UNBIAS. Stacey A. Gordon

unconscious bias education is “why?” Why do you want to offer this now? Why do you think this is the first course of action? Or the next step in a long list of actions that may have already been taken?

      The answer is usually one of three things:

      1 Silence, or we're not sure.

      2 We started a DEI council and they decided we should have unconscious bias education.

      3 Our employees expect us to do something because everyone else has done something and everyone is talking about unconscious bias, so we should tackle that.

      Rarely is it something like this: “Our executive leaders wanted to know if we have adequately addressed unconscious bias in our workplace, so they tasked us with polling our workforce to determine where we should start. We conducted a survey that showed that many of our employees were concerned that bias may be to blame for some of the poor hiring decisions, lack of management diversity, and high turnover rates. We held a town hall to let our employees know the results of the survey and to inform them we are working on a strategy to address the findings.”

      Unconscious bias training is being used as a comfortable activity that is just enough of an action that it won't ruffle feathers.

      Going back to May 24, 2020, it is quite likely that one of the following was accurate:

      1 Diversity and inclusion was a high priority, and you were working on a strategy but there was no real sense of urgency.

      2 Diversity and inclusion as a best practice or as a strategy was not on your list of high priorities.

      3 Diversity and inclusion was not even on your radar.

      Regardless of which of those is true, you were impacted by outside forces and your timeline and/or awareness was changed. You may not be happy about that impact, which is understandable. The perception may be that you are bowing to external pressure, but you're actually taking action that was needed previously and you ignored that need. Now you're rectifying that situation.

No one likes to be pushed before they are ready. It is similar to the stereotypical boyfriend who is given an ultimatum by his girlfriend: “It's marriage or nothing.” In the case of the girlfriend who has waited only two years, the ultimatum may seem excessive. But in the case where the girlfriend has waited 15 years, everyone agrees the ultimatum probably should have occurred much sooner. The boyfriend may not like the ultimatum, but when faced with the very real possibility of living without this person in his life or doing something he now realizes is long overdue, he proposes.

      In case you weren't aware, you're the boyfriend in the second scenario. You must decide what you stand for. Do you want to let your ego get in the way of doing what is right, or would you prefer to keep the status quo? You get to make that choice, but the problem is that you actually have to make that choice. Even if you're not the CEO, you have to enter your next meeting and demand that change happen, or you have to accept the fact that you plan to allow your workplace to continue operating as is. And to be clear, “as is” means any or all of the following:

       Unequal pay

       Sexual harassment at work

       No diversity in hiring

       A senior executive team that is all white and male

       High turnover

       Inability to attract diverse candidates to your company

       Job descriptions that continue to repel women from applying

       Toxic workplace culture

       No development opportunities for your employees

       Unclear goals and/or strategy

       Disengaged employees

Now you may think that is unfair. You may think you don't have these issues in your workplace. And my response would be, really? How would you know?

      Unconscious bias education is not your starting point, and your employees do have expectations. It's the reason you wanted unconscious bias education to begin with. Why would your workforce think you need it if none of the above is occurring? Even if it was your diversity council that made the recommendation, regardless of who came to the conclusion education was needed, the decision didn't come out of nowhere. It stems from one or more of those workplace issues. So yes, you need unconscious bias education, but if you start there, you're putting the cart before the horse.

      I mentioned before the importance of tying together your “why” for a diversity and inclusion strategy with your company's core values. In the next chapter, we will dig deeper into actually defining what those core values are.

Note

      1 1 https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/us/articles/us43244_human-capital-trends-2020/us43244_human-capital-trends-2020/di_hc-trends-2020.pdf.