The Key Learning Points:

1. The difference between implicit and explicit bias, and why language should change around unconscious bias

2. The history of unconscious bias training (UBT) and recognising it’s just one small piece of the D&I puzzle

3. Three key limitations of our brains and how biases compensate for these

On this week's remote Risky Mix podcast, we're joined by Priscila Law, founder of the Inclusive Leadership Company, a business that helps organizations boost performance by building diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces. Priscila is a true D&I expert, holds a PhD in social sciences and is a certified brain-based coach and today we’re excited to be exploring the topic of unconscious bias and the effectiveness of training. 

Priscila shares her career story. She started working in the pharmaceutical industry in Brazil, alongside studying for her degree and MBA. She then moved to the UK at the age of 23 and started working in HR, continuing her studies and completing her PhD. Priscila worked in HR for 10 years, moving up the career ladder to become more specialised in leadership development and D&I. In July 2020, she set up her own practice - the Inclusive Leadership Company.  

We talk about the differences between implicit and explicit bias during the episode and Priscila explains that unconscious bias and implicit bias are really the same thing but suggests a change of language away from ‘unconscious’ because we’re not actually unconscious, we’re responding to a stimulus. 

Priscila explains that three events lead to the creation of unconscious bias training – the implicit association tests launched by Harvard in 1998, the 2010 Equality Act and a report on race in the workplace by McGregor-Smith, combined with a recommendation for the government to deliver UBT to every adult in the UK workplace. But the problem was that “people took the report out of context…'if I do the training, I have all my equality issues sorted!'” The issue of implicit biases is so complex, and while it’s great to build awareness, ”knowing is not doing.” 

Priscila adds: “You can’t expect UBT to make people change their behaviours, because they won’t” adding that even if behaviours do change, it will likely be a short-term shift because we act on autopilot. And raising awareness of bias presents issues also – people can feel guilt when the results of a test highlight biases which don’t agree with an individual’s value set and beliefs, because they may be perceived as explicit biases, when they’re, in fact, implicit. This incongruence can lead to inaction. Priscila feels that awareness is one thing, but organisations must give teams the tools to outsmart their implicit biases. 

Priscila adds that we all have biases and they’re there to compensate for some of our brain’s limitations:

1.      Bounded rationality theory – our brain is limited in terms of how much information it can process, so it goes to short cuts which are full of bias

2.      It takes energy to act on a highly conscious level – our brains favour autopilot to save energy and therefore introduces biases

3.      The brain is wired to keep us safe – different is a threat to us, so we naturally exclude what we don’t know

UBT is just one single piece of the puzzle. Priscila advises - be careful with the content - help people understand implicit bias and the neuroscience element so that they feel empowered to change. Give them tools to change, instead of just providing awareness. UBT is not the only solution, it’s part of a bigger picture.