Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM March 2020 | Page 36

HR CORNER
SHARON BAYUS, MA, LPC-S
TMCA Distinguished Mediator, President & CEO
Innovative Alternatives, Inc.
http://innovativealternatives.org
Unconscious Cultural Bias —
Who Has it and Why…
S
o, half of you reading right now think this is
a bunch of bunk. The other half are reading
in anticipation of my ‘sticking it to’ those
referenced in the first sentence who are
so unconsciously biased that they don’t
even know they are racist, misogynist, xenophobic,
homophobic, trans-phobic, religiously bigoted, age-
biased, and on and on we can go…. I may end up
disappointing many or all of you, when I say that every
person on this earth is unconsciously biased in some
manner; and of course, we are unaware of it because it
is after all, unconscious!
This country is in disarray over this concept and
it does not help the conversation. So many people
would really like to talk and learn about these
concepts, if only it were safe to have the darned
conversation! In fact, the animosity we see everywhere
only makes it just that much more frightening and
threatening; which makes
‘understanding’ almost
impossible. If one speaks
up to ask a question or
make a comment in one of
these insufferable diversity
trainings that so many of
us have had to sit through,
we are legitimately
concerned about saying
the wrong thing—in the
event that we are aware
enough to know that we
are actually unaware and
may accidentally say what
we really mean, even
though we don’t know
what that is inaccurate
and offensive! Hence, we
know we are likely to get
folks angry at us, get a law
suit, lose a job, employees,
friends, coworkers or all of
the above! Wow, there is
a lot at stake! Why would
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MOMENTUM
anyone want to have this conversation?
It doesn’t have to be this way. What I’ve found
through decades of leading folks through difficult
conversations, is that process, format and ground-
rules make all the difference in creating safety, and
nothing connects folks like letting people teach one
another about themselves. Participants must also
understand the purpose of the whole discussion—what
are we working toward? The goals are these: 1) to
improve every person’s awareness of their many biases
(majority and minority individuals all have them), 2)
to discover how very much we all have in common;
3) to create safety to practice conversations that can
continue long after facilitators are gone and most
importantly, 4) to prevent future conflict that may
otherwise arise from misunderstanding of differences
in body language, customs, roles of authority and
many other factors related to culture. Without a
roadmap, we get nowhere
fast.
I find it is useless and
impossible to focus on
learning a little something
about every culture. It
is also dangerous for
the person facilitating,
because we can never
know everything about all
the subcultures contained
within every culture. It
is also a waste of time
for participants, who are
inevitably offended in some
way from any generalities
that don’t take into account
all the subcultures and
exceptions—regardless
of disclaimers. The main
thing people need in
any organization, is to
learn about individuals of
different cultures within our
own organization, in order