Removing the barriers to change:
The role of unconscious bias on everyday
assumptions and decisions
Dan Robertson
Diversity & Inclusion Director
Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion
A bat and ball cost £1.10
The bat costs one pound more than the ball.
How much does the ball cost?
Diversity & Inclusion: What’s
the difference?

Diversity is …

Inclusion is …
Diversity and organisational
culture
Organisational cultures often work against the diversity
and inclusion principles…
…simply because we have a natural tendency to recruit
people like us.
Organisations also demanded high levels of conformity.
What is unconscious bias?
“Unconscious biases are our unintentional people
preferences….
They are the result of our limited cognitive capacity; we
implicitly and automatically both group and categorise
people to avoid having to conduct completely new
assessments for every new person.
We unconsciously assign positive and negative value to the
categories we use.”
The nature of bias: The process of
fast and slow thinking
System One (Fast thinking)
•
Driven by intuition and
emotions
System Two (Slow thinking)
•
Requires attention and
effort
•
Helps to regulate System
One
The neurology of Bias




Unconscious biases are triggered and enacted
between 30 and 100 milliseconds (Conscious
thinking takes 300 milliseconds to even begin
processing)
The ‘smart’ brain is lazy. It likes to work efficiently
and minimise the work of the frontal lobes.
What the brain fires together, it wires together,
forming emotional associations
They are automatic and rapid
Fast thinking and social stereotypes
A bat and ball cost £1.10
The bat costs one pound more than the ball.
How much does the ball cost?
Explicit vs Implicit Social Bias
(Abrams & Houston 2006) Jones, P 2005 Implicitly 3000
Affinity bias
Affinity (like me) bias: leads us to favour people who are like
us.
Commonness leads to
Comfort leads to
Competence
“He reminds me of myself at his age”
Gender, ethnicity, social background, accent, nationality,
sexual orientation and disability.
The Talent Pipeline
- Feedback
Challenge
• People in organisations are anxious to have
conversations about difference for fear of causing offense
• Results in ‘social distancing’ behaviours and a failure to
capitalise on otherwise positive relationships
De-Biasing People Decisions Check List
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Know your own (individual/group) biases
Don’t get anxious about saying ‘the right thing’
Change your newspaper
Attend a employee or community network: e.g. LGBT
Have lunch with one different and ask for their ideas
Watch for who attends social and community events
Take a chance; allocate a task or piece of work which involves
trusting someone / a group new and different
8. Politely ask someone to explain a work allocation or a funding
decision
9. Sit in on someone else’s discussions and listen for affinity bias
10. Mentor or sponsor some different to you
Making a Change
Attitude
How do I feel about it?
Organisational Norms
Intention
Behaviour
How will others judge me?
When.........
Behavioural Controls
How easy is it?
...............I Will
Contact:
Dan Robertson
Diversity & Inclusion Director
Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion
Tel: 07946 466 180
E: dan.robertson@enei.org.uk
Twitter: @dan_robertson1