Unconscious Bias Online Training & Virtual Workshops
(Updated Dec 12, 2021)
After months of adapting our in-person unconscious bias training to virtual workshops, we have landed on the following combination of video and webinars. The outline below describes the format that we have found to deliver the same depth of content, while creating space for discussion and interactivity in the webinars.
How Different is Online Training?
First, let us share the key differences between in-person and online training, that have informed the development of our current training format:
The real value of online training is connecting with others: Perhaps this is amplified by the isolation many are experiencing as a result of working from home. The feedback has been clear that folks want to discuss with their peers. Subsequently, we’ve restructured our training to give more time to interactivity and discussion. We’re also encouraging organizations to use platforms that allow for breakout rooms, such as Zoom and WebEx.
Time doesn’t feel the same: When done well, a full-day or half-day of in-person training goes by fast. It’s not unusual for us to hear the comment that “time flew by”, and “we could have had more time.” Online training doesn’t have that same feeling. As a result, we’re no longer offering half-day or full-day training online. We’re limiting webinars to 90 minute sessions, and discouraging back-to-back webinars. At most, one session in the morning and another in the afternoon. When running a series of webinars, they are spread out over days, weeks or months, depending on the cadence that best suits the audience.
It takes longer to get through the same amount of content: Our aim is to keep webinars tight and focused on interactivity and discussion. To ensure we are still covering the same depth of content, consistent with our training in the past, we are providing content-rich short videos as a prerequisite to the webinars.
Online Training Format
Our online unconscious bias training includes the following three 90-minute modules, each preceded by 20-30 minute pre-work videos. There is an optional fourth virtual workshop specifically dedicated to addressing systemic bias in recruitment or other pathway-dependent systems.
Module 1
Inclusion Literacy is the foundation to addressing cognitive bias, cultural bias and systemic forms of discrimination.
Inclusion Literacy
This first module aims to set the context for the unconscious bias. This module will provide a more technical understanding of inclusion and diversity, including the following learning objectives:
Establish a common literacy of inclusion and a technical understanding of when employees actually feel included at work;
Provide a framework for Inclusive Leadership and identify the skills that inclusive leaders use;
Provide a roadmap for the journey towards achieving greater levels of inclusion and diversity; thereby outlining a strategy towards addressing cognitive bias and anti-racism beyond the personal level to the procedural, and eventually, systemic levels.
Examine the Business Case for a more just, equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace;
Highlight the connection between Psychological Safety and inclusion; and
Establish a basic understanding of key inclusion concepts, such as Equity (versus Equality); “unearned advantage” (or privilege) and “racial discrimination” vs. “racism”.
Module 2
The initial stage of addressing cognitive bias is establishing an awareness and understanding of how bias is formed and operates on our unconscious.
Intro to Cognitive Bias
The second module establishes an awareness and understanding of implicit bias, foundational to disrupting bias in the workplace and in decision-making.
The module will cover:
How implicit bias works in people’s brains;
How cognitive bias affects decision-making and our perception of people; and
When people are most vulnerable to unconscious bias.
Module 3
Awareness does not, on its own, lead to a change of behaviour or outcomes.
Disrupting Unconscious Bias
The third module builds on the previous content, and is focused on strategies for disrupting bias:
The module will cover:
Naming seven different kinds of bias;
Exploring how cognitive bias results in giving certain people an “unearned disadvantage”, and for others, an “unearned advantage”;
Strategies for addressing the stigma associated with unconscious bias;
How to give and take feedback around biased behaviour and language;
Procedural tactics for disrupting bias in “pathway-dependent systems”, such as a recruitment or selection process; and
Addressing systemic bias, as embedded in power structures.
Removing Bias from the Recruitment (or Advancement) Pathway
This workshop is focused on analyzing the pathway through various stages of recruitment and professional advancement and their impact on the successful hiring and retention of specific equity-seeking groups.
Because this workshop is so hands-on, the format of this engagement is not a straightforward 90-minutes, but an interactive process of working with hiring managers to identify the recruitment pathway from the inception of the job, to the end of a six-month probation period, while also developing an ideal candidate profile. Hypothetical candidates are then taken through the pathway to determine where they are likely to experience barriers to being hired or retained.
This activity-driven engagement brings together the previous content around cultural differences and implicit bias, and examines the assumed benefits and potential hazards of self-identifying in an equity-seeking group.