How can you recognize and address unconscious bias on your team?

The most important step. As leaders, one of the most crucial skills required is understanding human behavior. When you start looking inward, identify your patterns, behaviors, and biases, it becomes more efficient to recognize other's biases. Humans are very different from one another, but how we respond to situations, and how our biases affect us, can be quite similar. If you start with yourself, you will be able to see it in others more easily.

In my experience approaching it with a mindset that you have unconscious bias and then putting mechanisms to correct/prevent those biases goes long way. Being deliberate about these mechanisms, thoughtful about your words and actions, and gathering feedback, helps you create a safe environment. I was so used to saying “Hey guys” at the start of the meetings and didn’t realize that I wasn’t being inclusive. Once I learned that I deliberately push myself to start with “Hey everyone or hey folks” which is more inclusive.

Regular reflection is key to understanding your unconscious biases and to learning to see the whole person beyond the bias boxes in your head. Take 5 minutes every day to reflect: what boils up when I think about my day? Why this? How did my actions in this case affect others? How do I know this? Could I have acted differently? What do I want to note about this? Write this down. Once a month read through your notes and find patterns of unconscious bias and helpful actions to overcome them.

If you can't explain why you are making a decision, there is bias in your decision. Try something like 5 Why Analysis to get to the root of things.

Recognizing your biases involves self-reflection and awareness. Take time to reflect on personal beliefs and attitudes. Be open to feedback and different perspectives. Actively seek opportunities to learn and understand diverse viewpoints. Regular self-assessment and openness are key to identifying and addressing biases.

One tip here is instead of asking for feedback on your approach - which others may be hesitant to provide - ask for advice on the situation. This will help put the other person at ease to provide their honest and objective inputs and serve as a means to uncover any unconscious bias in your viewpoint.

One thing that helped me was to check my LinkedIn connections (mostly white, catholic, cis) and intentionally started connecting with people from complete diverse backgrounds also to influence my algorithms to share information from diverse perspectives. Then I started asking around colleagues from different perspectives than mine what would make them happier at their job. I was suspended about how simple actions would have a huge impact (like having a secular prayer room).

In my opinion, Gathering feedback and perspectives on unconscious bias is a valuable step toward fostering awareness, understanding, and dialogue. Conduct confidential one-on-one interviews with team members, aiming to gain deeper insights into their perspectives on unconscious bias. Organize focus group discussions with diverse participants. Encourage open conversations about personal experiences with unconscious bias, both as recipients and observers. Facilitate interactive workshops that simulate real-world scenarios related to unconscious bias.

One thing I’ve found helpful was to check my social medias. I checked my LinkedIn connections and intentionally started connecting with people from complete diverse backgrounds also to influence my algorithms to share information from diverse perspectives. Then I started asking around colleagues from different perspectives than mine what would make them happier at their job. I was suspended about how simple actions would have a huge impact (like having a secular prayer room).

In my experience, it is very positive to always ask for honest communication on how others would do something different, this helps to understand your team and to also keep open conversations regarding feedback and awareness.

One of the effective mechanisms to uplevel the team on detecting unconscious bias is to appoint someone within the meeting as a unconscious bias keeper. Their role is to detect any unconscious bias that creeps into decision making and call it out for discussion. The practical nature of this effort helps effectively train others, supplementing formal training efforts.

Unconscious bias isn’t one of those topics that an organisation can train once and forget about it. During my stint as the L&D lead for a global giant, we have observed time and again, that Mindset changes take time. Therefore, a continuous reinforcement of this topic must be instated for long term / sustainable outcomes. Start the new year or the performance review cycle with a refresher of the key topics on unconscious bias. Having a more robust / structured training with clear examples of what constitutes a bias and how one can overcome those will go a long way in building a strong / value-based organisation.

Learn about cultural intelligence: the ability to function and relate effectively in multicultural settings. This will change your perspective on bias and how to mitigate it. It will change your life.

I work at 3 levels - ABC - Affective, Behavioural and Cognitive. Education is key, and so it's the language we use. Biases hide in language and biases get hardwired in our brain as we repeat the same words. A key example is the use of words like merit and meritocracy, or say we just want "the best person for the job". Research from MIT shows that in companies that explicitly portray themselves as meritocracies, and let me quote Castilla & Benard: "managers in that organization may ironically show greater bias in favor of men over equally performing women in translating employee performance evaluations into rewards and other key career outcomes" (2010). This is called the paradox of meritocracy.

Avoid BS. If you want to reduce your blind spots and directly influence your perceptions of the world to inform the decisions you make, avoid flowery language, trying to impress others, and being what you're not, that is avoid all bullsh_t. When you act with a clear and transparent intention, you build relationships based on trust and can nurture inclusive spaces where everyone thrives and has a sense of belonging

This is a vital step of the process. Without analyzing the data and one’s own policies, no change can truly occur at the culture level. However, I would suggest to have an external provider reviewing the data and policies. If the organization is already impacted by biases, it will be extremely difficult for the people immerse in this culture to neutrally analyze their own data and identify the issues. After having an assessment of the gaps and the bottlenecks, it’s time to implement the action plan and due dates, KPIs to promote the change.

Begin by collecting input from employees at various levels, including frontline staff, middle management, and leadership. Review your recruitment and hiring processes to identify potential biases. Assess whether job descriptions, interview questions, and candidate evaluations are structured to mitigate unconscious bias. Consider incorporating diverse hiring panels and blind resume screening techniques.Examine the criteria used for promotions and performance reviews. Ensure that they are objective, transparent, and free from biases. Consider implementing regular calibration sessions to standardize evaluations across teams and mitigate potential bias.Regular updates and refinements to these processes ensures adaptability to the evolving needs

Review how you make decisions. This is a useful exercise to look at for all areas of the business to see who is involved in decision making, how people contribute ideas and how decisions are then made and by who. Specific areas that a re useful to look at are: - recruitment - performance reviews - creative ideas generation - budgets - organizational changes

1. Is there someone you know doing this well? How does their approach compare to yours? Can they review your policies and practices? 2. Are your processes written down? Where are the bias vulnerabilities in each step and how are they currently mitigated? 3. What best practices from conducting research can we apply? When evaluating candidates, can we utilize a double-blind format so evaluators and candidates are not known to each other for the initial stages of evaluation?

Absolutely. And make sure your hiring processes are equitable and accessible. Engage the services of prefessionals to help you achieve this, you can't afford not to.

Unconscious bias starts with taking responsibility for our own actions. Responding to others how we would like to be treated.

There is one technique I always recommend to leaders on the training I facilitate on inclusive leadership: the ladder of inference. This tool helps you visualise and better understand how we make choices and take decisions, and how many of our decisions and judgements are based on assumptions and influenced by cognitive bias. Simple and very useful. I recommend leaders share this with their teams and ask them to use the terminology in order to call each other out when "jumping up the ladder" which sounds better than saying "your decision is biased". Try it and let me know how it works!

Checking unconscious bias starts with you. It’s our responsibility to ensure that our behaviour is not offensive to others. I have been in situations where I called out colleagues for behaviour that was offensive (disrespectful) and the response i got was ‘Well, that’s who i am. I am blunt and a straight talker’. Again to reiterate, we owe it to ourselves and colleagues to monitor our behaviour adjust where needed. That’s how we learn and begin to get rid of these biases.

In today’s world, if brand is money. Context is God. And the biases in your system will only further dilute whatever brand you or the company is trying to build. While a lot of organisations believe themselves to be inclusive, it ends up being more in letter than in spirit. To understand one’s own inclusivity quotient, look at your reward system. How inclusive is your performance and reward system? If you are having the same set of principles for every region, ethnicity gender, or diversity of other kinds without the contextual implications of the system in place, do you think you have an effective system for growth? Well! Are you asking the fish to climb a tree? Look again! ??

In my opinion building diverse teams, where all members feel empowered to speak out, should be the first step in recognizing unconscious bias. If your team is established and you cannot change the composition, you as a leader should seek out personal advisors that are diverse. Unconscious bias by definition is very difficult to recognize on your own. Many well intentioned leaders allow it to occur because an alternative perspective never even crossed their mind. Coach your team that unconscious bias is common and you are not a "bad" person if it happens. Emphasize that diversity in thinking and experience helps team discover solutions or opportunities that would have gone unrecognized.

Estoy de acuerdo en que, una de las capacidades que debe desarrollar el líder es la correcta lectura de su contexto. Por mucho tiempo estuvimos concentrados en el individuo y sus formas de desarrollo y crecimiento, pero si no albergamos la idea de que todo lo que sucede alrededor influye y debemos considerarlo en la toma de decisiones y en la planeación estratégica, estamos perdidos.

I've witnessed the transformative power of creating an environment where diverse perspectives are not only acknowledged but actively sought and embraced. By championing a culture that values inclusion, team members feel empowered to bring their authentic selves to the table. Actively promoting diversity in all aspects of team collaboration, from projects to decision-making processes, helps dismantle unconscious biases. It's crucial to go beyond mere representation and cultivate a sense of belonging for every team member. Inclusive practices, such as mentorship programs and resource groups, further solidify a commitment to recognizing and mitigating unconscious bias.

Bias is a very natural behavior both positive and negative.As a leader we need to give ample opportunity to team members to express their views.more often than not our bias gets addressed if we are able to encourage our team to speak,give them chance to work on their ideas,tolerate failures,provide resources,celebrate success and reward team rather than individuals.

Unconscious bias is not an excuse for discrimination. You have a personal responsibility to pause, learn and reflect. Regular check ins and being aware of your decisions will help you identify gaps in your learning.

Don’t overlook the fact that recognizing and addressing biases within a group requires a psychologically safe environment where people feel comfortable sharing their honest and vulnerable experiences. Furthermore, other participants need to feel safe asking follow-up questions. While this can feel volatile or uncomfortable at first, it’s the only way people learn from each other by gaining a deeper understanding of experiences different than their own and seeing how their own biases have shaped the lenses they see the world through. As a leader, you’ll need to model what good looks like and set the tone by being honest and vulnerable yourself. It’s also important to set expectations that mistakes are okay and it’s part of the experience.

Recognizing and addressing unconscious bias within a team is pivotal for creating a workplace that values fairness and diversity. Initiating this process involves educating team members about the concept of unconscious bias, fostering self-awareness through self-assessment, and promoting open communication on bias-related issues. Diverse hiring and promotion practices, combined with blind recruitment and transparent evaluation criteria, help mitigate bias in decision-making. Providing bias training and mentorship programs empowers team members to recognize and counteract their biases. Regular data collection, analysis, and accountability checks ensure progress and highlight areas for improvement.

To recognize and address unconscious bias in a team, encourage open discussions about diversity and inclusion. Implement regular training sessions focused on identifying and understanding unconscious biases. Promote a culture of active listening and empathy, where team members feel comfortable sharing their experiences and perspectives. Establish clear, objective criteria for decision-making processes to mitigate bias. Regularly review team dynamics and decisions for potential biases, and encourage feedback from team members on these issues. Foster an environment of continuous learning and growth around diversity and inclusion.