Many of us have likely heard the term “implicit bias” or “unconscious bias.” But many of us may not understand what such terms mean.
Unfortunately, when we don’t know what words mean, we may ignore them. Similarly, when sales reps don’t understand what a new product is or how it works, they may avoid talking about it to customers. This negatively impacts sales and the bottom line. In the case of implicit bias, if we don’t know what it is, we may act from it. Such action can harm our coworkers and customers.
The PWH Cultural Inclusion & Diversity (CID) Committee is committed to helping PWH members and our industry understand the principles and vocabulary of inclusion and belonging. With greater understanding, we can all feel welcome in the workplace and perform better.
In recent blog articles, the PWH CID Committee has unpacked words like diversity, equity and inclusion as well as the power of neurodiversity. In the PWH Connect Journal, our PWH CID Committee Chair Sabrina Smith has explained the difference between equality and equity and why it matters (pages 8-9). In this post, we unpack “implicit bias” and provide some tips to reduce the likelihood of it harming our coworkers and customers.
Explicit or intentional bias refers to attitudes and beliefs that we have about a person or group on a conscious level. Because we are fully aware of these biases that we hold, we can self-report them if we chose to do so. For example, I believe in the PWH mission to create a more culturally inclusive healthcare industry equally led by women. So, I often talk about the organization and take steps to support it.
Implicit bias, on the other hand, refers to unconscious attitudes that lie below the surface of our awareness. We may not realize we have a certain bias even though it informs our reasoning and behavior. Such bias can emerge as actions we take or comments we make in the workplace.
These actions and comments can insult our coworkers without our intention. For example, previously I did not realize that I assumed people of an ethnicity other than my own look more alike than people of my ethnicity. Because of this assumption, I once expressed surprise to a coworker whose ethnicity is different than mine when she showed me a picture of her sister. Without thinking, I said I expected she and her sister to look more alike. I am so sorry that I said that. I didn’t mean to cause harm. But I am pretty sure I did as she seemed befuddled by my surprise.
How can we have bias without realizing it? First, we may not expose ourselves to diverse perspectives. Second, we often see and hear false associations made between certain people and certain conditions so often that we think the associations are true. Then, the negative and false associations influence our thought processes without our realizing it. We might think that Black men are inherently disposed to criminal acts and thus avoid interaction. We may think girls are inherently less able to process mathematical equations than boys and thus discourage girls from pursuing careers that advance technology and the economy. Lots of research debunks these dangerous and false assumptions. (See Whistling Vivaldi by Claude Steele.)
Bias is inevitable. We all have it. This means we can all cause harm. If we want to avoid harming people unintentionally, including our coworkers and customers, we need to become aware of our unconscious bias.
One strategy is to think about both the intent and impact of what we say. That is, think about how what we say will be received. Realize that our intent might not align with the impact of our words and actions. What we intend as a compliment, or a seemingly innocent observation may land as an insult or worse. Some comments informed by implicit bias can land as aggression.
Here are some examples of seemingly innocent comments that can land as aggression.
“You’re so exotic.” An underlying association is that people with an ethnicity other than our own are exotic while our ethnicity is standard.
“I couldn’t tell you’re gay.” An underling association is that gay people look a certain way, other than what is considered standard for how men and women should look.
“You speak English so well.” Here, the underlying assumption is that people who look different than what we think English speakers look like will not be as smart or as well-spoken as those that do.
Comments like these, especially when they happen often and come from prominent persons, like a supervisor, can carry magnitude. They can cause increased anxiety and depression. They can heighten anger and stress. Such comments can also cause self-doubt and imposter syndrome in the workplace.
Implicit bias has pros and cons. It helps us function in the world. But it can also harm people when we are not aware that we have it, why we have it and how it impacts others.
To reduce the negative effects of our implicit bias, we can expose ourselves to multiple perspectives and be more flexible with our speaking habits.
When somebody says something that doesn’t land right, we can simply say “ouch” to help make people aware that something insulting was just said. This way, we call it out and give ourselves a few moments to think about it even if we don’t know what else to say about it.
We should also try to understand what matters to our coworkers and customers. When we hear comments carrying implicit bias, we can admit that we once held similar negative and false assumptions. But we can also share that we are trying to be more considerate of how implicit bias hurts our coworkers and customers.
We would not want a lack of knowledge to keep sales reps from talking about important products and services to customers. We want to make sure they have the knowledge they need to advance sales objectives. Thus, we hope that by better understanding what implicit bias means, the more likely we can achieve inclusion and belonging in the workplace. We can strengthen our coworker and customer relationships and cause less harm.