Understanding the various aspects of identity — both your own and that of others — can help you spot situations when you’re unintentionally shutting down diverse perspectives or taking actions rooted in unconscious bias.
What does it mean to have bias?
Bias is an intentional or unintentional preference for or against a specific group or individual. Bias occurs in part as a result of routine mental shortcuts that are made in our brains. Because of this, it’s possible to have bias without being fully aware of it.
It’s important, however, not to label all bias in the workplace as unconscious bias, as doing so may subtly imply that bias is beyond our control.
We believe that bias is something that everyone, but especially leaders, can and should work to address.
Unintentional or not, bias in the workplace can still have very real consequences, including inaccurate beliefs resulting in unfair treatment of others, unfavorable reactions, and reduced equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Recognizing the sources of bias and moving beyond bias awareness to taking action to address it are essential for effective leadership and sustainable, productive workplace cultures. But how do you create a realistic, effective roadmap for identifying and dealing with the biases we all experience?
Ideally, leaders are able to see everything and everyone for who they are — without their perceptions being limited by the disconnecting biases in their brains.
Our answer to conventional unconscious bias training, Beyond Bias™ leverages our decades of research and experience to help leaders identify — and then take action to break — habits around bias. We work with you to increase your team’s understanding and awareness of unconscious bias in the workplace, and provide practical tools your organization can use to protect against the negative consequences from it.
Imagine the potential of your organization when everyone is fully valued and invested, creating a more inclusive and unbiased culture. Improve engagement, motivation, and retention through increasing your team’s ability to create a culture of inclusion:
Take on conscious and unconscious bias in the workplace by equipping your team with these skills. Learn more about our Beyond Bias™ solution — our research-based alternative to traditional implicit bias training.
We can incorporate our research-based conscious and unconscious bias training as part of a larger leadership development initiative for your organization. Choose from:
Combine with other topic modules and interactive experiences into a customized learning journey for your people leaders
Holding an unconscious bias training at your organization? We can help your leaders in overcoming bias with our guidebook
Organizations that have partnered with us for Beyond Bias™, our alternative to implicit and unconscious bias training, consistently tell us the same thing: their experience with CCL made a significant impact on their culture.
But don’t just take our word for it — take theirs.
“This program taught me that even when we’re acting from our best intentions, we all have biases to one degree or another. I walked away with the ability to monitor my thoughts and actions more closely, which has been truly eye-opening. I also gained practical tools I started using right away, such as shifting my perspective and reaching out to better understand the social identities of the people I work with.”
Beyond Bias™ Training Program Participant
“It was an eye-opening experience to really think about not only the external characteristics that I identified with but also internal characteristics. It really showed me the uniqueness of each individual and impact we bring to our employer.”
Beyond Bias™ Training Program Participant
Our experts are here to help. Let’s have a conversation about how our expertise and training content on conscious and unconscious bias in the workplace could help to support your organization’s goals related to increasing equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Understanding the various aspects of identity — both your own and that of others — can help you spot situations when you’re unintentionally shutting down diverse perspectives or taking actions rooted in unconscious bias.
Conversations about race can be complex, but are essential for creating an inclusive culture. Lay the groundwork by watching this webinar on how to talk about race, both in the workplace and beyond.
Sustainable workplace culture change towards greater equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) requires a serious commitment across all levels of an organization. Learn how to take a systemic approach to EDI.
Organizations are prioritizing inclusion in their diversity efforts, but it must be executed well to achieve intended goals. Learn common pitfalls to avoid and steps you can take to be a more inclusive leader.
Inclusion is vital to your organization’s success. Use these 5 steps to build an inclusive work culture for your organization, and learn what things to watch out for.
In order to become better allies, we must focus on behaviors that help create more inclusive environments. Discover answers to commonly questions about allyship, and the role leaders can play.
Overcoming bias in the workplace requires moving beyond awareness of unconscious bias and into taking action to address it. Increased globalization and diversification of the workforce — coupled with increased social demands for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion — have made understanding and overcoming bias critical for anyone with leadership aspirations or responsibilities. Leaders must be able to create a realistic and effective roadmap for identifying bias in all its forms and dealing with it. In order to take meaningful action toward tackling conscious and unconscious bias in the workplace, organizations must equip their teams with skills, tools, and strategies to be able to recognize and respond to bias. At the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), we offer a research-based answer to conventional implicit bias training, called Beyond Bias™, which can help organizations embed bias training into larger efforts toward making their cultures more equitable, diverse, and inclusive.
Overcoming unconscious bias in the workplace is essential for effective leadership, employee engagement, and creating an equitable and productive organization. A team’s potential is significantly boosted in an environment where everyone’s contributions are valued and people feel the organization is invested in their success. Because leaders make decisions that change lives — who is hired, promoted, or dismissed; where to invest resources; and what the future of their organizations will be — unconscious bias in the workplace is a leadership liability. Individuals and team members must increase their understanding and awareness of bias and implement practical tools to move beyond limiting perceptions. That’s why our training solutions are aimed at helping individuals and organizations move Beyond Bias™.
Some of the most common workplace biases include harnessing inaccurate beliefs about an individual, based on their background or social identity group, or treating certain individuals or groups unfairly or in subtly discriminatory ways, based on assumptions, prejudice, or stereotypes. Even if unintentional, bias leads to real consequences.
Our research-based Beyond Bias™ training solutions help organizations address bias and its consequences, whether it’s explicit or implicit, intentional or unintentional. Participants gain deeper insight into what bias is and how it impacts all of us. They will also be better equipped to quickly recognize the presence of their own biases, and develop greater awareness of social identities and how they relate to bias. Lastly, participants will acquire specific tools and strategies for managing and overcoming bias in the workplace.
More questions? Our experts are here to help. Let’s have a conversation!
Package our research-based content on overcoming bias into your organization’s unconscious bias training initiatives, and incorporate other proven leadership development topics and solutions for a customized, scalable solution perfect for your organization’s unique needs, context, and culture. Related topics include: