Unconscious bias training seeks to motivate employees to engage controlled mental processes to override their automatic tendencies and transfers proven skills for fostering inclusive workplaces.
Reducing unconscious bias at work is a critical component of an organisation’s efforts to create a diverse and inclusive work setting where all employees contribute fully to work processes.
Workshop Outline
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Defining diversity and inclusion
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Business drivers
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Defining bias and understanding the difference between explicit vs. implicit/unconscious bias
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Social judgements and categorisations (e.g., first impressions, affinity bias, stereotypes)
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The implications of bias for formal decision-making over the employee life-cycle
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The implications of bias for interpersonal interactions and group dynamics
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The implications for bias for individual performance, professional aspirations, engagement, and wellbeing
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Strategies for mindful inclusion
Customisation
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Individual contributors—Minimal decision-making influence on employee life cycle. Focus on micro-biases and inclusive interactions.
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People managers—High level of decision-making influence across the employee life cycle. Additional focus areas include objective assessment, promotion, and development as well as techniques for inclusive consultation.
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Leaders—High level of influence over organisational culture. Inclusive Leadership Training is recommended.
Learning Outcomes
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Knowledge of the business drivers for inclusion and diversity
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Understanding of the meaning of inclusion
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Awareness of one’s own and other’s biases and implications for work settings
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Respect for and willingness to embrace individual differences and diverse perspectives
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Appreciation of the value of the contributions of all employees
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Skills for managing bias in oneself and others
Workshop participants leave with a personalised action plan for managing their own and others’ unconscious bias.
Consistent with research on adult learning, we believe that the best learning outcomes result when participants engage holistically with program content. All Include-Empower learning and development programs incorporate experiential learning techniques, including opportunities to reflect on and apply learnings to the real-life challenges facing participants.
Individual contributors and people managers working in diverse settings. Because the content of diversity and inclusion training can be personal and emotive, the best learning outcomes result when participants feel psychologically safe. Where feasible, we recommend that participants do not attend the same workshop as their direct line managers.
Recommended workshop size is 10-24 participants. Where there are budget constraints, larger groups can be accommodated. Experiential learning activities are employed irrespective of group size, however, opportunities for individual contribution and shared dialogue decrease as participant numbers increase.
Developing inclusive mindsets and behaviours requires commitment. The recommended length of the workshop is a half-day (3-hours). The workshop may be run face-to-face or delivered virtually over two 90-min modules.
We have a transparent fee structure. Please contact us for details.
Click to download the workshop flyer
Related Reading
- A-ha activities for unconscious bias training
- The SPACE2 model of mindful inclusion: Six proven strategies for managing unconscious bias
- Risks to fair progression
- Inclusive recruitment
- Mind your micro-biases: Subtle slights that exclude
- Gender bias at work: Competence evaluation bias and the argument for targets
- Gender bias at work: Gendered feedback
- Gender bias at work: The assertiveness double-bind
- Cultural diversity at leadership: Australia’s bamboo ceiling
- Ingroup bias: Preferring people like ourselves
- The lived experience of inclusion
- Unconscious bias training activities
- Workplaces that temper unconscious bias: Part one of two
- Fighting hidden bias at work: Part two of two
- Inclusion fundamentals: How to foster work settings where employees feel respected
- Ways to reduce unconscious bias at work
- Understanding and overriding unconscious bias
- Understanding unconscious bias: Stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination
- Nudging bias out of your workplace: Learnings from social psychology
- “Just tell me what to do”: Useful frameworks for thinking about inclusive leadership
- Unconscious bias: Putting more rungs on the ladder
- Having trouble engaging men in gender diversity: Try these tips
- How to debate ideas productively at work (HBR)