Comment pouvez-vous identifier et atténuer l’impact des préjugés inconscients sur votre résolution de problèmes ?

Just a reality check here: this work sucks. It is important, but dang, it is really uncomfortable. If we're doing it right, recognizing our own biases challenges a lot of our deepest assumptions about who we are, how good or right we are. It is "distracting," unsettling, and takes a lot of energy. It can bring up feelings of failure. As we become more sensitive to our own biases, we start to see it in others like us - we will want to challenge it and that will be very unwelcome, and we'll probably be inarticulate and insecure about our perspective. (Stick with the feelings, though!) Overcoming unconscious bias is more than correcting our behavior or actions - realizing that (over and over) is when it gets real. And worse. And better.

An oft-overlooked dynamic of challenging our assumptions is our psycho-emotional openness to generously encounter new perspectives. There is an emotional component in which sources or information we lean toward or away from. Spend some time with the discomfort different sources or perspectives brings up, to dig underneath it, ask where it is coming from or what it is trying to protect. (No self-inflating pride or defensiveness; seek the vulnerability being shielded by our desire to lean into or away from particular voices.) Be curious, as if this discomfort is a part of our own unconscious sitting down with us. Awareness of the emotional roots of our resistance helps us set those aside to encounter new information more fairly.

Emotional awareness is profoundly important when working to be sensitive to and begin to overcome unconscious bias. Attending to physical sensations is a concrete way to cultivate awareness of why and how we are reacting. For instance, we feel a tension in our chest and speak more quickly or loudly or forcefully or directed at a particular person or group in order to push through the tension of the moment, or perhaps to distract ourselves from the felt-sense-of-insecurity. If we can first become consciously aware of the sensation, attend to it, care for that part of us speaking in/through the feeling, we will be more aware of our own motivations. Acknowledging our feelings allows us to hold them and still be present to listen to others.

Retrospective analysis helps a lot. Next time when the same situation comes, maybe you have a chance not to follow an immediate reaction based on unconscious bias, but remember the insight you have from the past and act with this knowledge, being more in the present moment.

Unconscious bias is, obviously, rooted in the unconscious. Sometimes having the help of a professional and outside perspective is essential. We may be surprised (or confused, or doubtful, or angry, or insecure, or sad) about our implicit assumptions or reactions, about where they come from, about how they seek to serve us. Coaching and peer support is almost certainly required for real awareness and understanding to begin. Oftentimes, more intensive support is helpful for processing what comes up as we confront our unpleasant, inconsistent, shameful reactions. Having someone safe and skilled to hold safe space to process without judgment but with accountability can mean so much. Don't do this alone. Seriously. Professional help is worth it.