Are You Conscious of Your Unconscious Bias?

While I was growing up, most kids had friends who scored well in academics and stayed away from any sports. It used to be cool to hang out with front benchers or class toppers. Hanging with back benches was like a no-fly zone for me.?I think my contemporaries will relate to this. Some of these criteria were my own and others were schooled into me by my surrounding ecosystem. Sometimes, you are just restricted to a community with little to no exposure to the outside and choose your relationships from the limited pool.

That’s not all, there may be more criteria under consideration, like people from similar family backgrounds or socio-economic stature, so on and so forth. Sometimes it is just your human intellect trying to protect you from the fear of unknown.

I was therefore unknowingly, unconsciously bound by my own reservations about whom I wanted to be friends with my friends were either the studious kids who topped the class or from my own community.

When I look back now, I realize that there was a transition when I joined my postgrad college and got a chance to mingle with people from different regions, communities, and backgrounds. This transition was also an unconscious one and not thought-provoked or planned.

Am I the only one who has experienced this phenomenon? ?I doubt??

Nobody is immune to it. Does it have any scientific connotations? If you research some more and dig deep you will be amazed to learn that our brains can consciously process?40 pieces of information per second while we unconsciously process 11?million?pieces. Unconscious biases are learned assumptions, beliefs, or attitudes that we aren’t necessarily aware of.?However, it has significant impact on how we function and more significantly on our decisions.

According to diversity consultant Howard Ross, in a Diversity Best Practices paper, these biases reflect patterns of belief that are so strong and deeply ingrained, it is difficult to understand their impact on decision-making. He writes, “Ultimately, we believe our decisions are consistent with our conscious beliefs, when in fact, our unconscious is running the show.

Some of the common unconscious biases I have come across are based on - gender, city/native, ageism, physical features/beauty, familiarity, name, social hierarchy.

AWARENESS of my own unconscious biases is the first step towards my inclusive leadership. Being a decade in recruitment industry my journey on inclusion as a thought is evolving from the time when I looked to hire people who were lot like me (affirmative bias) to the point where I am open to hire people from any walk of life. Early on, I had affinity to hire people who were more like me and feared hiring anyone who seemed different, as such, I used to have an all women team.

So I was often picked upon for not having a diverse team, which led me to wonder why, and I started questioning my though process and belief system. This helped me understand that inclusion is not something which is “good to have” but should be a mandate to break the barriers and effect a change. We work towards measurable goals, which we call tangibles, however inclusion and belonging can’t be measured hence they go on backburner. Well intangible goals take time to sync in??

Some of the ways I learnt during my journey from unconscious bias to consciousness of my bias:

1.????Self-awareness and acknowledgment of your biases.?I started reflecting on my own stereotypes and prejudices. Paying attention to each of the key decisions which I took in my daily work. This curiosity helped me make sense of my biases and keeping a check on them. Instead of waiting for others to catch me I started listening, learning, and questioning my long-held beliefs.

2.????Create supportive Ecosystem. Considering that all have such biases, talking about it becomes uncomfortable. However, if there is a supportive environment for one and all, it helps everyone to acknowledge their own biases and work towards a better outcome. A simple mode of Acknowledgment/ clarify/ Explore has worked with me.

For example- I acknowledged my similarity bias; I clarified it with my coaches; and started exploring my hiring patterns.

Today, on looking back, I realize that I have come a long way in knowing myself, understanding my beliefs, in taking important decisions related to hiring, promoting, signing up a new customer, and even being more open to work with anyone. ?By changing our own behavior, we can make any workplace or community an Inclusive one.

At the end “Taking responbility of our own biases is the first step towards “Inclusive Leadership” which is also my next article where I will explore the nuances to move from unconscious bias to conscious INCLUSION.