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So what can you do as a leader to prevent bias from getting in the way of your team’s ability to do great work? I recommend disrupting bias and teaching your team how to disrupt bias. I recommend taking three steps.
The first step is to create a shared vocabulary. Sit down with your team and say, “What’s the word or phrase that you all want to use to disrupt bias?” The way I like to disrupt bias is to wave a purple flag. One team that I worked with liked to say, “Ouch.” Giving the person who just said the biased thing the opportunity to say, “Oops. I’m sorry.” Another team that I worked with liked to throw up a peace sign. Another team that I worked with, they had kind of a cat theme going on and they would meow at each other. Whatever it is, you want to make sure that your team is choosing something that is lighthearted enough that they can use it in a meeting. They can disrupt the bias without disrupting the whole meeting. And you also want to explain to your team why it’s so important to disrupt bias publicly. This is not public criticism. This is like a public correction. The reason is that bias is a pattern. And if you don’t disrupt it in the moment, you’re going to do it again. It’s going to keep happening. And then it’s quickly going to become like the elephant in the room. So you got to learn how to disrupt it in the moment.
It’s not enough to have a shared vocabulary, though. The second thing you need to do is to work with everyone on your team to know how to respond when you’re the one whose bias is being disrupted. When somebody tells me that I’ve said or done something biased, I feel ashamed. It’s a real fear response. And when I, and not just me, but all of us, when anyone is having a fear response, executive function shuts down. And it’s hard to respond well. So teach people how to say, “Thank you for pointing it out,” and either “I get it, I’ll try not to do it again,” or “I don’t get it.” Saying the second thing, “I don’t get it,” is really hard. Because when I’m in that situation, which I’m in all the time, unfortunately, I’m doubly ashamed. I’m ashamed because I have offended someone. I’ve said something biased. And I’m ashamed because I’m ignorant. I don’t even know what was biased about what I just said or did. And yet all of us are in that situation all the time. And if we can normalize it, we take shame out of the game, and people respond better. It’s not such a big deal.
The third thing you need to do is to create a shared commitment. Because even once you have your shared vocabulary and you all know how to respond, you’re not going to do it unless you really commit to doing it. So make sure if you get to the end of a meeting, nobody’s disrupted any bias. You save a minute or two to say, what did we miss in this meeting? What were we afraid to point out? So that everyone can learn together, and we can get these elephants of bias out of the room.