You’ve heard the term “unconscious bias.” Every regular reader of TLNT has come across articles about it. You may even have touched on it in a training session. So you’re sure you’re free of it.
Really?
If you’ve ever said, as Lisa Gunderson put it to a DisruptHR audience in Victoria, BC Canada, “I don’t see color. I only see human beings. Oh, you’re being a bit too sensitive” or, “Talking to an immigrant, ‘You’re lucky to be here’,” you’re unconscious bias is showing.
It’s not overtly racist, and the speakers would deny to a person deny they are racist, but Gunderson explains, it’s microaggression that is nonetheless hurtful and damaging. “And makes it harder, she tells her audience, “For HR to recruit and to retain.”
“None of us,” explains Gunderson, principal consultant at One Love Consulting, “Are immune from these biases. We all have them.”
What do we do about this? Talk about it, for one. It’s going to be uncomfortable, “And that’s OK. Because when we talk about bias it’s supposed to be uncomfortable.”
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Take 5 and watch the video to see Gunderson show us some examples of unconscious bias and give us a way to start making a difference.
In partnership with DisruptHR, TLNT presents some of the best Disrupt presentations from events across North America and now the world. Disrupt talks are modeled on the TEDx concept: Short, to the point talks on all things HR — talent, culture and technology.
