A typical organisational response to creating more inclusive organisations has been to invest in antibias training.
But research shows that antibias training rarely delivers.
Joan Williams and Sky Mihaylo tackle this topic for the Harvard Business Review and argue that while bias is hard (if not impossible) to eliminate, it as not as difficult to interrupt.
Identify how bias plays out
The first step to interrupting bias is to understand the four distinct ways bias plays out in everyday work interactions:
1. Prove it again: Some groups have to prove themselves more than others do.
2. Tightrope: A narrower range of behaviours is accepted from some groups than from others.
3. Maternal wall: Women with children see their commitment and competence questioned or face disapproval for being too career focused.
4. Tug-of-war: Marginalised groups find themselves pitted against one another because of differing strategies for assimilating—or refusing to do so.
Recommendations for interrupting bias
The next stage is to recognise when and where these forms of bias arise on a day-to-day basis and take steps to interrupt bias before it can happen. For example:
• Insistent on a diverse pool when recruiting. Research shows that the odds of hiring a woman are 79 times as great if at least two women are in the finalist pool, while the odds of hiring a nonwhite candidate are 194 times as great with at least two finalist minority applicants.
• Set-up a rotation for office housework and don’t ask for volunteers.
• Mindfully design and assign people to high value projects. Reconsider who is capable of doing what these important jobs require.
• If a few people are dominating the conversation in a meeting, address it directly. Create and enforce a policy for interruptions. Keep track of those who drown others out and talk with them privately about it, explaining that it’s important to hear everyone’s contributions.
• Schedule meetings inclusively. Business meetings should take place in the office, not at a golf course, and within office hours.
• Explain how training, promotion, and pay decisions will be made, and follow those rules.
Reflecting on biases is one of the seven behaviours we measure in our Inclusive Leader Development Assessment. Leaders gain an accurate understanding of how others view their ability to identify and mitigate their biases at work.
To find out more about our Inclusive Leader Assessment, contact us at enquiries@inclusiveleadershipdevelopment.com
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