by Anna Dewar Gully & Dr. Kristen Liesch

After our initial rail against unconscious bias training and why it doesn’t work, we dive deeper into the subject. It’s not just that it’s a money pit that will not bring results. It can, in fact, be damaging. Don’t despair, however, the fight for equality isn’t lost, it just needs a different approach.

[KRISTEN]

We’ve all read about equality missteps.

(Starbucks, Sephora, Gucci, EY, etc.)

And every day we hear about new gaffs. Followed by feet in mouths, tails between legs.

And the fallout?

Stock prices take hits (Peloton).

Social media shames.

Apologies are made, and...

*shrug* Diversity Training is the answer?

Very recently, Manulife Financial released a video internally that featured “mostly white managers” rapping in hoodies. It was called “misguided and racist” by Manulife staff.

You can bet those leaders, at some point, have been seated at a table in a diversity or unconscious bias training session. Probably several times.

So how does this happen?

Where are the checks and balances?

The fact of the matter is, today, despite the decades of research showing the “business case” for equity, diversity & inclusion, “D&I” work remains peripheral to and disconnected from day-to-day operations. From recruitment and hiring to key strategic decisions, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a “Global D&I” leader on your team, until the dots are connected in-house and with a compelling internal argument between workplace equity and broader business success, you’re trifling with a naked emperor.

I recall the time an acquaintance approached me mid-way through the recruitment process with a fast-growing data company.

“The recruiter asked me for my salary expectation, but I felt uncomfortable putting that out there. I told him I’d reflect and get back to him.”

So I reached out to the Global D&I lead at the company and told him,

“I think one of your recruiters might’ve gone rogue by asking for salary expectations.”

I knew this leader was aware of how salary expectation requirements perpetuate the gender pay gap (he is incredibly knowledgeable and has the kind of theoretical expertise most D&I leaders aspire to).

His response is one that no longer surprises me:

“The recruiter hasn’t gone rogue. I’m really struggling to get HR to change some of their practices… it’s like pulling teeth.”

So, what’s the point of this story?

On the surface, you’ve got a new, fast-growing tech company saying all the right things (I can assure you their LinkedIn marketing celebrates diversity and inclusion) and hiring a D&I figurehead, when you look under the hood, it’s business as usual.

So, when this company has their day of reckoning - and they will, because just about every organization is at risk of its next sexual harassment, discriminitation, racist/sexist/ableist you-name-it slip-up - you can bet your bottom dollar…

*shrug* Diversity Training?

If you’ve followed my writing in the past, you’ll know that I’m not a fan of unconscious bias training (sometimes called diversity training, bias training, implicit bias training, etc.). That’s partly because I’m a recovering academic who really really struggles with conjecture. I prefer evidence. And where there’s conjecture, I like it to be coupled with the invitation for evidence and constructive argument. And frankly, those who sing the praises of diversity training do so without evidence.

Period.

And please, I do invite folks to share if they have information to the contrary. (I think Frank Dobbin will be interested, too. His meta-analysis of a thousand studies going back to WWI revealed “the positive effects of diversity training rarely last beyond a day or two, and a number of studies suggest that it can activate bias or spark a backlash.”)

Now, let me be clear about something, because you might turn away from your device and ask the person next to you if they’ve done bias training and if it helped them mitigate their unconscious bias…

*Spoiler alert* They’ll probably say it did.

Just like the 90% of a US Veteran Health Association’s patient care team. They underwent unconscious bias training and, both 30 and 90 days after their training, reported successfully applying their learning to their administrative or clinical practices. However, little-to-no change was noted in the experiences of patients.

So. Why do I rail against bias training?

It’s not just because I want folks to know it doesn’t work.

It’s because, in the US, more than $10B is invested annually, and that’s a LOT OF MONEY.

Some of that is public money!

Public money being spent by public schools, public education institutions, health institutions… in many cases, organizations that aren’t flush with the cash that Fortune 500s wield. All in a time when wealth disparity is at an all-time high, so that public money is my/our/your hard-earned money (read: taxes).

But I care about it in Fortune 500s as well, because, well… people!

People work in those organizations, people who deserve to have an equal opportunity to succeed and achieve their full potential…

People who get their hopes up when (insert one):

The company creates ERGs
The company appoints (and advertises widely and proudly) their D&I leader
The company invests in bias training which many people believe will work toward eliminating bias and…

…

Dot dot dot
IT DOESN’T.

So, let’s afford folks the equality of opportunity they want, need, and deserve!

But bias training doesn’t deliver.

I’m asked all the time by colleagues if this is really the hill I want to die on.

Because, by putting bias training in my crosshairs, I’m taking aim at the foundational offering of just about every D&I practitioner in North America (and beyond).

I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t already lost me friends on the playground. It’s probably lost us business, too.

The same colleagues will say,

“Kristen, bias training isn’t that bad; at its worst, it lets a company tick a box. You know… risk mitigation.”

But that’s not actually true. That’s not the worst of it.

If bias training were just an innocuous waste of money and time, that would be one thing, but there are documented backlash effects. In other words, an organization can be worse off for having done bias training. And when there are people who want and need and deserve equality of opportunity and they and their organizations are being sold a bill of goods that can place equality even further out of reach, I’m not okay with that.

So there’s that.

So what can we do to bring equality?

That’s a question Anna and I have been obsessed with, in various ways, for most of our lives and especially since we began working together.

[ANNA’S TURN]

(Thanks Kristen - typical of you to put yourself first ;) and typical of me to seize this opportunity to pontificate on what the future should look like...)

As Kristen mentioned, we’ve been looking inside and outside ourselves for an idea of what the right alternative to bias training could really be. How could we better use those many billions of dollars spent annually on training that leads to a dead end in terms of building greater equality?

To answer those questions, we dove deep into the research-based critiques of what bias training is and what it is not, and we were further informed and inspired by what emerging evidence tells us does work in terms of diversity and inclusion interventions -- things like perspective taking and goal setting, voluntary training, organizational and behavioural design, problem-solving approaches, and the like. Finally, and most importantly, we looked at and learned from the mechanics of successful social movements past and present to think about and uncover how social change has really been made (AND BY WHOM)!

We realized that one of the fatal flaws of how bias training tends to be applied, is with the notion that is the (sometimes deeply) biased people we should aim to “convert” and those same people who should then become the leaders and champions of the change... but does that make any bloody sense at all?

When we look at successful social movements, do we see, for example, American presidents being at the helm of the Civil Rights and Feminist movements?

Or did we see instead well-organized social change agents, who empowered themselves with voice, who organized fervently, and who advanced an increasingly cohesive message, forceful and critical questions, and who inspired the world and the change with their ideas?

*Spoiler alert* (it was the latter).

In the history of social change, we see that change is made not by those in power (maybe this is a ‘duh’) but by those banging on the door of power, making new demands, and forging a new “deal”.

The “ah ha moment” (thank you Oprah) was that:

Social change can be architected with critical questions, common cause, and relentless enthusiasm for achieving a new status quo and a better world.

It requires organization and orchestration - and that relentless determination that must be practiced BY MANY!

And because the natural follow-up to “Don’t Do Unconscious Bias Training” is “Do This Instead,” we’ve been inspired by our learnings and reflections on all of these issues and findings, and we have created a system of critical inquiry called the Equity Sequence™️ that can be applied by individuals, teams, groups, organizations, communities, leaders... anyone… but specifically by those who are natural and committed champions for greater equality and progressive change at any and all key decision points.

If Bias Training is about looking inward and asking one’s self critical questions, our alternative is about looking outward as a team and asking critical questions of the status quo.

As a global, loosely connected team, and yet as an organized and orchestrated team of global change agents equipped with the same powerful questions, unique perspectives - and with COMMON CAUSE - creating together a world in which equality is the new status quo and in which every person can achieve their full potential.

LEARN MORE and engage in the conversation.

ASK US about equipping your people with the tools to dismantle systemic inequities in your organization to the benefit of your people and your business.