When we hear the word bias, it brings to mind intentional discrimination. But bias is far more fundamental and complex: it is deeply ingrained in how we all experience and make sense of the world.

Bias describes a form of prejudice in favour of or against a thing, person, or group. Bias can be conscious or unconscious, intentional or completely inadvertent. When it comes to unconscious bias, none of us are immune. We all have stereotypes about others informed by our past experiences, culture, early influences in our lives, and the very nature of our brains and how they work to categorise experience. Any situation that requires us to make quick judgements or decisions based on imperfect information is ripe for bias to come into play. These are the very situations we encounter day in and day out at work.

While we can’t completely eradicate bias at work or in general, being aware of our biases both individually and institutionally can enable us to better manage them and make our workplaces fairer and more inclusive to the benefit of all. 

When it comes to tackling bias in your organisation, consider these concrete measures as starting points to building a more inclusive workplace:

Focus on conscious inclusion over unconscious bias to develop a strong, more positive, and more overt inclusion agenda.
Unconscious bias is a phenomenon, but conscious inclusion is an action. Shifting the paradigm of how we think and talk about breaking down bias can make all the difference to generating positive and lasting change. 

While bias can’t be eliminated, organisations can become more intentional about promoting an equal workplace for all. Ensuring that a diverse range of qualified candidates are represented in hiring, valuing different backgrounds and experiences, and addressing the varied needs of different workers with tailored support are key. Organisations have an opportunity to cultivate self-reflection as a critical attribute of leadership and to see leadership development as less about the success of the individual, and more about promoting mutual understanding.

By focusing on conscious inclusion, organisations can make far more headway in discovering when and if employees feel supported and safe to contribute at work, and how this can be better encouraged. Getting to know ourselves, our identities, how we are perceived, and reflecting on our own biases and how we can do differently lay the necessary groundwork for progress. 

Make diversity, equity, and inclusion an organisational priority.
While it may seem obvious, it’s not always happening. Giving issues of inclusion a central, board-level voice, champion, or role in your organisation is critical to its impact. Too often, diversity issues continue to be sidelined to small departments where they are distanced from other organisational goals. Only about two-thirds of companies hold senior leaders accountable for progress on diversity goals, and less than one-third hold managers accountable. While almost two-thirds of companies report hosting diversity and inclusion related discussions, only half of these reported having a mission statement or strategic diversity plan in place. 

This is the case despite the fact that the future sustainability and financial success of all organisations demands attention to equity. Prioritising inclusion at the very highest levels of your organisation has a range of benefits from better decision making on core governance issues, leadership in your sector, alignment with employer and customer priorities, and the promotion of a dynamic workforce that is best able to meet the needs of consumers and the marketplace.

In practice, making inclusion a conscious priority requires identifying the key benefits to seeking diverse talent for your specific organisation. It requires broadening professional networks, and adapting and challenging traditional ways of thinking about value – from what “good” work looks like, to who is likely to contribute. 

Develop and promote initiatives to support particular underrepresented groups.
Programmes that provide tailored support to groups with unique needs in the workplace quite simply work. 

To take one example, women’s leadership programmes, which provide safe spaces for women to share openly about their experiences in the workplace, address the challenges unique to women at work and help women build their professional networks, actively serve to promote belonging. This helps to maintain the talent pipeline and diversify leadership at all levels. In 2014, nearly half of the women who participated in a large-scale women in leadership programme at Lloyds Bank received a promotion. Four years later, the promotion of women in senior roles at the bank had increased by more than 35%.

In general, intentionally providing space for conversations that ask employees to reflect on their own experiences and biases supports the development of cognitive empathy. Talking forums increase mutual understanding and accelerate the extinction of the old. This is key to promoting and sustaining inclusion at work. 

Use sponsorship as a tool to support the internalisation of leadership identity.
In the past, support for women and other underrepresented groups in the workplace has relied on the idea of mentorship. Mentors are people, generally with more experience, who can offer feedback and encourage you to improve in order to make more opportunities for yourself. Sponsors, by contrast, are people in positions of power who actively advocate for you and create opportunities on your behalf. As Herminia Ibarra has argued, women remain ‘over-mentored and under-sponsored.’ True sponsorship makes a huge difference in breaking down bias.

Sponsorship programmes that involve matching senior leaders with upcoming talent are an opportunity to support underrepresented groups in expanding their sense of identity and capacity at work. These initiatives help shift people’s thinking from ‘I’m not someone who would be a CEO, board member, and so on,’ to ‘I am someone who can and would be great at this.’ While executive sponsorship is by far one of the most effective steps a company can take to advance talent, research shows that men are 25% more likely than women to receive sponsorship. Only 20% of white employees have sponsors and even fewer – just 5% – of Black employees do. 

Initiatives focused on sponsorship support self- and mutual-discovery. The byproduct of understanding what people truly want, discovering what motivates those around us, being open-minded about less obvious career paths, and challenging traditional thinking, is a more inclusive and positive workplace for all. 

Don’t go it alone.
More than ever, now is a critical time to act. But change is hard. Choose the right partner on your organisation’s journey – you don’t have to do everything alone. 

A coaching-led approach to DEI is truly systemic compared to the alternatives – and leads to lasting change. At Talking Talent, our highly accredited coaches empower all employees to co-create inclusive cultures at the team and organisational levels, which leads to greater engagement, improved productivity, and better performance.