Interrupting Bias for Better Decisions

One of the most important challenges to achieving a sustainable, equitable, just and prosperous world is not “out there” in the world: it is within us.

To build the world we want, succeed in our business or deliver the services that help people, we need to get a handle on the source of most of our decisions: the unconscious biases that we carry with us.

These unconscious biases are wired so deeply in our brains that they operate without our conscious awareness. For example, when we enter a room, our amygdala will make a judgement on our social status, safety and sense of belonging within milliseconds.

Often our unconscious bias is at odds with our conscious bias: As a white man who wants to dismantle racial privilege, I recognize that my unconscious biases can and do take over in subtle and overt ways. Microaggressions, judgement and resistance are some of the ways that my unconscious bias works against my intentions. 

It can be frustrating: there are few things as difficult as recognizing our unconscious bias, and the tools available are better suited to address conscious bias. It’s a problem that makes progress difficult and probably contributes to the DEI backlash that too many organizational leaders are voicing.

The people who need to reflect on these biases most are those (like me) who have privilege, and there is little guidance on how to do this. Most of the literature about exploring and reducing bias tells us to develop external tools that keep our bias in check, but very little about getting started on the path.

I want to share a different approach to recognizing, interrupting and displacing (RID) unconscious bias that I’ve used successfully with groups over the past few years.

Unconscious biases are products of our brain’s definition of normal, acceptable or positive, and they are shaped by many factors, including past experiences, our cultural environment, our families and community and media messages.

Research shows that bias usually gets wired into our amygdala in adolescence, so when we feel something is “not normal” our body responds. The amygdala sends messages to the body before we can become conscious of it, and we can feel it as discomfort, anxiety, critical judgement, drive to distraction and the desire to “check out.”

Research shows that when our amygdala is triggered, we are only able to access 5% of our full mental capacity. Also, as humans, we have a tendency to attach a story to the feeling, and usually that has more to do with some early memory that we carry. The feeling may have been important at the time, but our body brings it back even if it is irrelevant for this particular situation.

As Daniel Kahneman has found through his research, humans generally make most of our decisions with this approach (he calls it System 1 thinking), and we use our rational mind (System 2) to justify the decision that was made unconsciously in the service of our biases.

Unconscious bias surfaces in our feelings – notably the fight, flight, freeze and fawn reactions that we can feel in our bodies. And this is a key to the Recognize, Interrupt and Displace framework.

Step 1: Recognize Bias

The process starts with recognizing bias working within us. With a bit of practice, we can recognize the feelings within a second or two.

We can recognize the functioning of unconscious bias in three ways:

1.     By observing our body’s reaction: tunnel vision, sweating, flushing, cold extremities or other responses.

2.     By listening to our inner and outer dialogue. We may become judgemental, dismissive or fearful of other people or the situation. For me it’s an inner voice telling us that I have made a mistake (my inner voice uses stronger language) or that someone else is wrong.

3.     By being attentive to our emotions which can include feeling irritated, fearful, angry, or even shutting down our active participation.

When working with groups or individuals, I engage clients and stakeholders to practice these skills We’re not generally used to listening to our bodies, because the feelings are uncomfortable and we’ve trained ourselves to listen to the stories we have created to justify our feelings.

The trick is to recognize the feelings before we get into the stories. As I’ve heard so many times: “Feelings are not facts. Feelings are just energy.” We need to quickly interrupt the pattern before we start to rationalize the feeling.

Step 2: Interrupt Bias

The fastest way to interrupt the amygdala’s firing is to ground ourselves, an activity that can last from 5 to 30 seconds. We can do it in secret too, even when we’re in a crowded room.

Grounding can take many forms, and some of my favourites include:

-              Paying attention to our own breath by focusing on the temperature of air coming in our nostrils, or our chest expanding. My go-to is becoming attentive to the air passing at the back of my throat;

-              Shifting our focus momentarily to the sights and sounds of what’s actually happening around us. This can include paying close attention to the variations in tone of someone who’s talking or noticing something about their face or clothes that I hadn’t noticed before;

-              Drawing my attention to the physical sensations of being present including the connection of my back on the chair, feet on the floor or touching the fabric I’m wearing and being conscious of its temperature, texture and softness.

Once we have interrupted the bias that we recognize through our body, we can be more present to the real issues. We can even shift to a better perspective.

Step3: Displace Bias

This process of recognizing and interrupting our bias allows us to shift our mindset to more effective strategies. In order to displace our bias, we explicitly seek to bring a new lens to the work at hand, including:

•       Innovation:  What is possible and how can we do this differently?

•       Curiosity: What’s interesting and provocative in this? What can I learn?

•       Navigate: What’s important and what is the path to achieving our goal?

•       Empathize: What if we’re doing our best? How can we work together to get a better result?

•       Activate:  What’s the first step to start? 

Recognizing and interrupting our bias opens up space for System 2 thinking, where we are using our full capacities.

Co-regulation

This can start us on the path to a conversation about how to ensure that we stay focused on our goals, what is arising for us and discuss how to make the best decision.

It helps to be with a group that allows us to share our discovery without judging us. In my experience, we are able to co-regulate one another when we are sharing, listening and responding compassionately. Part of the skill is putting the RID steps in words:

“As I was reading the first few resumes, I found myself getting uncomfortable at the mention of their experience with industry leaders so many times. Then I interrupted my reaction by focusing on my breathing. When I looked at the resumes through a lens of curiosity and compassion, I realized that these candidates were showing me something that we didn’t include in our original selection criteria. Do you think we should revisit our criteria?”

Compassion doesn’t have to be anything other than responding “Thank you for sharing that. I have also felt discomfort / fear / or upset at what was happening.”  By articulating our individual experience and have it welcomed, our groups or committees become better able to navigate the difficult decisions we need to make.

Even if the feelings arise from an individual’s experience, the process of getting those out on the table enables us to connect more closely and improve our functioning as a group.

A group of people taking individual responsibility for their feelings and being unafraid to share, is the sign of a productive and effective group, whether it be a hiring committee, board or executive team.

Where we need the RID process:

I have applied these tools in my work in healthcare, community service and mining, three areas where they are going to be in high demand:

1.     In healthcare, we need to address the biases that result in Indigenous people and people of colour getting treatment that sometimes causes harm. Recognizing, interrupting and displacing bias can be done by any healthcare professional in just a few seconds.

2.     In community services, we often support those with less social power and prestige. Being present to every human’s potential calls us to interrupt our biases and find deep points of connection.

3.     In mining we are transitioning to a context where free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) will be required. Some mining companies and regulators fear that Indigenous rights are an impediment to getting critical minerals out of the ground and into the supply chain. In my role as VP for Community Integration with Inspire Resources, the RID process helps us to see that FPIC is a great opportunity that will accelerate the energy transition and support sustainable community development

think: act consulting focuses on improving service outcomes in challenging situations, starting with convergent views. We have recognized that bias inhibits our clients and stakeholders from contributing fully to solutions, and this is why we have done the research to figure out how we can interrupt it.

Recognizing the signs of unconscious bias and interrupting the evolutionary function of the amygdala is going to be a fundamental step if we want to have a sustainable, equitable, just and prosperous world  

In a world where we need to connect more deeply to solve the problems of our time, this social technology is more important than ever. It gets (with some practice) and has immediate benefits for all areas of your life.