We were delighted to extend a warm welcome (despite the biblical weather!) to attendees to our fourth Inclusion Forum North East (IFNE) event, held on 9th July at Arts Centre Washington. Following a number of interesting conversations with our network, we made the focus of this event unconscious bias – deepening our understanding of where the biases we hold can come from, how to recognise bias and how to mitigate any negative impact it may have.
The forum provided the usual opportunity for attendees to explore a key ED&I topic in a safe and respectful space whilst expanding their network and sharing best practice. The session started with an ice breaker activity from Karen, designed to consider some of the aspects of identity that we can sometimes hold strong feelings for or against – accents, geography and educational attainment. The feedback shared was fascinating with some personal examples given to demonstrate why these aspects can provoke such a strong emotional response.
Lucy then provided an overview of bias – the psychology behind this behaviour as part of our early survival instinct and the skill required to recognise when our judgement or decision making has been impacted by the preferences, predispositions and leanings we hold. Everyone then took some time to reflect on their own biases and the impacts these can have – from loyalty bias affecting our decisions on who to bank with to recognising national stereotypes. Mitigation techniques were discussed, including those on an individual and collective level and attendees took away a resource sheet (see link below) providing useful advice, guidance and techniques to recognise and mitigate unconscious bias.
IFNE Unconscious Bias Resource Sheet July 2024
The next forum is planned for October 2024. For more information about the Inclusion Forum North East, or the services Positive About Inclusion can provide to support your organisation, please do get in touch.
