Dr. Janet Reid and Vince Brown have written a masterful book, Intrinsic Inclusion – Rebooting Your Biased Brain. The book recognizes that billions of dollars have been spent on DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives by organizations around the world, with limited results. The book uses insights from neuroscience and social psychology to help us understand that “the well-worn neural pathways that form our biases and stereotypes eventually create regular patterns and schemas in our thought processes. Feelings and emotions attach to these patterns”. In other words, being biased is normal and a natural part of being human.

With the above in mind, how do organizations create a culture based on “intrinsic inclusion”? One of the chapters in the book attempts to answer this question and focuses on creating an ideal DEI environment. Reid and Brown conclude that “Based on what we know, in order to become intrinsically inclusive, our brains need the desire for DEI; an understanding of bias and how it works; and an environment that can help us to slow our thought processes down, monitor our assumptions and remove perceived threats. Based on the authors’ extensive experience and scientific research, their recommendations are:

  • Bias Buy-In – “The foundational building block for the ideal DEI environment is the acceptance of bias. To be able to advance DEI in an organization, everyone must accept and be comfortable with the fact they have biases, and that those biases are present, sometimes without their awareness, in every decision they make”. This is easier said than done. Most people “reject the notion that they don’t control their thoughts and that their judgment is also usurped by attitudes they weren’t completely aware they had”. The solution is “introducing bias, unconscious bias, and implicit bias from a scientific point of view” to make “both of those facts much easier for everyone to accept. It takes the emotion out of it. And it shows bias for what it is – a universal, shared trait among all human beings to be discussed and dealt with as a fact and a feature of our brains, not a personal failing”.

 

  • Build MODE Into The Routine – Reid and Brown have created a model called MODE –  described as: (“motivation and opportunity can be determinants of spontaneous behavior”).  “With enough motivation and the opportunity, our brains can shut the gate on or interrupt an automatically activated attitude and allow new information to enter the thought process, resulting in deliberate, better informed decisions and actions”. From an organizational perspective, “it makes sense to install practices into our routines to cause a pause, giving our brains time to consider our biases and add some new information to our thought processes if we wish”. The authors recommend the following tactics to help build MODE into the routine:
    • Flip the Script – This is a form of putting yourself in the other person’s shoes and considering evaluating them accordingly – the opposite of what you would normally think.
    • Say It Out Loud – Dr. Russell Fazio, professor of social psychology at The Ohio State University, explains that “when people justify their decisions out loud to someone else, they are likely to correct for bias. Having to put thoughts into words obviously slows down the thought process”.
    • De-Stress Decisions – It is most important not to make important decisions when one is feeling stressed, hungry or tired. “The strained brain takes the path of least resistance; it doesn’t have the energy to forge new neural pathways”.

 

  • Mind Your Measures – Reid and Brain acknowledge that the typical organization’s metrics that are used to evaluate people and make judgments about people and their potential are usually biased and lack fairness. “An organization’s merit systems must be evaluated for both bias and the presence of context before being accepted and used as a standard”.

 

  • Expand Everyone’s In-Group – The authors write, “Often it takes nothing more than finding out that we have one thing in common with an out-group member for our brains to switch their status to in-group…We can create environments that expand everyone’s in-group and thereby reduce out-group threat and make inclusion happen”. As people become more familiar with each other, “so does their sense of belonging – and with that comes new neural pathways that enable changes in thoughts and behaviors, while increasing trust and engagement”.

In conclusion, “the ideal DEI environment doesn’t shy away from bias. It acknowledges it, is aware of it, and, whenever possible, puts it to good use to expand the organization’s thinking and choices”. It is highly recommended to read Intrinsic Inclusion – Rebooting Your Biased Brain.