Bias
at work can be overt and insidious. It can be shocking and enraging. But the
subtle “Wait, what just happened?” moments are far more frequent. Take these
examples: A client assumes you are in a subordinate role because of your age. A
prospective customer only makes eye contact with your white colleague. A
coworker calls you “angry” while your equally assertive male counterpart gets
labeled “strong” (a far too often occurrence for women as one of our previous studies showed).
Moments
like these leave you questioning others’ intentions and your own perceptions.
The inner dialogue can sound a bit like, “I’m upset. But should I be? Do I
have a right to be?” At best, this shadowy bias is exhausting. At worst, it is
soul destroying.
Bias’s
sometimes slippery nature also makes it difficult to eradicate in the
workplace. Leaders implement policies that prohibit discrimination against
protected classes, but rules can’t prevent unconscious, unintentional bias. How
do you legislate status assumptions, eye contact, and silent perceptions?
Clearly,
organizational cultures need to change. But in the meantime, what’s an
individual to do who suffers daily from subtle inequities? While it’s unfair to
place additional burdens on victims of bias, injustice is amplified if they
aren’t provided coping tools for the interim.
We
think of this as addressing both the seed and the soil. The seed is the
individual who needs to know how to respond to bias and survive and thrive,
regardless of the soil that surrounds it.
The
soil is the organization that isn’t as unbiased as it wants to be. The soil’s
goal is to become a place where diverse seeds can contribute and succeed.
Understanding
Bias
Earlier
this year, we asked people who felt they had experienced bias at work to describe the incident in detail.
Within two weeks, we had 498 rich, passionate, and heartbreaking stories. Most
described blatant actions of bias. For example:
“I
was dining with my co-workers when two gay men walked by. Several coworkers
jeered and displayed disgust. As I am gay, it was very disheartening that these
employees who are trained in diversity and acceptance acted both
unprofessionally and impolite. A coworker, who knows I am gay, told them they
should know their audience but it went right over their heads and they returned
to the conversation unashamed and unaware.”
Others
illustrated momentary lapses, where the offender tried to recover, though it
was usually too late. For example:
“I’m
the only woman in a team of ten men. When I was pregnant, I told my manager at
11 weeks. He was exasperated. ‘That’s the last time I ever hire a woman,’ he
said. I was gobsmacked. On Monday he apologized for his comment. ‘I was only
joking,’ he said. I accepted his apology, but knew he wasn’t really joking. I
wish I had stood up for myself.”
Paradoxically, the rarest examples are the ones that happen
most often: patterns of unintentional, unconscious bias. Their scarcity in our
collection is probably because they involve subtle patterns that are tough to
recognize, describe, and address.
“I
am the only woman on a team of software engineers. The lead engineers, who have
a lot of influence over who gets picked for the ‘cool’, new, and
ground-breaking projects, typically overlook me. I feel it’s because I’d be a
buzz kill in the male-locker-room atmosphere.”
The
problem isn’t just that people experience bias. It’s that their experiences are
often undiscussable. Victims don’t want to call others bigots or be accused of
“playing the diversity card” — these options can be career limiting. Instead,
they keep their concerns to themselves.
We
asked respondents to rate how permanent, pervasive, and controllable these
incidents of bias are at work. These are the three dimensions Martin Seligman
uses to assess helplessness and hopelessness — and even depression. The results
were disheartening, but hardly surprising:
Permanent: 49% of victims said the bias is an enduring part of their
workplace and happens regularly and routinely.
Pervasive: 66% said it impacts all aspects of their engagement,
morale, motivation, commitment, and desire to advance in the organization.
Uncontrollable: 60% said they did not feel they could master incidents
of bias in the moment or prevent them from recurring in the future.
More
than a quarter of the respondents (27%) described their experience with bias as
the worst combination of all three: permanent, pervasive, and uncontrollable.
Improving
the Seed: Skills for Individuals
Victims
of bias need skills to replace ulcers, invective, and silent judgment with
open, honest, and respectful dialogue. Individuals should know how to influence
their workplace without alienating those they need support from. Below are
skills we’ve seen people use successfully to address the subtleties of
unconscious bias:
Use
“C.P.R.”: You can choose to address issues
at three levels: Content (a one-time incident), Pattern (a series of
incidents), or Relationship (the impact of a pattern on your ability to work
productively with others). When an issue is overt and egregious — someone makes
an intolerant comment — a content conversation works fine. However, with
subtleties, you must gather more data until you can describe a pattern. For
example, if the boss repeatedly reaches out to your direct reports and not to
you, be sure you can cite a few instances and draw attention to the pattern or
else your manager is likely to respond with sincere explanations of the single
instance you’re describing. Finally, consider addressing the relationship
issues by helping others understand the cumulative effect of their behaviors on
trust, cooperation, self-esteem, etc.
Know
your goal: When we
experience injustice, we often feel provoked and disrespected — even angry.
Before you speak up, think first about what you really want to have happen. Do
you want an apology, punishment, or repentance? Is it enough for the bad
behavior to stop? What kind of relationship would you like? The clearer your
goals, the more likely you’ll achieve them.
State
your take: Skilled
individuals are careful to describe their concerns absent the judgments and
accusations the rest of us hold when we speak up. For example, replace, “What
you said about my pregnancy was sexist and abusive” with “Last Friday, you
said, ‘That’s the last time I ever hire a woman.’” Describe what really just
happened — no apologies, no self-repression, no accusations, and no
indictments. Begin with the detailed facts, tentatively suggest what the facts
mean to you, then invite others to a dialogue where you both can learn.
Make
it safe: Is a person who exhibits
unconscious bias automatically a bigot? If so, then we’re all bigots. Skilled
individuals recognize that what we’re up against is a human condition not
simply personal flaws. It’s challenging to describe biased behavior without
others feeling attacked. Achieving a better outcome for the future requires
that we help others and ourselves feel safe while addressing uncomfortable
issues. For example, you might begin with, “I don’t think you realize how that
came across…”
Improving
the Soil: Strategies for Organizations
Most
organizations already have disciplinary procedures for egregious intentional
bias, but many are missing strategies that can eliminate unintended,
unconscious bias and those “What just happened here?” moments before they
occur. The following approaches can influence cultural norms and practices to
dramatically reduce unconscious bias.
Set
challenging goals and track results: Leaders
must set challenging goals for results and the behaviors that enable them — and
then hold themselves accountable for achieving them. Results include objective
measures such as numbers of women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals in
each stage of the pipeline (new hires, supervisors, managers, executives,
etc.), performance ratings, internal promotions, compensation, and attrition.
Behaviors include leading-indicator measures such as perceived support,
perceived barriers, and desire to advance.
Identify
crucial moments: Locate the
times, places, and circumstances when bias are most likely to occur. For
example, identify the crucial moments in a:
Career
path: Job search, interviews, reviews,
job opportunities, assignments, development, and promotions.
Life
path: Marriage, pregnancy/adoption,
childcare, elder care, sickness, and relocation.
Daily
work environment: Poor
performance on an assignment, good performance on an assignment, friction with
managers, harassment, and an obnoxious coworker.
Bias,
especially unintentional, unconscious bias, is a stubborn problem, deeply
rooted in our culture. Eradicating it is exceptionally tough but by nurturing
both the seed and the soil, organizations can help individuals cope while
simultaneously taking the necessary steps to systematically prevent bias.
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