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87 I L T A N E T . O R G W hen asked to share my unconscious bias journey, I drew a total blank. As a diversity and inclusion advocate, I found it hard to identify what perceived assumptions I might be making about people and how I interact with them based on my personal experience and the environment where I grew up. It also made me feel uncomfortable to share with others that I even have unconscious bias. It was as if I were admitting to a weakness, even though this is a human trait we all share. This exercise in self-reflection helped me understand how difficult it is to ask others to self-identify and interrupt their own unconscious biases to support diversity and inclusion efforts within organizations. As I gave it more thought, I recognized that I previously held an unconscious bias that younger colleagues require significant hand-holding and guidance when working with them. I had bought into the "special snowflake" stereotype about millennials I had read in the news. I quickly learned how wrong my unconscious bias was. As I worked with millennials on various projects, I saw they had their own novel approach to using existing technolo for better knowledge management. I realized I could learn as much from them as they could from me. We could collaborate as peers, instead of as teacher-student. Within any organization, gravitating to individuals who are similar to us and share our common interests is easy, as is jumping to conclusions about people who are not as similar to us based on stereotypes or conjecture. But, we can learn techniques to interrupt our own unconscious biases when we notice them affecting our relationships at work. 1 My own self-discovery of unconscious biases, and how I can work to interrupt them, is just beginning. I hope others can learn from my experience. When you find yourself drawing conclusions about people based on stereotypes or making other instant judgments, take a step back and assess whether your unconscious biases might be in play. Think about how you might interrupt it. Instead of making a quick assumption, treat people as individuals; learn about who they are, based on your direct interaction with them and what they share with you about themselves. By each of us taking a small step toward recognizing and interrupting our unconscious biases, we will help to increase diversity and inclusion at our organizations. ILTA D E B B I E T I N G Coming to Terms with My Unconscious Bias 1. Joan C. Williams and Sky Mihaylo, "How the Best Bosses Interrupt Bias on Their Teams," Harvard Business Review, November-December 2019, at https://hbr.org/2019/11/how-the-best-bosses-interrupt-bias-on-their-teams. R A I S I N G C O N S C I O U S N E S S

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