140: Getting Conscious About Bias with Howard Ross and Shilpa Alimchandani

Whether or not we are aware of it, each and everyone one of us is biased. It’s actually not always a bad thing and, in fact, it’s a natural function of the human mind. But as learning leaders, if we aren’t in tune with the fact that we are constantly forming biases – and the ways in which they are shaping our thoughts and actions – it’s impossible to ever overcome them.

Howard Ross, founding partner of Cook Ross, is considered one of the world’s leading thinkers on identifying and addressing unconscious bias. He’s also author of Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives and Our Search for Belonging:  How the Need for Connection is Tearing Our Culture Apart.

And as a learning and development professional with over 17 years of experience in diversity, inclusion, and intercultural learning, Shilpa Alimchandani is the Director of Learning and Innovation at Cook Ross. In her role, she leads the firm’s efforts to co-create learning solutions with its clients.

In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Jeff talks with Howard and Shilpa about the concept of unconscious bias including why it’s important, the benefits of bringing awareness to it, and ways to disrupt bias both personally and as facilitators of learning.

Full show notes available at https://www.leadinglearning.com/episode140. 

Highlighted Resource – a collection of Thought Papers that Cook Ross makes available on its Web site (completely free and don’t require an e-mail address) - they cover a range of topics related to diversity and bias. Among the resources there you will find Howard Ross’ white paper ”Everyday Bias: Further Explorations into How the Unconscious Mind Shapes Our World at Work,” which is a great introduction to the issues he explores in more depth in his book Everyday Bias.

Note also that Jeff wrote a blog post that looks at how the bias patterns that Howard identifies in his book can impact learning.

Our sponsor this quarter is ReviewMyLMS, a collaboration between our company, Tagoras, and 100Reviews, the company that is behind the very successful ReviewMyAMS site. As the name suggests, ReviewMyLMS is a site where users can share and access reviews of learning management systems, but in this case, the focus is specifically on systems that are a good fit for learning businesses, meaning organizations that market and sell lifelong learning. Contribute a review and you will get access to all existing and future reviews—there are already more than 120 on the site. And, if you don’t have review to contribute, there is also a subscription option. Just go to reviewmylms.com to get all the details