Unconscious bias training is an admirable project but may often be ineffective. The fuzzy, vague term of unconscious bias is often applied indiscriminately, but unconscious bias isn’t a one-size-fits-all term amenable to a one afternoon of training. Yes, it can refer to the incident where the police were called to arrest two African-Americans waiting for a meeting at Starbucks. But it can also mean only smiling at customers that look like you, rejecting resumes from diverse applicants, and promoting the employees who resemble the current leadership team. If we want to address unconscious bias effectively, we need to first be aware of how the senses, emotions, and brain interact to create unconscious bias. Second, we must go beyond awareness of our biases to sensitivity to their impact. Lastly, we need to develop a system that internalizes wise decision making with ongoing reinforcement of that competence.
Continue reading The Challenge of Unconscious Bias – by Deborah Levine
With a degree in psychology and master’s in screen writing, Selene Calloni Williams has
authored several International best-selling books and documentaries. Her focus is on psychology, deep ecology, shamanism, yoga, philosophy, and anthropology. As a direct student of James Hillman, she studied and practiced Buddhist meditation in the hermitages of the forests of Sri Lanka, and is an initiate of Shamanic Tantric Yoga. She is the founder and the director of the Imaginal Academy Institute Switzerland.
As a former banker, with grad studies in behavioral psychology, Pam Teagarden works from the intersection of business and behaviors. She developed AI models of ‘Inclusive Diversity’ using cutting-edge systems information to provide performance-based measures of effective inclusion, linking diverse workforces directly to increasing competitive advantage and to sustainable high levels of employee engagement.
Dr. Val Margarit is an expert in Transformational Education, an award-winning educational leader, college professor, speaker, and the author of Why Not You? How to Become an Empowered Woman.
Keith Weedman is Principal/ Founder of Level 3 by Design, LLC. focusing on empowerment & change. He is also a member of the
It was painful waking up to the terrorism news that suicide bombers in Sri Lanka had targeted hotels and churches during Easter services. Hundreds of people were killed and hundreds more were injured. At first, officials pointed to the perpetrators as a local group of radical Islamists espousing a terrorist ideology. Then they announced that international connections had helped design the attacks. At this point, Sri Lanka shut down online social networks, a move that would limit conspiracy theories, copy cat attempts, and violent revenge attempts. Was the ban prompted by guilt that warnings had been ignored, or by the experience days before in Paris?