Flip it to test it
Following on from yesterday’s article where I admitted my own discriminatory weaknesses, today I’m sharing a talk from a woman leader who discovered her bias against women leaders.
Kristen Pressner is an HR Executive at Roche who tells the story of two colleagues coming to her to talk about compensation. One was a man and the other was a woman. She responded accordingly and only when she got back to her desk did she realise that her responses to the same request had been different.
Our brain looks for patterns and filters accordingly
She’d told the man that she’d look into his request. But told the woman that she thought she was good – as in she had enough.
This was possibly down to unconscious bias. And she beautifully explains what that is.
Our brain has to handle way too much information. So to help us handle it all our brain looks for patterns and filters accordingly. Our brain takes shortcuts which can really help us. But there’s a downside. They create patterns based upon everything we’ve been exposed to throughout our lives. The process happens in the back of our minds so we’re not even aware it’s happening. This can cause us to behave in a way that’s not true to who we want to be.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Our brain takes shortcuts which can really help us. But there’s a downside.” quote=”Our brain takes shortcuts which can really help us. But there’s a downside.” theme=”style6″]Like I mentioned yesterday, she points out that many people think they can outsmart the unconscious bigotry by saying things like “I don’t see race” or “I just hire the best person”. But that’s simply not realistic.
She suggests a way around this: flip it to test it.
Take your response to a situation and test it by mentally flipping the individual with someone else. Does applying those assumptions to someone else feel weird? If it does then there’s something wrong.
Sounds good to me. Watch the talk and give it a go.
https://openforideas.org/blog/2017/03/10/flip-it-to-test-it/https://i0.wp.com/openforideas.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/kristenpressner.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1https://i0.wp.com/openforideas.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/kristenpressner.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1Diversity & Divergencybigotry,sexism,unconscious bias
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.
Hi.. just wondering.. i have read that one of to be cautious when it comes to food hygiene in Morocco. How do you manage this especially with kids? Appreciate much your reply. And thanks for sharing. Love your photos and the details of your post. Hope to have the opportunity to try out – plan it morocco. Thank you 🙂Hello Jo, just love to read your blog.we are planning a trip to Paris this December 28 till January 2nd.unfortunately didn’t read this blog before….we are staying at Puteaux. …not so close location…i near la Defense.what is pretty confusing for me is the tickets that we need to buy for the metro or buses…I dontunderstand about the orange card etc. and the 2 different routes and lines that we need to take.our kids are 9 and 11 and they are very active and sporty but after long days walking around the city I am not sure if taking uber rides o taxi will be cheaper and faster (during not traffic hours, mostly late nights when come back to sleep)for the 4 of us that buying metro tickets.i will appreciate your advise.thanksvanessaThank you both! There is a lot more sorting through these websites and books that has to be done but I will definitely look into the table of contents idea!And yes! I’ll be looking at stuff Sutton Hoo, thank you 🙂cool thanks im a single mom of 2 year old girl and i LOVE gettin free samples check out sweet free stuff.comthanks for the links can anyone send me any for toddler stuff thanks gate io
Great piece Dave, thanks for bringing this important topic to the forefront