# Presentation: 099869

## Difficult Dialogues: Relating to Each Other on Issues of Diversity

- Laura C. Flynn, Ph.D.
- James D. Martin Employee Worklife Center
- January 16, 2007

## Why is diversity good?

- Diverse groups have performance advantages
- Enhancing creativity
- Heterogeneous teams: “create a marketplace of ideas, recognizing that a multiplicity of points of view need to be brought to bear on a problem” Kanter (1983)
- Enhancing Problem-Solving
- Critical analysis is enhanced by member diversity

## The Edge

- In a rich mix of worldviews and differences, how do we honor difference in our work processes and communication?

## Discussing Diversity	

- The Importance of Dialogue
- How we learn is through talking
- Core skills of diversity dialogue
- Permission to explore
- Seeking understanding
- Fearless questions

## Barriers to Effective Diversity Dialogue

- Unconscious Bias
- The things we say:
- “Discrimination doesn’t happen anymore”
- “I don’t use stereotypes”
- “I treat everyone equally”

## Thin Slicing and Unconscious Bias

- _Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking_
- By Malcolm Gladwell

## Thin Slicing	

- “The ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience”   - Malcolm Gladwell
- We make sophisticated judgments in a short time

## Thin Slicing

- Rapid cognition can lead us astray
- Research on unconscious “isms”
- Implicit Association Test (IAT)
- We make connections more quickly between pairs of ideas that are already related in our minds than between pairs of ideas that are unfamiliar

## Assign each name to a category

- Male				Female
- 		John
- 		Bob
- 		Amy
- 		Joan
- 		Sam
- 		Derek
- 		Peggy

## Assign each item to a category

- Male 				Female
- 	or Family				or Career
- 		Babies
- 		Sarah
- 		Derek
- 		Employment
- 		Bob
- 		Holly
- 		Domestic
- 		Office
- Longer the reaction time, the more implicit stereotypes we are using.

## Assign each item to a category

- European American 			African American
- 	or Bad				or Good
- 		Hurt
- 		Evil
- 		Glorious
- 		Wonderful

## Assign each item to a category

- European American 			African American
- 	or Good				or Bad
- 		Hurt
- 		Evil
- 		Glorious
- 		Wonderful

## Unconscious Racial Stereotypes

- 80% of all the people who have taken this IAT have pro-white association
-  2 levels of processing
- Conscious: “I believe myself to be non-racist, sexist, etc.  I will tell others that I see us all as equals.”
- Unconscious: Our immediate, automatic associations that tumble out before we’ve even had time to think

## Unconscious Racial Stereotypes

- We don’t choose our unconscious attitudes
- We are surrounded every day by cultural messages linking white with good
- “You don’t choose to make positive associations with the dominant group.  But you are required to.”  Mahzarin Banaji, Harvard Professor

## Real World Implications

- We are unaware of how we treat people differently
- How might unconscious bias show up in a job interview or a performance evaluation?

## Real World Examples

- Plagued by “isms”
- Car sales: initial offer above dealer’s invoice
- White men: $725 above invoice
- White women: $935 above invoice
- Black men: $1,687 above invoice
- When women and black people walk through the door, care salesmen think “sucker”
- Tallism: an inch of height is worth $789 a year in salary

## Changing our Unconscious Association	

- When people look over a series of pictures or articles about Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, or Colin Powell, our reaction times on the IAT change
- It becomes easier to associate positive things with black people

## Changing Our Unconscious

- We need to do more than say we believe in equality
- Changing your lifestyle and building an experience base
- Participate in different cultures and worldviews

## Cultural Diversity in Organizations

- Difficult Dialogues in Your Department
- Toyota: an example in upper management
- Developed an inclusion strategy of a monthly staff meeting where every employee was given one minute to express an issue or concern

## Group Thoughts

- What are the types of diversity?
- Why is diversity important?
- What hinders diversity?

## Learning Circles as a Tool for Diversity Dialogue

- What is a Learning Circle?
- Reciprocal and cooperative learning
- Questions
- When was the first time in your life that you felt different from others around you?  How did it make you feel?
- What is your definition of diversity?
- What have you learned about diversity from this circle?

- From: Idealist on Campus – Action Without Borders

- Thank you for attending our Seminar!
- Please join us for our next seminar on:
- Relationships: Getting the Relationship You Want
- February 20, 2007