C1

THE MIND’S BLIND SPOT

DATE 00/00/2017

DATE 00/00/2014 | P.1

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BIAS, PREJUDICE & STEREOTYPING

UNCONSCIOUS BIAS IN THE WORKPLACE AND WHY IT MATTERS

HOW TO COMBAT BIAS

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LEARNING OUTCOME FROM THE SESSION
By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• Analyze and explain the three aspects of Mind’s blind spot being: Bias,
stereotyping and prejudice

• Analyze and explain different types of biases and the ways to avoid them/reduce
them at their work spots

• Demonstrate unbiased behavior wherever necessary

• Describe stereotypes and prejudice and will be able to demonstrate ways to

avoid/reduce them

• Describe types of blind spots

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 WHAT IS A BLIND SPOT?

We make mistakes all the time.

When we look back at some mistakes, we ask “what was I thinking”. ?

Equally, we look at other people’s mistakes and ask “what were they thinking” or
“how could they be so stupid?”

Something we may not notice significance of until it is pointed out.

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THREE ASPECTS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO MIND’S BLIND SPOTS ARE:

• Bias

• Stereotyping

• Prejudice

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BIAS AND UNCONSCIOUS BIAS

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WHAT IS BIAS?

Bias is a term used to describe a tendency or preference towards a particular

perspective, ideology or result, especially when the tendency interferes with the ability
to be impartial, unprejudiced, or objective.

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COMMON SOURCES OF BIASES

Categorization

Correlation

Favoritism

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 IMPLICIT BIAS/UNCONSCIOUS BIAS

• Attitudes that affects our understanding, actions, and decisions in an

unconscious manner.

• These biases are both favorable and unfavorable and are activated involuntarily
and without an individual’s awareness or intentional control.

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UNCONSCIOUS BIAS IMPACTS

• Strategic potential that flows from diverse workplace for

1 problem solving and decision making

• Innovation and creativity

2

• Attracting and energizing top global talent

3

• Accessing diverse customers

4

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 HOW UNCONSCIOUS BIAS DEVELOPS

• Influenced by our background, cultural environment and personal

experiences
• Biased media representations
• Social experiences
• Repeated exposure to stereotypical associations and prejudices which
become automated in our long-term memory

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 EXAMPLES OF UNCONSCIOUS BIAS

Examples of intentional and conscious bias would be actions designed to intentionally

discriminate against individuals because of their race, gender or ethnicity. Refusing to hire
people because of their race or promote people because of their gender are classic
examples from the past.

But today’s most common forms of bias are more subtle, as in the case listed above.
Decisions to hire and promote are often not based solely on the qualifications of the
candidates, but are influenced by subjective criteria. When these subjective criteria relate
to fixed diversity dimensions (race, gender, age, sexual orientation, etc.), the resulting
decision is inherently biased.

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 UNCONSCIOUS BIAS

The main biases that affect the workplace include:

Affinity bias: The tendency to warm up to people like ourselves

Halo effect: The tendency to think everything about a person is good because you
like that person

Perception bias: The tendency to form stereotypes and assumptions about certain
groups that make it impossible to make an objective judgment about members of
those groups

Confirmation bias: The tendency for people to seek information that confirms pre-
existing beliefs or assumptions

Group think: This bias occurs when people try too hard to fit into a particular group
by mimicking others or holding back thoughts and opinions. This causes them to
lose part of their identities and causes organizations to lose out on creativity and
innovation (Price)

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BIASES IN THE JOB INTERVIEW

The Similar-to-Me Effect. Interviewers and supervisors have an unconscious

tendency to favor people who are physically and professionally similar to them.

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BIASES IN THE JOB INTERVIEW

The beauty bias

Research in cognitive psychology shows that

job candidates who are more attractive
physically have substantially higher odds of
being hired. Unfair, but true.

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 The inevitable question is,

“Now what? I know I’m biased

and so is everyone else.
What am I supposed to do about
it?”

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 WAYS TO AVOID BIAS

• Accept you have a bias

• Focus on people

• Increase awareness and exposure to biases

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 10 WAYS TO REDUCE BIAS IN WORKPLACE

• Recognize that we’re all human beings and that our brains make mistakes.

• Establish clear criteria in advance of making decisions (hiring, promotion, etc.) so

that bias gets taken out of the decision-making process.

• Hold decision-makers accountable, including yourself.

• Survey employees confidentially to find out what is really going on in every

aspect of the employment process

• Train leadership and employees with an open dialogue and awareness, and
encourage the initiative to go beyond the classroom to affinity groups, mentoring
programs and ongoing benchmarking against best practices.

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 10 WAYS TO REDUCE BIAS IN WORKPLACE

• Pair training with best practices such as joint interviews of applicants and
requirements that candidate slates include diverse prospects.

• Include practices to change the culture such as micro-affirmations, including acts of

opening doors to opportunity, gestures of inclusion and caring, acts of listening, giving
credit to others, and fair and balanced feedback.

• Reward employees who engage with affinity groups and bring out the best in the
culture by strengthening diversity.

• Be transparent in the progress against your goals.

• Remind yourself frequently of the importance of recognizing bias and strive to be fair
at all times.

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IMPACT OF BIAS

Acting on bias is never positive even if based on positive content as it keeps us from
seeing people as individuals.

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 WHICH DECISIONS DO BIASES IMPACT?

• Recruiting efforts • Promotional decisions

• Hiring decisions • Performance reviews
• How we conduct the initial • Conducting marketing campaigns
orientation interview • Choose board members
• Mentoring decisions • Treating customers
• Job assignments • Listening to people’s ideas and
• Training opportunities suggestions

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No one is born hating another person because of
the color of his skin, or his background, or his
religion. People must learn to hate, and if they
can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for
love comes more naturally to the human heart
than its opposite.
Nelson Mandela

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 COMBAT BIAS AND PROMOTE INCLUSIVENESS

• Reflect. Think through how those biases might have been formed and if there is any
sound logic or reason to to them.

• Confront. Consider why you might be holding onto a bias.

• Engage. One of the best ways to eliminate a bias is to prove it wrong through
personal experience and engagement.

• Commit. Commit to experiencing individuals, not groups.

• Maintain. Keep making connections with individuals..

• Discuss. Talk about your experiences with bias and with overcoming biases.
Encourage others to talk about their experiences.

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 HOW TO BUILD INCLUSION?
• Create inclusive and flexible
policies
• Employee appreciation days
• Tuition reimbursement
• Mentorship
• Employee resource/ affinity
groups
• Celebrate diversity
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• Offer a means by which employees
can make suggestions or submit
complaints
• Offer accommodations due to religious
beliefs
• Offer accommodations due to disabilities
• Volunteer opportunities
• Take time to listen and ask questions to ensure
all is well
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WHAT IS A STEREOTYPE?

Stereotype: generalizations made regarding a particular group. It can be positive or

negative.

Typically learned through influential exposure with parents, peers and others as
well as through mass media.

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 HOW TO RECOGNIZE STEREOTYPES

• They imply that all people in the group are the same. (“You know how men are.”)

• They contain a judgment. (“Young people today don’t have a good work
ethics.”)

• Stereotypes are fairly inflexible. When we encounter someone who does not
fit our stereotype, it’s easier to consider that person the “exception to the
rule,” rather than question the validity of the stereotype.

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BENEFITS OF STEREOTYPES

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PROBLEM WITH STEREOTYPES

• Socially constructed

• Arbitrary

• Biased

• Prejudiced and discrimination

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EXAMPLES OF STEREOTYPES

Cultural

Countries Gender

Groups Racial

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IMPACT OF STEREOTYPES

• Litigation

• Lost employees

• Poor employee morale

• Lost sales and customers

• Difficulty hiring top-level employees

• Difficulty retraining employees

• Diminished productivity/profits

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HOW TO ELIMINATE STEREOTYPES

Respect and appreciate others’ differences. Imagine if people looked and acted the
same. It would be boring!

Consider what you have common with other people — lots more than you think.

• Avoid making assumptions or creating labels.

• Develop empathy for the others.
• Try to walk in their shoes.
• Educate yourself about different cultures and groups.

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WHAT IS PREJUDICE?

Prejudice is a baseless and usually negative attitude towards members of a group.

Common features of prejudice include negative feelings, stereotyped beliefs, and a
tendency to discriminate against members of the group.

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IMPACT OF PREJUDICE?

• Abuse and mistreatment

• Bad working relationships
• Low morale
• Legal tension
• Social memes

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HOW TO AVOID PREJUDICE?

• Implement workplace policies to discourage prejudice

• Establish workplace affinity groups

• Schedule diversity training

• Re-assign work groups to work with all members

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COMPARISON

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CHANGING THINKING

• Research shows that automatic and unconscious mental responses can be

overridden with conscious and deliberate effort

• A person who is motivated to be unprejudiced can suppress biased

responses

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TYPES OF BLIND SPOTS

• Under communicating priorities

• Poorly communicating expectations

• Hoping for poor performance to improve

• Buying into the myth of “Irreplaceable employee”

• Investing too much time trying to coach radical change

• Hiring for capability and nothing else

• Accepting current teams capabilities and limitations

• Acting as the sole integrator of team goals and performance

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SUMMARY AND NEXT STEPS

CONTINUE

STOP

START

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THANK YOU

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