How Companies Can Interrupt Bias to Truly Create Inclusion
Digital HR Leaders Podcast - EP82 - Joan C. Williams, Author of Bias Interrupted

How Companies Can Interrupt Bias to Truly Create Inclusion

David Green ???? David Green ????

David Green ????

Co-Author of Excellence in People Analytics | People Analytics leader | Director, Insight222 & myHRfuture.com | Conference speaker | Host, Digital HR Leaders Podcast

发布日期: 2021年10月20日
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Organisations have been hiring women and people of colour over and over again for decades and diversity has not increased. Why is that? It is because the culture within your organisation makes it impossible for them to thrive and they leave, over and over and over again.

This week on the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, I’m joined by Joan C. Williams, distinguished Professor of Law at the Hastings College of Law, at the University of California, and author of an eagerly anticipated new book, Bias Interrupted: Creating Inclusion for Real and for Good , which is set for publication on 16 November, 2021.

Described by the New York Times Magazine as having "something approaching rock star status" in her field, Joan has studied social inequality for 40 years and is dedicated to propagating an approach to diversity and inclusion that delivers real impact for the business and ensures real change is made.? Joan explained to me that Bias Interrupted has been: "Designed for people working in organisations, that have been working to create diversity and inclusion, many of them for over a decade, but sadly have seen very few results. The book is a roadmap to actually produce results."

According to the Washington Post, President Joe Biden carried a dog-eared copy of White Working Class , Joan's previous book, "everywhere scrawling notes on the pages and pulling out well-worn copies to share passages."As you'll hear, Joan has a refreshingly indomitable style. Here's an example from our conversation:

If a business had a problem with sales, they wouldn't address it by holding a series of deep, sincere, conversations about how much everybody values sales and declare national “celebrate sales month” and expect anything to change. That's just not how businesses do things, but unfortunately, a lot of Diversity and Inclusion efforts have been essentially that.

You can listen by clicking on the image below or by visiting the?podcast website here .?

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The research shows that there is only one group in the workplace that can advocate for diversity without threatening career detriments. And that is white men.

Throughout this episode, Joan and I discuss:

  • How to connect diversity and inclusion initiatives to business metrics that matter, with case studies from companies around the world: "The business case for diversity is important but the first thing to recognise is that even many companies that are convinced of the business case, flounder because it is a very complex organisational challenge to actually deliver on diversity goals. You have to be very concrete in the business case and show how diversity is crucial to your mission."
  • The five patterns of bias (Prove-it-again, Tightrope, Tug-of-war, Racial stereotypes and Maternal wall biases) that repeatedly emerge across organisations and industries: "It is the same five patterns that emerge over and over, and over, and over, and over, again. In company after company and in industry after industry. The challenge for employers is that you have to interrupt all five."

You can't change your company culture by doing anything once.

  • The concept of ‘bias interrupters’ – what they are and how to use them in everyday scenarios to reduce the impact of bias: "People have treated the problem of bias as something that can be trained with a one-shot training or a once-a-year training. You can't change your company culture by doing anything once."
  • The ethical and legal challenges of measuring diversity data and why these challenges are not a good enough excuse for not doing the work
  • Advice to Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officers on how they can get buy-in and deliver on their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals: "That is how to get buy-in, by figuring out what that metric is, and then gathering that data."

We like to think our organisations are meritocracies, but the data shows they are not

Enjoy - and please let me know in the comments section your thoughts and any questions after listening to the episode.


LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

To listen to the Podcast and read the transcript of my discussion with Joan, head over to myHRfuture by clicking on this link: Why Companies Need to Interrupt Bias to Truly Create Inclusion .?


WATCH THE VIDEOS

As well as the podcast, there will be a couple of videos available on the?myHRfuture YouTube channel ?highlighting highlighting two of the topics Joan and I cover in our conversation.?In the clip below, Joan explains why typical approaches to tackling bias in the workplace fall short :

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THANK YOU

Thanks to Joan for sharing her immense knowledge and expertise with listeners. You can find out more about Joan and her work by visiting her website: joancwilliams.com and the Bias Interruptors website: www.biasinterrupters.org . You can also follow Joan on LinkedIn and on Twitter @JoanCWilliams .

I also recommend digging into the following resources by or co-authored by Joan to learn more about her work:

Thanks to Karen Burns, Vicky Holdsworth, Todd Tauber and the?Degreed ?team?for sponsoring Series 17 of the podcast, and also Ian Bailie, Manpreet Randhawa, Caroline Styr and the myHRfuture team for creating the Digital HR Leaders podcast and video series.?A special thank you also to Sally Ashworth for connecting us with Joan.


GET INVOLVED

If you enjoyed listening to this week's podcast episode, I'd be grateful if you could take the following steps:

  1. Please?subscribe to the Digital HR Leaders podcast and weekly newsletter ?to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
  2. Please take the time to?rate the show on iTunes . We rely on your feedback and support to make the podcast, so this is very helpful!
  3. Who would you like to see me interview in future episodes? Let me know in the comments below.
  4. Lastly, don’t forget to share on social media with your friends and colleagues, your support is always greatly appreciated!

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CATCH UP ON THE DIGITAL HR LEADERS PODCAST

If you haven't listened to all of the episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, you can catch up now by clicking on the links below.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David is a globally respected author, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work.?As Managing Partner and Executive Director at?Insight222 , he has overall responsibility for the delivery of the Insight222 People Analytics Program, which supports the advancement of people analytics in over 70 global organisations.?Prior to co-founding Insight222 and taking up a board advisor role at?TrustSphere , David accumulated over 20 years experience in the human resources and people analytics fields, including as Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations increase value, impact and focus from the wise and ethical use of people analytics.?David also hosts the?Digital HR Leaders Podcast ?and is an instructor for Insight222's?myHRfuture Academy . His book, co-authored with Jonathan Ferrar,?Excellence in People Analytics: How to use Workforce Data to Create Business Value ?will be published in the summer of 2021.

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I'll be speaking about people analytics, the future of work at a number of upcoming events:

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Neil Waters

People Analytics Consultant at Phoenix

3 年

Sarah Horne Peter Meyler “Organisations have been hiring women and people of colour over and over again for decades and diversity has not increased. Why is that? It is because the culture within your organisation makes it impossible for them to thrive and they leave, over and over and over again.”

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Russ Hill

Cofounder of Lead In 30 ? Upgrade your leaders ? Human resources and leadership development

3 年

Just added it to my podcast playlist. Thanks for the heads up, David. There's lots of noise about diversity, inclusion, and belonging. But so few companies are actually doing things that matter.

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萨贾德Sajjad

3 年

It amazed me as I read such an essential and must to adhere topic is that.

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Stephanie Nash

Global Human Resources Leader and Founder, Thrive HR Exchange

3 年

As always, really appreciate your insights and sharing. It is very inspiring we look to build up team capabilities. Thank you David Green

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Lindsey Hayward

Senior People Leader, Business Partner and HR/People consultant

3 年

Gemma Lee Amy Milner Assoc. CIPD Sam Clegg Assoc. CIPD

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