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Bias is a prejudice toward one thing, person, or group compared with another. Bias is part of human evolutionary wiring designed to originally keep us safe and secure in unknown and harmful environments. However, while the world has evolved some of our biases – conscious or unconscious – have not, and thus can result in harmful perspectives, decisions, and actions toward individuals and organizations.

Examples

Among Minnesota’s top paid public company CEOs, two are people of color; four are women

Diversity in top ranks has grown just incrementally.  By Patrick Kennedy Star Tribune AUGUST 4, 2020 — 8:15AM Pledges for increased diversity in…

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How Diversity Makes Teams More Innovative

Hard data proves that diversity leads to better, more creative ideas. Are diverse companies really more innovative? Rocío Lorenzo and…

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Bias and pay

How one individual's experience changed the nation. In the late 1970s, Goodyear hired Lilly Ledbetter to work as a supervisor…

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How to talk (and listen) to transgender people

Gender should be the least remarkable thing about someone, but transgender people are still too often misunderstood. To help those…

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How to get serious about diversity and inclusion in the workplace

Imagine a workplace where people of all colors and races are able to climb every rung of the corporate ladder…

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3 ways to be a better ally in the workplace

We're taught to believe that hard work and dedication will lead to success, but that's not always the case. Gender,…

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How to keep human bias out of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms make important decisions about you all the time -- like how much you should pay for…

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3 ways to spot a bad statistic

Sometimes it's hard to know what statistics are worthy of trust. But we shouldn't count out stats altogether. Instead, we…

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Practical Guidance

Self-Serving Bias

The self-serving bias causes us to see things in ways that support our best interests and our pre-existing points of view. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HVaJt3xicM

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Overconfidence Bias

The overconfidence bias is our tendency to be more confident in our ability to act ethically than is objectively justified by our abilities and moral character. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCA0yxdedNU

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Implicit Bias

Implicit bias exists when people unconsciously hold attitudes toward others or associate stereotypes with them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoBvzI-YZf4

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Fundamental Attribution Error

Fundamental attribution error describes how, when judging others’ actions, we tend to give too much causal weight to their character and not enough to the circumstances in which they acted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdrDAik86rc

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Conformity Bias

Conformity bias refers to our tendency to take cues for proper behavior in most contexts from the actions of others rather than exercise our own independent judgment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9McrEaovuM

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How reverse mentorship can help create better leaders

Employee diversity and inclusivity are important business goals. "Reverse mentorship" matches junior employees with more senior staff to become more aware of diversity and inclusion issues. In this video from TED, Patrice Gordon provides six tips to make reverse mentorship work. https://www.ted.com/talks/patrice_gordon_how_reverse_mentorship_can_help_create_better_leaders

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The difference between being not racist and antiracist

There is no such thing as being "not racist," says author and historian Ibram X. Kendi. In this vital conversation, he defines the transformative concept of antiracism to help us more clearly recognize, take responsibility for and reject prejudices in our public policies, workplaces and personal beliefs. Learn how you can actively use this awareness to uproot injustice and inequality in the world -- and replace it with love. (This virtual interview, hosted by TED's current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers and speaker development curator Cloe Shasha, was recorded June 9, 2020.) https://www.ted.com/talks/ibram_x_kendi_the_difference_between_being_not_racist_and_antiracist This video is shared under a Creative Commons…

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How Racial Bias Works and How to Disrupt It

Our brains create categories to make sense of the world, recognize patterns and make quick decisions. But this ability to categorize also exacts a heavy toll in the form of unconscious bias. In this powerful talk, psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt explores how our biases unfairly target Black people at all levels of society -- from schools and social media to policing and criminal justice -- and discusses how creating points of friction can help us actively interrupt and address this troubling problem. https://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_l_eberhardt_how_racial_bias_works_and_how_to_disrupt_it

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How to Design Gender Bias Out of Your Workplace

Simple changes can give big results Equity expert Sara Sanford offers a certified playbook that helps companies go beyond good intentions, using a data-driven standard to actively counter unconscious bias and foster gender equity -- by changing how workplaces operate, not just how people think. https://www.ted.com/talks/sara_sanford_how_to_design_gender_bias_out_of_your_workplace This video is shared under a Creative Commons license (BY-NC-ND 4.0). Please visit Ted.com. This TED Talk originally took place at TEDxSeattle, an independent event. 

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Blind spots: Challenge assumptions

Our brains are wired to make assumptions, which can sometimes be off base. We think it's an honest mistake; science calls it a blind spot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFcjfqmVah8 This video was used with kind permission of PwC. June 23, 2017.

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