The Top 4 Unconscious Bias that Impact Teams

Unconscious bias is an innate human trait which when taken in the context of an organization can get amplified in large teams and drive unproductive team culture and behaviors which are contrary to the values and intentions of the leaders. Non-inclusive teams have a variety of dysfunction based on the bias the employees propagate and the company policies and social norms foster, hence to address non-inclusion in teams, we first have to understand the different bias that can exist in teams.

At OrgAnalytix, we identify 4 different ways that unconscious bias drive the lack of inclusion in organizations.  We focus in and create visibility around these biases so that leaders can then address them and measure them over time to ensure progress. 

1. Affinity Bias

Much has been said about Affinity Bias as it is the most recognizable form of bias and seemingly should be the easiest to address effectively.  We are innately wired to relate to people who look like us, think like us, or act like us – but this bias prevents new ideas and perspectives to be discussed and brought to the forefront with the same veracity as the ideas from people with whom we can relate to.  To address this, leaders have to be very deliberate in their efforts to include, and provide all employees, even the ones that don’t look like others in the team with the same opportunities to succeed.  Laziness in work relationships has to be proactively countered since often this bias is resistant to programs and even re-orgs, which often cause groups to self-segregate instead of integrate fully.  Providing a methodology to measure this bias at an organizational level allows managers to measure and track the progress of their efforts.  

When visualized using OrgAnalytix software, this bias is the easiest to spot since it can be seen as homogenous clusters of same racial or gender groups, often with minorities and under-represented employees on the periphery or entirely outside the influence networks.

2. Stereotype Bias 

First impressions can either generate affinity or create bias.  The tendency to “stereotype” people based on superficial qualities about them, like their appearance or where they are from, can be disruptive to the initial forming of positive, new relationships.  This also disproportionately impacts an employee’s contribution to the team, as they feel judged or ignored and generally not valued appropriately.  Stereotypes cross racial, gender, and ethnic boundaries and can be driven from anything like personality types (extroverts vs. introverts ) or city you most recently lived in (NYC vs. Los Angeles).   

When visualized through our bias filters, this stereotype bias appears as a lack of connections between a team and the employee from a different background, particularly within the social and trust dimensions.  We also see this in mentorship connections that are primarily with those who share a particular alma mater or other shared backgrounds.  

3. Group Think Bias

Conformity of views within a team can extinguish innovation in huge ways.  This conformity most often comes from the influence of key people and the tenure of the team as a whole.  The longer a team stays together, the more their views converge, and they create an externally perceived team view.  The seeming uniformity of the team negates new opinions coming from new members of the team (either new employees or transfers) and reduces the perceived inclusion of the team.  Less obvious, but equally important, is the impact on team members who may actually have differing views, but may get pushed aside in order to not “rock the boat.” The result is that team struggles to adapt, and worse, create new ideas.  

OrgAnalytix filters quickly pick this bias up when we analyze a team’s Idea Generation, Idea Validation, and Change Sponsorship relationships and see employees with lower tenure in the periphery of these networks, while employees with longer tenure are tightly clustered together.  

4. Yardstick Bias 

Biases that result from judging intangible variables that have impacts on the team are perhaps the most difficult to affect.  These biases can come from initial high expectations that a new team member will be great based on career background, educational background and other “halos” that come from yet realized expectations.  New employees that bring these biases to manifestation can disappoint and also taint the impacts of other employees who are bringing real benefits to the team already.  In addition, new employees lacking specific background or personal attributes that the team deems valuable can also be not considered as seriously by the organization and in ways that do not value the person’s value contribution.   Worse yet, group think can exacerbate the yardstick bias by bringing a group judgement to individuals joining the team (either positively or negatively).     

Yardstick biases show up in OrgAnalytix software as ones with low inclusion score, a large number of peripheral employees, and team members who seem to be disconnected from the team.   Interestingly, with this bias our software highlights employees who have migrated more to the periphery as their perceived value is diminished, while lower tenured employees are central to the network almost immediately. 

To learn more about this Inclusion measurement and building Inclusive teams, contact OrgAnalytix (www.organalytix.com) OrgAnalytix offers the only solution targeted at mapping Inclusion in organizations through network science, machine learning and state-of-the art algorithms.  Organizations can be measured, tracked over time and empowered to get the best possible outcomes from current programs and determine other beneficial efforts that can be applied to greatly improve Diversity and Inclusion into the future.