Unconscious bias is the new leading edge on the Diversity and Inclusion journey. Despite all of the strategic sessions and training dollars spent on this topic, not to mention the discrimination cases, there is still a glass ceiling and discrimination continues to exist. Human Facets latest assessment, Cognizant, explores unconscious bias at both an individual and group level. You can download the PDF files on the Human Facets home page for more information.

There is a price to be paid for ignoring the impact of unconscious bias as the companies listed below can attest.

"Unconscious bias is increasingly being used in employment litigation to prove discrimination. Unconscious bias has been a central issue in Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the largest class action discrimination lawsuit in history in which two million women are suing Wal-Mart for gender discrimination. The Court’s receptivity to unconscious bias arguments in the Home Depot class action and the FedEx class action resulted in those cases settling for huge amounts, $87.5 million and $53.5 million respectively. Unconscious bias is being raised in class actions against several other Fortune 500 companies such as Best Buy, Johnson & Johnson, Cargill, Merrill Lynch, General Electric, American Express, MetLife, and Morgan Stanley.

There is considerable debate about whether and to what extent unconscious bias affects employment decisions. To date, employers appear to handling the issue by claiming that unconscious bias does not exist. Perhaps, employers should learn from Wal-Mart, Home Depot, FedEx, and Walgreens (i.e., companies who failed in their arguments that unconscious bias does not exist) and instead, audit their processes to ensure that unconscious bias is not at work in their companies." Ballard, www.articleco.com

Let Human Facets help you to unravel the complexities of unconscious bias and provide your leadership team and key players with the leverage of increased consciousness on this topic.

Cognizant - The Diversity & Inclusion MRI

Imagine being able to show your leadership team, HR team or Employee Affinity groups the impact of their conscious and unconscious preferences and biases. This graphic is a sample of a leadership team's perceptions of gender differences in their workplace. For more information on Cognizant and the impact it can have on your Diversity and Inclusion journey please email info@humanfacets.com

Make it a perfect 10

Someone said that to me recently. "Make it a perfect 10". At first I was taken aback. What were they telling me. Was it a reference to Bo Derek? Did I need to improve my golf handicap or had I already achieved 9 of something and was, unknown to me, missing the elusive tenth.

I quickly regrouped, realizing she was wishing me a Happy New Year and wanting me to have a perfect 2010. What a nice thought. What would a perfect 2010 look like I wondered. Apart from the usual good health, weight loss, happiness and prosperity was there something else? I have a long list of items I could fit into each of these categories and my goal this year is to plan the work and work the plan. Focus, focus, focus. But that also got me to thinking about the bigger issues; the ones I have less control over and can only hope to influence by the butterfly effect and six degrees of separation. If I could wave a magic wand and create the perfect 2010, it would be a world without hatred, corruption and violence; a world where people rebuild a sense of community, where neighbors care and strangers are not strangers for long; where respect is reborn and love shines across the globe. A world where glass ceilings are shattered, glass walls are removed and bias and prejudice are things of the past. A world where technology is used only to enhance our quality of life and where ethics and integrity are as important as breathing.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, it is January 2nd; reality calls and it is time to get back to working on all the things that need attention - just like my golf handicap, nothing ever improves unless I work on it.

If you can't have a perfect 10, then at least don't contribute to making it imperfect for yourself or others around you.
Happy New Year