by Anna Dewar Gully & Dr. Kristen Liesch

INTRODUCING THE EQUITY SEQUENCE™

Our impactful alternative to unconscious bias training

Inequality exists and is rising all over the world.

Advances in gender equality in North America has stalled.

Even in organizations striving to lead their industries on diversity and inclusion, standard interventions are not effectively reducing bias or inequality. Unconscious bias training, for example, has been the go-to approach for decades. And chances are, you know how we feel about unconscious bias training. But if you’re connecting with us for the first time, we invite you to read why we really don’t want you to do unconscious bias training (implicit bias training/diversity training).

The fact is, mounting evidence shows that unconsciousbias training does not lead individuals or organizations to become less biased or more equitable, and can even have harmful backlash effects. It is one of the many diversity interventions that target the individual’s bias as opposed to systemic bias, and it does not achieve the change we need to see.

But why do we care so much that unconscious bias training doesn’t work?

Some high-level reasons include the following:

Unconscious bias training costs money. Upwards of $10B US is invested, annually. Some of that is tax dollars. Money that could go elsewhere or, at very least, be invested in tactics that actually work.
People count on it. Individuals who have been the victims of bias, prejudice, and discrimination, or those who advocate for them, look to unconscious bias training as a baseline intervention. They believe it will lead to greater equity. When it doesn’t, they are robbed of the equality they deserve, and they become disillusioned. It’s like getting the wind knocked out of you. Or having a friend break a promise.
People think it works. Regardless of what the data reveals, people who participate in unconscious bias training think they become less biased as a result, even when the outcomes they produce are no different.

It makes us want to tear our hair out.

But we care for other reasons, too. More personal reasons.

I (Kristen) started looking into the effectiveness of unconscious bias training almost 9 years ago. It was a crazy time in my life. I’d just had my first child, was a couple of years into my PhD, and one sleepy morning as I was patting my newborn with one hand and reading the correspondence of American suffragettes in the other hand, I had to put the book down and shake my head. The women whose writing I was reading were talking about gender inequity in terms that were all too familiar. I looked down at my child and thought, “I don’t want this to be her experience, too.” I asked myself, “Why aren’t we making more progress? Faster progress?” And then I went down a rabbit hole.

I (Anna) went down a similar rabbit hole, but my rabbit hole (or perhaps worm hole) was a little different to Kristen’s. It also began about 9 years ago. My child had just started daycare. I was headed back into the role I’d been promoted to just before my pregnancy, only to find that parts of my role had been syphoned off because, according too my superior I “probably couldn’t manage it post-baby.” I was angry and hurt and immensely frustrated, but I was only just then learning a language for speaking to superiors about these issues that wouldn’t get me fired, and this added a layer of stress I hadn’t anticipated. Feeling alone, I started looking around at my organization to see what - if anything - it was doing to support “equality,” what commitments it made to people like me (and those who may face one or many forms of discrimination) and at that time, anyway, the answer was: not much.

We were both curious about organizational equity initiatives, and started looking to find “the gold standard” practices for organizations who were seen to be advancing the equality cause. The Unconscious Bias Training trend stands out, and we started examining what sort of organizations were doing it, who was leading it, and whether it was solving the problems of inequity we were experiencing, personally, and observing in the world around us.

When I (Anna) found myself sitting in an unconscious bias training session watching senior powerful players experience discomfort and shut down, without any pro-equity resolution, I thought, “this can’t, for goodness sake, be the gold standard solution, this isn’t solving anything.”

When I (Kristen) had read an inordinate amount of academic literature on the topic of equity interventions in various organizational settings and contexts, the writing was on the wall: unconscious bias training doesn’t work, and for so many reasons.

WHAT’S THE POINT? WHY ARE WE TELLING YOU THIS, NOW?

Fast forward several years, and, on the back of much research, many hard-earned learnings, and practice leading a new wave of equity, diversity, and inclusion work, we’re excited to invite you to learn the Equity Sequence™ - our evidence-based method to interrupt bias and inequity.

WHAT IS THE EQUITY SEQUENCE™, EXACTLY?

The Equity Sequence™ is designed to help people and organizations truly build equity - and ultimately equality - one question and one decision at a time.

The Equity Sequence™ session brings participants together to learn how to expand equity in organizational decision-making by asking a series of powerful equity-focused and strategic questions - without judgement, and with curiosity and respect.

The innovative Equity Sequence™ focuses on a collaborative, collective effort that invites everyone to participate in the creation of greater equity.

HOW WE BRING THE EQUITY SEQUENCE™ TO YOUR ORGANIZATION

We recently partnered with Imagine Canada to empower their team with the Equity Sequence™, and you can read about their experience HERE.

But the nitty gritty is as follows:

CONSULTATION & DESIGN STEP

We consult with you to better understand the types of challenges you’re facing at the intersection of equity, and organizational success. We translate our learnings to the design of case studies that are uniquely relevant to your organization and its people.

THE EQUITY SEQUENCE™ PART ONE - The Digital Conversation

We invite participants to a pre-session digital discussion and survey space to engage them in thought-provoking conversation and ignite their interest in the topics of bias and equity, your organization’s effectiveness and prosperity, and their peers’ perspectives.

THE EQUITY SEQUENCE™ PART TWO - Live Training & Practice

Participants connect to the compelling reasons, both human and organizational, to advance equality, diversity, and inclusion in your context.

Participants learn the Equity Sequence™, a series of focused questions they can apply individually and collectively when making key decisions - designing products, processes, policies, programs, services - you name it - that they can keep in their back pocket, literally!

Participants practice applying the Equity Sequence™, collectively, to the relevant and customized case studies we have designed for them. They have collaborative, effective, and engaging conversations about building equity, while applying and their learnings to these real-life scenarios.

By the end of the session, participants have identified exciting near-term and real-world opportunities to apply the Sequence to the benefit of your organization, your culture, and the people you serve, and leave the room confident that building equity is possible, good for business, and uplifting. It is a collective effort that everyone participates in, equally.

FOLLOW-UP STEP

We provide you with an aggregated list of the near-term opportunities participants identify to apply the Equity Sequence™ to the betterment of your business, its culture, and the people you serve, equipping you to follow-up on, and leverage, those opportunities. We check in with participants 2 - 3 weeks post-session to crystalize impact and action and remind them of the near-term opportunities they identified to apply the Equity Sequence™️.

BUT WHAT’S THE EFFECT?

Several more organizations across North America will be trained in the Equity Sequence™ in the coming months, and we are excited to be equipping those people with this powerful practice. Those who have already participated in the session have exciting things to say:

The session taught us a practical tool that can be used across the entire organization. Staff from any level, any department, and any project can easily utilize the Equity Sequence™️ to ensure we are being as fair and transparent as possible. While it would ideally be used at the very beginning of planning any initiative, it can also be introduced at any time (better late than never) to make course adjustments and improvements.

Danielle Ferguson-Shivrattan, Coordinator, Executive Engagement, Imagine Canada

More broadly, the Equity Sequence™ (especially in its simplicity to grasp and apply) could definitely be more widely used within the Toronto community or Canadian community more broadly. If people were more conscious of asking these types of questions when tackling any project, issue, task - our society would be a lot more equitable.

Anonymous response

For me personally, this session really helped to find that balance between intention and structure. We often talk about wanting to do things in a particular way, but the realities of busy work kick in and we simply replicate our previous patterns. With the Equity Sequence™, we can translate that intention into real change by applying the questions in a thoughtful way. The impact of this will be long-term and widespread.

Bruce MacDonald, President & CEO, Imagine Canada

SO, WHAT’S NEXT?

One of our goals at Tidal Equality has always been to expand reach and augment impact. (How else could we ever achieve our vision for the world?) We’ve been driven by the question: