that, I was told, “Leadership will decide when you are ready…not you.” Unbelievable and yet, as women, we are forced to comply or start over. In this example, it was the beginning of me realizing exactly the environment I was working in and fortunately, I had options so didn’t need to stay.

But most women don’t have options or fear sticking their neck out and saying something. How do we teach women to move beyond this fear? First, we talk openly about it! If we normalize behavior that holds women back is acceptable, it will continue. I think we also need to make women aware of bias and what it looks like and actions they can take against it.

Bias “is a human trait resulting from our tendency and need to classify individuals into categories as we strive to quickly process information and make sense of the world.” There are two types of bias:

• Explicit Bias
• Implicit or Unconscious Bias

Explicit cognitive bias includes overt racism and racist comments; “individuals are aware of their prejudices and attitudes toward certain groups.”

Implicit cognitive bias “involves all of the subconscious feelings, perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes that have developed as a result of prior influences and imprints.” Implicit cognitive bias “involves all of the subconscious feelings, perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes that have developed as a result of prior influences and imprints.” Implicit cognitive bias involves “automatic, unconscious mental processes based on implicit attitudes or implicit stereotypes that are formed by one’s life experience and lurk behind the surface of the conscious.” Implicit biases are necessary for us to survive since our brains cannot possibly process every piece of information coming at it in real time for us to make decisions. Our brains learn to categorize similar things so we can react.  EVERYONE has Implicit Bias. A preference for a group (positive or negative) often operating outside our awareness and based on stereotypes and attitudes we hold that tend to develop early in life and tend to strengthen over time.

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.”  Mark Twain

Individual Reflection: 

1.  What is my first memory of seeing or experiencing someone different from me? 

2.  When was there a time in my life that I felt different from others? 

3.  How did you deal with the situations above? 

Bias

Conscious Bias

• Expressed directly
• We have it and we are aware of it.

Unconscious Bias

• Expressed indirectly
• We are not aware of the bias.

Bias in Action

• Age
• Color
• Education level
• Expertise
• Family status
• Gender
• National origin
• Personality
• Physical ability
• Physical appearance
• Political views
• Race/Ethnicity
• Religion
• Sexual orientation/Identity
• Socioeconomic status

Bias effects

• Confidence
• Creativity
• Decision making
• Emotional health
• Employment
• Engagement
• Opportunity
• Performance
• Personal freedom
• Physical health
• Relationships
• Risk taking
• Safety
• Self-esteem

Q:  When have you experienced or witnessed bias?  What happened?  What was done about it?  What was the end result?

Who are you?

• I am not biased.  I view things objectively.

Or

• Bias exists in everyone, including me.  I actively STOP and think about how bias effects the choices I make.

Q:  Which one are you?  Provide an example.

Sources of your bias:

• Your own experiences.
• Information you read such as news, social media, stories, books, movies etc.
• Your education including school you attend and what you study.
• Your context-family, friends, work, where you live, what you do and who you spend time with.
• Culture-spoken and unspoken rules in your community and society.
• Innate characteristics you are born with.

All of these create your identity.  Your identity can be sources of positive and negative bias.  Some of our identifiers cause us to be biased to others and others to be biased towards us.

Q:  What is your identity?  Note if any create bias towards others.

How to Disrupt Bias (within yourself)

• Create connections with folks different from yourself.
• Move from “autopilot” to questioning your thoughts and behaviors.
• Be curious.
• Be empathetic.
• Ask questions.  Even if uncomfortable.  You can say you are uncomfortable!

Q:  Think about who you connect with, hang out with, spend time with, ask advice from…do they look different or similar to you?  Why?

Broaden your viewpoint by:

• Joining different groups
• Reading different viewpoints, following different influencers
• Joining different community groups
• Try new experiences
• Change your routines

Take Action

Ways to Act with Courage

• Notice bias happening
• Confront bias
• Help others with bias
• Address bias

Q:  What are specific ways you can act with courage as described above?

• Pause and question actions, thoughts and outcomes.
• Seek to understand.
• Check assumptions.
• Learn.  Educate yourself and others.
• Share your story.
• Bring people together.
• Be a coach or mentor.
• Amplify others’ voices.
• Speak up.
• Organize groups.

Your perspectives are incomplete.  You are an expert on your identity…be willing to learn about others.

Types of Bias

1. Confirmation bias-get information that supports our existing beliefs.  Ex.  News from a single source. 

Take action:  What could we do differently?

• Anchoring bias-rely on first piece of information we see.  Ex.  Misdiagnose an illness by paying too much attention to the first symptom we see.

Take action:  What could we do differently?

• In-Group bias-we favor people we like and who are like us.  Ex.  Hiring a candidate that has our similar background, alma mater etc. 

Take action:  What could we do differently?

• Negativity bias-we are more powerfully influenced by negative experience than positive or neutral experiences.  Ex.  Remembering bad customer service experience. 

Take action:  What could we do differently?

• Attribution bias-we judge others on their action but we judge ourselves based on our intent.  Ex.  Thinking someone is ineffective because of a mistake. 

Take action:  What could we do differently?

• Sunk-Cost bias-we continue things because we have already invested time, money resources.  Ex.  Keep reading a book even though you don’t like it. 

Take action:  What could we do differently?

“Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles; cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances.”  Martin Luther King

Share your experiences and ideas…and what you can do differently.