We know that UC is committed to supporting diversity and inclusivity, but it’s also important to remember that each of us, as employees, are responsible for bringing that commitment to fruition every day.

Managing Implicit Bias, a six-course Systemwide Talent Management online series, helps to demystify the concept of implicit bias, explaining what it is, how it affects us, why it’s important to counter it and more.

Biases are natural

Because we often associate the word “bias” with negative connotations, it’s easy to get defensive and think: “I’m not biased. Why would I need bias training?”

The truth is that everyone can benefit from bias training because biases are natural; we all have them. Biases don’t necessarily make us bad or bigoted. They just make us human. Exploring our own biases is an important part of self-development, team development and building a strong workplace culture.

What is implicit bias? Three key takeaways:

1. Our pre-formed mental templates —or schema — unconsciously influence how we interpret things we see or experience. Because of this, we may inadvertently make unfair assumptions about someone or stereotype them without even realizing we’re doing so.
2. There are two main categories of biases: explicit and implicit. Explicit biases are those we can recognize, analyze and self-correct as they occur. Implicit biases occur automatically in our mind, typically without our awareness.
3. Even though implicit biases reveal themselves unconsciously, we can still become aware of and work to address them.

To learn more about implicit biases, sign up for the UC Managing Implicit Bias Series. Register now.

Questions? Contact the Learning and Development team.

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