How Unconscious Bias Training Can Make a Difference in Collaboration

by Tom Evans Writer

How Unconscious Bias Training Can Make a Difference in Collaboration

By, Tom Evans

Preconceived unconscious perceptions about the differences between people are often referred to as implicit bias or unconscious bias. These perceptions can serious consequences in the workplace when they lead to prejudice or discrimination.

Regular seamless collaboration between employees is the goal in any business for that business to remain profitable and to maintain the kind of positive environment that retains its employees for years, rather than months.

Every reputable study shows that collaboration is adversely effected by unconscious bias in the workplace and therefore poses a significant threat to a company’s long term health and profitability.

When it comes to unconscious bias in the workplace, a recent Harvard Business Review Report states, “These beliefs can get in the way of how people collaborate with their colleagues and have troubling implications for how people are managed and trained.”

This is why unconscious bias training for employees is essential for maintaining a workplace with thriving collaboration in all aspects of business, and unconscious bias training for organizations is essential for establishing an open society where differences are celebrated rather than used as a platform for discrimination.

We all strive to live in a more diverse society. In business, we recognize that diversity increases profitability. In order for diversity to become ingrained in the workplace, inclusion needs to be the goal in everything a business does, and the most effective way to accomplish that is to make inclusion a daily part of office life.

One prevalent example of implicit bias in the workplace is ageism. Shiela Callahan, Forbes Magazine contributor on diversity and inclusion says, "Results showed that stereotypes about older people’s ability to learn new tasks interfered with the training they received. When trainers thought they were teaching an older person how to do the computer task, they had lower expectations and provided worse training than when they believed they were teaching a young person.

These results demonstrate that inferior training may be a result of age stereotypes. The potential consequences of these findings are alarming, as inferior training can result in reduced learning and ultimately interfere with employees’ job performance.”

So the negative impact from ageism, as well as all prejudices and implicit biases, is deeply corrosive to a business’s long term profitability and vitality. This is why unconscious bias training in the workplace is so critical for every single employee at every single level.

It is only once every employee recognizes the pervasive existence of unconscious bias that they can then work towards eradicating all forms of prejudice and discrimination. Because making unconscious bias conscious is the first step towards creating a work environment that is truly inclusive.

Callahan characterizes one of the negative long term effects from unconscious bias in the workplace as, “Meta‐stereotyping” which she describes as, “The influences of feeling disliked and disparaged by others and how it can lead to reciprocal responses and increased negative feelings from both groups.”

This is yet another illustration of how essential unconscious bias training in the workplace and in all organizations is. If the cancer of implicit bias is nipped in the bud then it will not be allowed to fester and metastasize into any number of negative after-effects that dissolve the positive workplace environment and erode success.

Business owners across this country recognize the importance of training to keep their employees current and thriving in the long term. Unconscious bias training in the workplace is as critical as any other form of training in accomplishing this goal and moving a business into the future as a beacon of positivity.