Train the trainer: Unconscious Bias Training

E V E R Y O N E .

“We’d like to believe we are

open-minded, fair and without

bias, but research shows

otherwise. This is an important,

even if uncomfortable,

realization for most of us.”

Dr. Mahzarin Banaji

Body piercings, tattoos or manner of dress

The Follow Up

"Ah, the middle managers conundrum. The grassroots are energized, the executives have seen the light, and the top-down and bottom-up momentum comes to a screeching halt right in the middle girth of most organizations.”

Prepare yourself

- Do the training (obvs)

- Do more reading and listening

- Talk to the people around you

- Collect your own stories

- Practice with a someone you feel very comfortable with

- Practice with someone who will challenge you

• Relationships, relationships, relationships

• Statement of Purpose and Action Plan:
• Written bottom-up
• Driven top-down
• Managed in the middle
• Measured externally

• D&I Committee
• Petri dish principle
• Manager buy-in, KPIs

Immediate next steps:

INTERVIEWING

Common problems about Unconscious Bias Trainings

Let's take a close look at how to conduct effective interviews.

• Go through resource handout
• Fill in evaluation
• Get in touch if you need any 1:1 help before running the training
• Sign up for mindsets shift training to continue your learning

Normalizing biased behaviour

Self righteousness

Lack of actionable change measures

Elitism

Shaming

Key points in interviewing

Some examples of behavioural-based interview questions :

Virtue Signaling

Defensiveness

Pseudo neutrality of science

What to ask

Stick to behavioural-based interviewing.

This means asking about how the candidate behaved in the past.

Emphasizing 'Otherness'

Be careful not to imply hypothetical situations! No 'How would you handle...' but rather 'Tell me about a situation in which you have handled...'

Tell me about a time when you...

Describe a project when you had to...

What steps do you follow when...

When have you had to...?

What did you do?

How did the situation end up?

What not to ask

Forgetting

'Nothing about us without us'

Past behaviour is the most reliable predictor of future behaviour.

Making sure you select the right candidate

The goal of behavioural-based question are STAR answers:

S

ituation

T

ask

Be careful to let the candidate speak! Your speaking time should only make up about 30% of the interview.

You want to understand how the candidate behaved in a situation where there was a task - What actions did the candidate take? What were the results?

A

ction

Here is an example for a very good answer:

This is a behavioural-based question. You want to listen for the STAR in the candidates answer!

S

Example of an answer that needs further elaboration:

T

Last year, I teamed up with some colleagues to raise funds for X charity by running the Auckland Marathon. We were about five people and at first, everybody was really excited about the idea. But over time, people started skipping training and I got the feeling that we lost motivation for no better reason than short-term distractions. So, I came up with the idea to do a bake sale to raise even more money and awareness for our team. The team loved the idea and it was a huge success. That really got us back on track with our commitment to training and eventually we raised a decent amount of money and went over the finish line together!

A

Now let's see what this usually looks like in a typical interview situation...

"I'm a great team player and always get on with other people. I never had any issues with my team."

R

Example

Remember that some candidates will be extremely nervous! Here is how you can ask a follow up question to help this candidate to give a good answer:

"Great! Can you maybe elaborate on a specific situation in which your team did well? How did you contribute to that?"

R

esults

Why does John get the STEM job rather than Jennifer?

A 2012 study explored the hiring decisions of biology, chemistry and physics faculty members — professions that pride themselves on objectivity.

They were given applications identical in every way except for the applicant’s sex.

The professors favored the male job applicant “John” over the female job applicant “Jennifer.” They rated him as more competent, offered him more mentoring and selected a significantly higher starting salary for John.

Have you heard about unconscious bias?

The 7 Diversity and Inclusion Principles

1. We believe that a diverse and inclusive Greenpeace is essential to delivering effective campaigns, sparking a billion acts of courage, and achieving our mission of creating a sustainable and peaceful planet.

This session will cover:

1) Why unconscious bias training almost always fails

2) How to run this training

3) What are necessary follow-up steps?

Who is biased?

2. Diversity and inclusion reflects our core organisational values and our moral values as human beings.

3. We are committed to attracting, developing and retaining a diverse and talented community of volunteers, crew and staff.

follows 7 Diversity and Inclusion principles, which state our commitment to achieving a diverse workforce and inclusive workplace practices:

https://greennet.greenpeace.org/content/125419

This commitment is instrumental to our goal of attracting, inspiring and developing exceptional people.

4. We create a safe and inclusive culture where all people treat each other with respect and dignity.

5. We value and rely on collaboration based on the diversity of our ideas, perspectives, and experiences to make wise decisions and create effective outcomes.

E V E R Y O N E .

6. Everyone is supported to learn, lead and grow, while barriers or potential tensions are identified and actions are taken to address them

7. We all share accountability and responsibility for diversity and inclusion.

Let's look at what unconscious bias is in more detail...

Primacy and recency bias

These behaviours are common. Try to think of an incident for each of the named examples that has happened to you or one of your colleagues or friends.

Can you think of a time when you behaved in this way towards someone?

Be aware that you will inevitably feel drawn to people, who are most like you.

Reflecting on your various unconscious biases will help you select the best candidate.

Ways in which hidden biases translate into action:

You will remember events more clearly that happened early on, or at the end of a repetitive process (such as the interviewing process).

That is why candidates, who came in for the first or last interview, are more likely to be hired.

Take notes!

This will make it easier to judge all candidates based on equal amounts of remembered information.

This can be problematic for your teams' performance, because diverse teams produce better results than all-male, or all-creative-types, or all-angry activist teams!

How to prevent unconscious bias from turning into discrimination?

Research shows that simply being aware of unconscious bias decreases the risk of making biased decisions significantly!

• Body language: Crossing your arms, avoiding eye contact, keeping a long distance, etc.

• Forgetting to acknowledge someone's presence/input.

• Not listening/being less attentive to someone than to other team members.

• Jumping to negative conclusions in order to explain confusing behaviour.

Keep your notes as objective as possible, keeping in mind that we are required to share them with unsuccessful candidates if they ask for them!

Once the recruitment process is over, notes must be destroyed.

Organisational culture is key!

At Greenpeace NZ, we have processes and procedures in place that mitigate the risk of bias affecting our decision making processes, for example during recruitment:

CULTURE EATS STRATEGY FOR BREAKFAST

Fact based work testing

Setting clear criteria for job candidates prior to recruitment

How to challenge your own biases

Balanced interview panels

It's probably her.

Point out unconscious bias when you notice it! This creates an organisational culture in which people feel comfortable talking about biases, which in turn is vital to mitigating them.

'Two in the pool'

short listing

Structured Interviews - everyone gets the same questions

Keep it legal!

Confirmation bias

You will always look for confirmation of any hypotheses that you might hold about a candidate. For example, if your first impression of a candidate was bad, you will perceive them in a more negative light for the rest of the interview.

Discomfort around a coworker can signal an unconscious bias.

Do you find yourself cringing in a specific colleague’s presence from time to time? Fill in one or more of these blanks:

• I do not feel comfortable with this person because …

• I am skeptical about this worker’s ability to do a good job

because …

• I would be hesitant to put this employee in front of a customer because …

• I would prefer not to have this individual on my project team because ...*

*Eight Ways to Help End Workplace Prejudice - Leigh Steere

Questions to ask yourself

• Are my hires the same “type”?

• Have I used the term “right fit” and what do I mean?

• Do I make sure my short list of candidates is diverse?

• How do I assign work? Do I go to a certain person? How do I organize a project team?

• Do I encourage anyone more than anyone else on projects or in meetings and why?

• Do introverts receive the same opportunities?

We are all biased. It's is a natural disposition of our brain. What matters is how we act on our biased perception of the world.

Hidden biases can reveal themselves in action, especially when a person's

efforts to control behaviour flags under stress,

distraction, or competition.

Discrimination Laws

Confidentiality

Ouch!

The same discrimination laws apply to interviewing as to reference checking.

Do not ask about:

Good luck choosing the right person for your team!

Sexuality

Religion

Disability

Employment status

Family status

Age

Skin colour

National origin

Race

Sex

Ethnic origin

Marital status

Ethical belief

Political position

Be discrete.

Any information gleaned from interviews is confidential.

It’s not good practice to discuss what you’ve learned with other employees at your organisation (only discuss with the people who are recruiting, and only what matters to the role).

Oops!

If you want to find out which biases you hold, take the test!

Since unconscious bias is nothing but a standard way in which our brain processes information, there is a relatively reliable way of testing your biases: It's called the Implicit Association Test. You can try it for free here:

Click!

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

You can choose what type of biases you want to test yourself on.

(You may have to enable pop-ups if the link doesn't work immediately.)

Introductions

Reflecting on our various unconscious biases will help...

Who do you think is more productive?

The person in this office?

1. ... us select the right candidates for roles at Greenpeace.

2. ... good decision making, e.g. during our performance and development review process.

3. ... in our everyday interactions with others at Greenpeace.

4. ... foster divergent thinking to improve our work as a team.

Where someone attended university or grew up

There are many types of unconscious bias....

Marital or parental status

Gender

Attractiveness, Height and Weight

Sexuality

Introversion

or extroversion

What is unconscious bias?

The question is not "do we have bias?" but rather "which are ours?"

Not that organised people are any less productive, but...

Or the person that occupies this office?

Foreign accents

Openness encourages openness

Skin colour

Age

Volunteer activities or political affiliation

Disability status

Who is biased?

Encourage conversations around bias and discrimination, starting by talking about your own experience.

This is going to be hard. Whether you have been on the receiving end of discrimination, or have become aware of your own biases. It is an emotional topic that is difficult to address.

Reflection amongst team members is critical.

It can be easily discouraged by shaming people or having 'no-go' zones in conversation.

Steve Jobs

Albert Einstein

(Don't sweat it. It's a kind of reflex!)

Push yourself out of your comfort zone!

You might be surprised about the positive effect this can have on others around you!

Representation matters!

Hiring a diverse work force matters.

MANAGING UNCONSCIOUS BIAS AT

TRAIN THE TRAINER SESSION