U. S.

Navy Strategic
Thinking Program

Leading Diverse Organizations:

Managing Implicit Bias
Dr. Kathleen M. Ponder, President
Capacities Unlimited
kmpgaponder@gmail.com

Generation

U.S. Race/Ethnicity

Hispanic or Latino

American Indian
or Alaska Native

Non-Hispanic
Black or
AfricanAmerican
Asian

Non-Hispanic
White

Leading Diverse Organizations:

Religious
Affiliation

Women:46.9%

Gender

Men: 53.1%

1.2% to 6.8%
adult population identify as
LGBT.

Economic
Status

Leading Diverse Organizations

Gen Y

84 million

Baby
Gen X
Boomers

Birth Year

51 million

AGE
Gen Y:
wired
wireless
empowered
information rich
instantaneous
impatient, direct
questioning of authority

micromanagement

yelling & screaming

79 million

Naval Support Activity Mid-South

Observes LGBT Pride Month

Navy Chaplains
Represent all Faiths

Leading Diverse Organizations:

First Navy recruits

issued tablets at Great Lakes

How the U.S. Navy Does It

CNP Hosts All Hands Call:

addresses Sailors from around
the world via satellite feeds,
and social media.

1st enlisted female Sailors

begin submarine training

Navy Honors African American

Leaders at the Pentagon

Leading Diverse Organizations

Explicit Bias - reflecting the attitudes or beliefs that one endorses at

a conscious level

(U.S. Navy actively strategizes to eliminate explicit bias.)

Implicit Bias a bias in judgment and/or behavior

that results from subtle cognitive processes that
often operate at a level below conscious awareness
and without intentional control - beliefs or simple
associations that a person automatically makes
between an object and its evaluation.
5

Leading Diverse Organizations

Managing Implicit Bias

Bias, the brains efficiency tool - an unconscious danger detector that

determines whether or not something or someone is safe - is hard-wired into us.
The process of evaluating safe-not safe is automatic, unconscious, and quick.
As many as 11 million pieces of information pummel
our brain at any one time, and our brains max out at
processing about 40. The process of bias helps filter
out extraneous information, sort and categorize other
bits, and focus.
The automaticity of this powerful filtering process has
a downside: it acts so fast and is so reliant on oftused categories and perceptions that it may miss
and misread cues, causing us to sometimes
misunderstand people & activities.

When Marissa Mayer became CEO of Yahoo

at the age of 37, the world looked at her with
increased scrutiny . How could someone so
young run a company so large? (Then again,
Bill Gates was only 20 when he founded
Microsoft.) Behind closed doors, we talk
about people being too young or too old;
trying to get the best man for the job.

We all have biases. Mostly unconscious,

without a doubt, but we all have them.

Implicit Bias at Work . . .

Leading Diverse Organizations

Managing Implicit Bias
Conscious, Explicit Bias

Unconscious, implicit Bias

There are plenty of data suggesting that we

also are thinking about how candidates arent
white enough, slim enough, or even tall
enough for leadership positions. When we
think of the CEO of a company, invariably the
picture of a tall austere-looking Caucasian
grey-haired male comes to mind.

Anees Chagpar, Yale Department of Surgery

November 2, 2013 Yale University

Leading Diverse Organizations

Our task as leaders:

Understand where our personal implicit biases come from;

Develop strategies for challenging our own implicit biases;

Assist others who report to us to challenge their implicit biases.

Leading Diverse Organizations

Managing Implicit Bias

One strategy: uncovering personal implicit biases

through knowledge of our social identity.

Social identity

A leaders sense of who they are, based on their group membership(s),

both those we were given & those weve chosen.

Social identity involves three internal processes: Categorization,

Identification, Comparison.

Our social identity informs how we lead, how we interact with others, and
creates our implicit biases which can be positive and negative.

Leading Diverse Organizations

Mapping Your Social Identity

Managing Implicit Bias

GIVEN Identity:

Attributes or conditions that we had no choice in, from birth or later in life:

age/generation * sexual identity * physical characteristics * family roles

familys religion * country of origin/region * traumatic event

What aspects of your given identity are remembered most keenly?

Leading Diverse Organizations

Managing Implicit Bias

Mapping Your Social Identity

CHOSEN Identity:
the status, attributes, skills that we choose for ourselves:

occupation * hobbies * political affiliation * where you live certain

family roles * religion * marital status * sports *eating habits * social
groups
What aspects of your chosen identity are most important to you?

11

Leading Diverse Organizations

Managing Implicit Bias

CORE Identity:
the attributes that we think make us unique as individuals

personality * traits * behaviors * beliefs * values * skills

12

Leading Diverse Organizations

Managing Implicit Bias

1. Reacquaint Yourself with your Social Identity.

My identity as a

Created this implicit bias

- Jot down your given, chose, and core identities.

- Jot down any implicit bias associated with aspects of your identity.
GIVEN
CHOSEN

CORE

Leading Diverse Organizations

Managing Implicit Bias

2. Reflect on your implicit biases associated with your

social identity:

Was there a time in your career when you confronted

your own implicit biases?

o What did you learn?

14

Leading Diverse Organizations

Managing Implicit Bias

What story and lessons will you share with your direct
reports to assist them in understanding their implicit
biases?

3. How can you assist those in your command to

manage their implicit biases?

Where in the U.S. Navy do you see an opportunity to

better manage implicit biases?

15

Institute processes for on-going, open and honest feedback about bias in your command from
colleagues and those reporting to you. Become adept at saying Thank you when receiving
feedback about unintentional bias in your leadership behavior mean it and act on it.

Monitor your body language and physiological reactions. Are you more tense and defensive or
more comfortable around some people? Explore possible implicit bias related to gender, race,
age, or class differences.

Tally the number of times you converse with each of your colleagues and those reporting to you.
Note frequency differences. Are there some people who get less or more attention and time from
you? Explore possible implicit bias.

Create a habit of using a Pause Button in your thought processes. Before acting in a
professional capacity, inspect your thought processes for bias. Encourage those reporting to you
to impose the same Pause Button on their thought processes.

Acknowledge group and individual differences; look for ways to leverage differences in age, race,
gender, ethnicity, economic status, experience, educational attainment and pedigree and other
differences. How can these differences enrich problem solving and decision making?

How Leaders Can Manage Implicit Bias

Take time to reflect on how you can more effectively manage those who are different from you by
adjusting organizational processes (i.e., recruitment, onboarding, training, performance
management, work and living arrangements) to be appropriately responsive to individual
differences.

16