A Bias for Action, if you must!

A few days back, some of us at SapientRazorfish India received an invitation to be a part of a unique, workshop with a very creative title, ‘Make some Room’. It was supposed to be an experiential workshop, using a combination of physical spaces and digital technology, designed for leaders to recognise the biases that exist both within and around us, and the impact these have on people, who happen to be at receiving end. As I thought more about the topic, my mind went to the civics class in school. Instantly a few of the ways in which people are discriminated against came to my mind such as stereotypes, gender bias, race/ethnicity. When I thought a little harder to think of possibly more biases, discrimination based on sexual orientation came to mind. Could there be any other biases too! I doubted if, there were any, which I may not be aware of! However it was an opportunity to self- reflect and examine if I was holding any of these biases, which may have been impacting anyone in my sphere of influence! With this thought, I signed up and I am glad I did!

The workshop took place last week and what an eye- opener it turned out to be. It started with us listening to recorded audio clippings of a section of our people from across our global offices describing certain personal situations, connected to work environment and sharing their feelings around the situations and how they were adversely impacted, being at the receiving end.. All of these were real life situations ,which take routinely in any work environment such as discussions with clients, celebrating at a company event, discussing career growth, discussing work allocation planning etc.  As I listened to those clippings, it was time to introspect if I could relate to the individual’s feelings and sentiments as a receiver or could I have been the one displaying the behaviours that affected the receiver! One thing which became apparent was that our world is full of biases, some subtle, some not so. Cultures and countries across the world have found their own ways to differentiate people in a variety of ways. Over a period, these differences have grown into biases. These have emanated from history, culture, personal values and beliefs and most importantly a lot of these are unknown to us as biases, which could be potentially be having a negative effect on those at the receiving end of our behaviours. 

While there were over a dozen situations in the clippings, describing less than inspiring behaviours, the following stood out for me and set me thinking:

• Judging someone’s capabilities from the way they dress: Women shared this sentiment more than men and felt that they were judged quite often by the way they dressed. The fact that they worked equally hard or were equally capable, as their male colleagues didn’t matter at all. If you liked dressing up or had a style of your own, that brought you the wrong kind of attention and knowing that certainly left the individual disappointed and de-motivated.
• Having a stereotype view of roles and career directions suitable for women.  Even though we have moved into the 21st century, the literacy rate has gone up significantly, woman’s achievements are surpassing men in every field, age-old stereotypes continue to exist around the work that should or shouldn’t be taken up by women. Women most often find themselves out of reckoning when it comes to landing challenging projects requiring extended working hours or those requiring frequent travel.
• Making assumptions around someone’s constraints and using that information for making  key decisions:. Someone’s personal situation was mostly seen as a constraint. Without validating with the person in question, they were not considered for key projects, which led to a lot of frustration.
• Having favourites at work: One of the leading causes of dissatisfaction at work is people feeling favouritism at work. While all of us trust and rely on select individuals, based on their capability, we need to watch out, whether we are developing a bias against others and hampering their chances of growth.
• Having stereotypes around someone’s race/colour/caste: Different cultures have differentiated people based on their race/colour/caste. While historically such differences were recorded for the purposes of classification to ensure that each sub community was treated fairly, over a period these differences have developed into strong biases and stereotypes against specific races. Eg blacks being considered as lesser capable in the US or people from a state in India being considered more money minded as a stereotype.
• Giving everyone an equal voice: Many people and women in particular complained about the fact that their opinions were not heard when it came to key decisions. This was also corroborated from several research studies that much lesser no of women spoke in public forums and business town halls, feeling that their opinions did not matter.

As the group discussed the clippings and the situations described their in, it set us thinking that the problem of biases existed at different levels among most of us. Also there was a realisation in the group how our subtle and unconscious biases were impacting the people around us and impacting their performance at work. The workshop certainly served its purpose by opening our eyes to a problem, that we be believe didn’t exist and made us realise that a lot needs to be done by all of us in getting rid of these biases and truly working towards empowering everyone to realise their potential. The journey has begun!