HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — As part of it’s on-going video education series, West Coast Chamber examined implicit bias.
The Chamber’s marketing director, Carolyn Monahan, interviewed Ottawa County’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Robyn Afrik.
Afrik reviewed various type of bias, including confirmation bias — interpreting new information as a way to confirm one’s existing beliefs — and said that bias is an opinion not based on reason or experiences.
Implicit bias, she told Monahan, is unconscious and is deeply rooted in a person’s life.
“We may actually not even understand why we’re in favor of something over something else,” she said.
She said said business owners and managers can examine their own implicent biases by taking an online test created by Harvard University researchers and online at implicit.harvard.edu/implicit.
She said people can also examine their own thinking by slowing down and being more intentional about choices. It helps to stay curious, willing to take in new information and ask questions. People can also develop their cultural intelligence.
Another key point, Afrik said, is to avoid hiring “because we want diversity,” she said, or to hire someone who will automatically fit an existing culture.
Instead, she said, hiring based on skills and understanding that a new employee’s personal style may be different, but not necessarily bad, for the existing company culture.
Monahan’s complete inteview with Afrik is on YouTube, and linked in this story.
