cover feature
By Melissa Campeau
Implicit bias is a bit like a driver’s blind spot, with one important
exception: you know that blind spot is there. To
compensate for the spot your mirrors can’t find, you get into
the habit of doing shoulder checks for safety. You’re conscious
of your blind spot, so you make a point of addressing it. But
imagine if you had another blind spot in the car – one you didn’t
even know existed. How does that change the likelihood of a safe
trip from A to B?
In an organizational context, implicit biases – a preference for
or belief about a particular group of people – are the blind spots
you don’t know you have. And when bias plays its silent hand in
decision-making, it can have a profound impact on nearly every
aspect of business.
IMPACTS
“What’s intriguing about blind spots is how pervasive and automatic
they are,” said Norma Tombari, director of global diversity
and inclusion for RBC in Toronto. “We’re not even aware that
they’re there. Even the most open-minded liberal person, who
thinks they don’t have any biases, almost certainly does. It speaks
to how our brains are hard-wired because of the various experiences
we’re all subjected to: where we live, where we work, the
messages we’ve processed and internalized over a lifetime.”
Those unconscious beliefs can shift the shape of organizations,
from top to bottom. An unacknowledged but pervasive
belief that men make better leaders, for example, can result in a
largely male collection of senior executives. Or a belief that parents
will be less committed to their work may mean all senior
executives are single or have already-grown children. And negative
stereotypes about people from particular backgrounds can
mean an organization unwittingly misses out on recruiting, promoting
or developing its most talented prospects.
“Over the years, we’ve seen implicit bias exhibited in every
single facet of the employee lifecycle,” said Jodi Zigelstein-Yip,
director, HR Consulting Services for Williams HR Consulting
in Markham, Ont. “There’s no area, from attracting talent to retirement,
that’s not affected.”
EXAMINING “GUT FEELINGS”
In some areas, though, the impact of bias is especially frequent,
where tough-to-quantify feelings and impressions can sway decision
makers.
HRPATODAY.CA ❚ JANUARY 2016 ❚ 19
