So you think you know about bias?

Most people have heard of "unconscious bias". Fewer realise that this is not the only bias at play in organisations. So what is bias and how do we recognise it?

Bias goes beyond "protected characteristics"

Many think bias relates to people with characteristics named under the Equality Act 2010: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage/civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity, race, religion/belief, sex, sexual orientation. However, people's biases can relate to many other factors. E.g. class, accent, a person's educational background, their politics, how open or closed they are about emotions, their ability to communicate in English, neurodiversity, whether or not they have had experience of the criminal justice system. The list goes on.

It is crucial to recognise that bias can show up in lots of ways if we are to begin to address it in ourselves and our organisations.

Unconscious bias

While we are unaware of them, unconscious biases affect how we think, act and speak. They are products of our upbringing, environment, social and work networks and much more.

Unconscious biases can also affect cultures, systems, how decisions are made, how innovation happens etc, particularly if most leaders and/or staff have the same characteristics. After all people operate systems, make decisions etc.

Covert bias

This kind of bias is rarely talked about because many are too uncomfortable to admit that it might exist in their organisations.

Covert bias is where a person consciously has a bias but does not admit to it openly and is not willing to change. Those biases guide how that person thinks, acts, makes decisions, manages, recruits, appraises their team members etc.

Sometimes covert bias shows up as people centring themselves as the victim when called out for discriminatory behaviour or stating that they are being discriminated against/disadvantaged by efforts to level the playing field for minoritised groups. I was recently at a webinar about the arts sector where a speaker stated there are "no opportunities for emerging artists now unless you are black".

Overt bias

This is a fairly obvious one: a bias that is held and openly admitted. We think those things don't really happen at work. Try telling that to my friend Alice (a black woman journalist) who worked for a series of major news corporations and would regularly have bananas left on her desk.

How do you spot that bias might be at play in your organisation?

Below are some examples. Can you think of others? All are examples I have encountered in working through Full Colour in the last 18 months.

• Reports to managers about racism or sexism being explained away as, "that person didn't mean it like that" or "maybe you misunderstood".
• Disparity in career progression in organisations, with people from minoritised groups faring less well than people from mainstream groups in society.
• Certain voices being listened to more than others. This can be based on personal characteristics like gender, but also on professional discipline. E.g. scientists' views given more weight than media managers on media issues.
• Recruitment systems that lead to people with particular backgrounds and identities being more likely to be recruited.
• Gender or ethnicity pay gaps.
• The "meritocracy myth" being used to justify the lack of diversity in an organisation: "we always recruit the best person for the job" without being willing to examine any biases that are baked into their systems or people.
• A culture of long working hours, e.g. because people believe there is someone else to take care of the home front, or thinking the mission/profit/beating the competition etc matters more than the personal cost to your people.

The key to tackling bias in the workplace?

Go beyond systems, policies and procedures. Too many organisations look exclusively for systems or procedural solutions to tackle bias. Systems and procedures are necessary, but they are operated by people!

Organisations really need to focus on uncovering biases that people hold, particularly leaders, and supporting them to address those biases while keeping them psychologically safe enough to act.

Helping people recognise and address their biases is skilled work, so you may need help. But if colleagues face their biases with an open heart, this will turbo-charge your organisation's progress on EDI.

If tackling bias in your organisation is something you need help with, Full Colour has different services that can help. (And no - I don't mean generic unconscious bias training, which frankly, does not work.) Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].

And if you found this newsletter helpful, we'd be so pleased if you could share it.

Thank you for reading this far, and we wish you the most wonderful day.

Photo credit: John Hain