Addressing Unconscious Bias in Your Business

When we’re running through the world at the speed of life, we don’t have much time to consider why we do what we do or think in the ways that we think. As a result, so much of what we do is almost automatic. We don’t remember actively choosing to drive from home to work. We don’t remember every little detail of what we did, why we made the choices we made or even how we dealt with some situations that popped up unexpectedly.

Our upbringing, the neighbourhood we grew up in, the friends we chose to hang out with and even the approach of our teachers and mentors as we grew into adulthood, all shaped a series of automatic thinking that forms what is known as unconscious bias.

And while unconscious bias can help us have a more efficient day, it can also cause problems in our businesses. That’s because unconscious bias impacts the products and services we sell, the way we advertise and even the clients and staff we choose to work with.

It doesn’t matter who you are or how you grew up, you came bundled with your own set of unconscious biases. And these can manifest themselves in ways that are harmful to your business. That’s because unconscious biases, when ignored, can contain racism, sexism, assumptions about people’s lifestyles, beliefs and behaviours that are either untrue or even blatantly destructive to small business.

In this important 30-min class, you will learn:

• what unconscious bias is and how it can play out in life
• the unintended effects of unconscious bias on business
• how unconscious bias impacts on clients, staff and communities
• how it manifests in advertising and marketing
• the questions to ask that ensure that your conscious mind is in the driver’s seat