What Leaders Need to Know

About Unconscious Bias

Christa Kirby
Vice President, Global Learning Innovation, Global Practice
Director Leadership and Interpersonal Skills
IIL

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Video: Making the Unconscious

Conscious

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An Attempt to Guess What Youre

Thinking
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Which Horizontal Line is Longer?

Mller-Lyer Illusion
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Other Famous Illusions

Ebbinghaus
Illusion
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Zolner Illusion
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Keep in Mind

Not all illusions

are visual

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Group #1

EAT
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Group #2

WASH
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Fill in the Blank

SO_P
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How Quickly Can You Solve This?

A baseball bat and a ball cost $1.10.
The bat costs one dollar more than the
ball.
How much does the ball cost?

Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman

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Cognitive Overload

Every second, our brains

receive more than 11
million bits of
information.
We can only process 40
bits per second

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What Does This Mean?

99.999996%
UNCONSCIOUS
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Some Numbers

Average
weight in
pounds of a
human brain

Percentage of
total body
weight
represented
by the brain

Percentage
of bodys
glucose
burned up
by brain

Number of
neurons (by the
billion) in the
brain

70

Percentage of
the bodys
oxygen
consumed by
the brain

25

100 1.5

Pints of blood
that go through
the brain every
minute
Source: www.statisticbrain.com

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Daniel Kahneman: Two Thinking

Modes
System 1

System 2

Automatic and quick

No sense of voluntary
control
Effortless
Sensing impressions,
feelings
Main source of explicit
beliefs

Intuitive (Fast)
Thinking

Focused concentration
Mental work deliberate
and
effortful
Computation happens in
both mind and body
Construction of thoughts
in an orderly sequence

Effortful (Slow)
Thinking
Adapted from: Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman

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Case in Point

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Bias Affects How We Make

Decisions
As human beings, we are overly reliant on our
intuitions, and our decisions are driven by our
impulses and biases.
Self-control and cognitive effort and forms of
mental work.
For the brain to do this work, it needs large
amounts of glucose and oxygen.

Adapted from: Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman

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Conclusion

WE ARE ALL BIASED.

It matters.
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Unconscious Bias
Getting at our unconscious biases
requires a little digging

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Harvards Project Implicit

Source: http://implicit.harvard.edu
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With 1% Variance in Performance

Scores

Source: rework.google.com
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Only 35% of Level 8 Employees

Would Be Blue

Source: rework.google.com

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Resumes: Jennifer Versus John

Source: www.aauw.org: Solving the Equation: the Variables for Womens Success in
Computing and Engineering
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Resumes: Emily Versus Tamika

Source: rework.google.com
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WE KNOW:
Diversity is a Competitive
Advantage
Companies with higher proportions of women board directors
outperform those with lower proportions by 53%, with a 42%
higher return on sales and 66% higher return on invested capital.
Companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35
percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective
national industry medians.
Low gender and ethnic diversity within companies correlates with
poorer financial performance.
Diverse teams outperform homogeneous ones, especially when
solving complex problems or innovating.
Source: Diversity Matters, McKinsey & Company,
November 2014
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Some Stats from Facebooks

Corporate Executive Board

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At the Forefront: Google

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Methods Used by Google to

Reduce Unconscious Bias (1 of 4)
Structure for success.
Use consistent requirements and
objective criteria to pre-define
success.

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Methods Used by Google to

Reduce Unconscious Bias (2 of 4)
Measure results.
You cant improve what you cant
measure. Collect data and use it to
track progress.

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Surprise! Google Doodles

Source: rework.google.com
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Methods Used by Google to

Reduce Unconscious Bias (3 of 4)
Evaluate subtle messages.
What signals are you sending with
your body language, feedback,
choice of words?

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Methods Used by Google to

Reduce Unconscious Bias (4 of 4)
Hold everyone accountable.
Even and especially yourself.
Question your first impressions.
Justify your decisions.
Ask for feedback.
Create a culture of calling out
unconscious bias.

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Activity: Committing to Action

What is one action you can
commit to taking to address
unconscious bias in your work life?

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Advice from Lao-Tzu

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The most notable fact that
culture imprints on women is
the sense of our limits. The most
important thing one woman can
do for another is to illuminate
and expand her sense of
possibilities. - Adrienne Rich

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A journey of a thousand
miles begins with a
single step.

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What Will Your Next Step Be?

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Visit: www.iil.com
Learning@iil.com

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Questions:
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