P2P

43 I L T A N E T . O R G I have worked in the legal industry for a long time, mostly in law firms and I have been a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion, always serving on my firms' D & I committees. When I think of my personal journey with unconscious bias, two experiences immediately come to mind. Throughout my career, I have been on both sides of the table in hiring interviews. From the start, this statement has troubled me: "What we are really looking for is a good fit." Hearing this in an interview as a young lawyer, several thoughts ran through my head: What does that mean? How do I demonstrate in the next sixty or so minutes that I fit? Do I need to look, act, or think like them? It felt grossly unfair because no amount of research I had done on the firm could have given me the answers. Later when I found myself on the other side of the table and heard colleagues use that phrase, I wondered how the people interviewed reacted. I never asked them, but I did conduct my own extremely informal and unscientific research years later. I asked several people working in law firms if they had ever heard about "fit" in an interview and, if so, how they interpreted it at the time. Here is what I discovered: white men said they thought it meant the firm was looking for people who would make good colleagues and – in essence – not be a jerk. Black men and most women said they interpreted it to mean that the firm was looking for someone else – not them. Do not get me wrong: I am not offering this as statistically relevant evidence. Rather, I offer it as an anecdotal personal experience only to give pause, as it did for me. It taught me to ask all candidates the same objective questions directly relevant to the role they will be performing and avoid questions that may leave some applicants feeling excluded on subjective grounds. The second experience came much later when I volunteered to be part of a group of managers piloting an online unconscious bias training program. I felt confident entering the program, which provided a series of workplace scenarios and asked participants to select the best among four possible ways to address the scenario. What I learned was that I did not have all the answers. While I was good at avoiding the obviously wrong answers, knowing the best way to respond from the affected person's perspective was much more difficult. In cases where I had not selected the best response, my error was always in making a wrong assumption about what the affected person would want in that situation. I learned that assuming that others would naturally want what I want in a situation can have unintended consequences. From this, I learned that overcoming unconscious bias and excelling at creating truly diverse and inclusive environments is a life long journey. I look forward to continuing the journey and continuing to learn. ILTA G I N E V R A S A Y L O R A Life-long Journey R A I S I N G C O N S C I O U S N E S S

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