Unconscious Bias
As humans and leaders, we are biologically hard-wired to prefer people who look like us, sound like us and have traits similar to our own.
This phenomenon of “social categorization” enables us to routinely and rapidly sort people into groups.
When we use this process effectively, we call it intuition. And the process we use to sort people are often not politcally correct, or perhaps, even legal.
When unconscious bias influences hiring, performance management, and succession planning practices, the potential consequences have organizational and societal impacts.
The first step to fighting system unconscious bias is to increase awareness about how these impulses exist in all of us. By educating your leaders and equipping them with the proper tools, you can effectively mitigate system unconscious bias.
Leaders walk away from this session with actionable steps to mitigate the impact of both individual and collective unconscious bias.
We have designed programs to help your leaders improve their practices around:
“It has been a great experience working with Brainard. We have especially enjoyed the program on Unconscious Bias. While this topic could be uncomfortable and somewhat controversial, Michael’s style of being real and authentic created an ease of learning in the room.
The program created great discussion and we all to realized habits and thoughts we experienced without even being aware of them. Once the program was complete, we continued to have discussions about the topics raised in the program, and now months later, we are working to change some of our ways so that we can become a stronger, more diverse firm.”
Tricia Esser, CEO
