2. We all have it.
It can be managed.
The first step is understanding.
Curiosity helps us override it.
It is a practice.
(some reassurance)
Ellen Petry Leanse, @chep2m
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. HOW CAN WE CHANGE IT?
1. Accept the reality: we all have it.
Ellen Petry Leanse, @chep2m
10. “I’m a racist. Also a bigot.”
— Sarah Milstein,
innovation coach,feminist,
expert on racial &
gender bias in the workplace.
Ellen Petry Leanse, @chep2m
11. 2. Understand its history: it helped us long
ago.
Ellen Petry Leanse, @chep2m
HOW CAN WE CHANGE IT?
12. 3. Like a lot of old, foundational code, it’s
hard to rewrite.
Ellen Petry Leanse, @chep2m
HOW CAN WE CHANGE IT?
13. 4. The first step is awareness (congrats).
Ellen Petry Leanse, @chep2m
HOW CAN WE CHANGE IT?
14. 5. Take deliberate small steps:
• Curiosity: questions over answers
• Pauses
• Challenge your “story”: what else
might be happening?
• Invite others to do the same
HOW CAN WE CHANGE IT?
15. 6. Mix it up: diversify.
HOW CAN WE CHANGE IT?
18. 7. Be patient. Repeat.
Ellen Petry Leanse, @chep2m
HOW CAN WE CHANGE IT?
Notas do Editor
This is a no-guilt, no blame session. I’m sure you’re as frustrated with the finger-pointing and blame we sometimes see around this topic as I am. This is about learning, respecting the innately human tendency toward bias – it’s in our biology – and finding some ways to begin challenging the pattern.
There was a time when jumping to conclusions served us. Long ago, a rustle in the grass probably meant danger. When we heard it, we jumped, ran, or prepared to fight.
The location of the area that processes bias is deep in the brain, which gives a clue to its ancient nature. It’s way back in the earlier parts of the brain, very close, by the way, to the areas that process emotion, memory, and above all FEAR. It’s in the fight or flight region. Once upon a time it served us well.
Today’s fears and risks, for the most part, don’t require us to think as quickly as they did when we were walking the savannah. Yet the brain still optimizes for that fast-running code – and so when we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory – dealing with new people, operating under stress ….
You can’t access the mental processes that create bias, even when you know they exist. It’s a little like teaching someone all about how their pancreas works, and then asking them to use that knowledge to change how much insulin their pancreas makes. Simply knowing how something works doesn’t give you conscious access to its operations—and that’s as true of your brain as it is for your other organs.
The brain wants to jump to conclusions. It’s more efficient to “think fast,” as Daniel Kahneman’s excellent book “Thinking Fast and Slow” reveals. We pride ourselves on being first to have the answer, with getting things done fast. What nobody tells us, though, is that the brain’s fast processing is really about jumping to conclusions. Sometimes that serves us – we can all think of moments when a fast answer saved us. And the brain, an incredible computer, has evolved based on a certain risk profile that says “it’s better to answer fast even if the answer is wrong than to gather all the facts and come up with a slower answer.” Take the lion in the grass, for example.
The bigger picture is more complex. Figuring it out takes more energy, more focus, the ability to shut out distraction, and more time than the more deeply-wired processes. It uses a part of our brain called the pre-frontal cortex – in a way, the most “human” part of the brain. More recently evolved and thus quite a bit less efficient than the older parts. It takes work to run it…focus and willfulness, not to mention glucose and oxygen.
Yet it’s the part that lets us pause and ask “What’s really happening here.” It’s the part that self-assesses, that pushes us to align with our goals or intentions – the part we use, actually, when we work on being mindful.
2. Realize it’s persistent. It doesn’t “go away”
2. Realize it’s persistent. It doesn’t “go away”
Protecting us and helping us cope with fear – what was once fight or flight and is now a very different type of fear. There may be times when it’s useful, but for the most part it is taking us away from our highest human thinking.
This is deeply entrenched code – way at the core of our OS. It is not going to go away easily. If at all.
The most important step is to be aware. Non-judgmentally aware. That’s why we’ve looked at the brain function and evolutionary biology that led to it, and emphasized how everyone has it. This helps disrupt patterns of blame or shame often associated with it. Stripped of emotions, we can process the concept differently.
deliberate small changes. Low risk tests like changing the way you interact with your barista, for example.
Ask more questions. Even “how did you learn that?” or ‘Have you ever seen that not work?” GATHER MORE INFO.
Dig deeper. Cultivate a curiosity practice.
Habit changes
Slow down your answers – and ask more questions. Invert the mix of questions, not answers.
Think of this as you consider leaders you admired. Did you admire the ones who always had the fast answers? Or ones who dug deeper, gathered more insights?
Curiosity.
Expose yourself to people who aren’t like you. Actively seek them. Age. Gender. Gender identity or orientation. Cultural background. Race. Break out of your routine. Drive a different way to work and you’re likely to notice all sorts of things you hadn’t considered before.
Understand how hard this process is. It’s genuinely like peeling an onion – more and more layers. Little openings expose big dark areas you may not have considered before. That’s ok. Keep digging.
Understand that this is societal. But also know that doing small things like asking more questions or slowing your answers down or even giving people who aren’t like you a chance to know the authentic YOU actually helps change the code.
