Pathway #3: Managing (Un)conscious Bias
To create and sustain healthy families and organizations, sustainable structural pathways are needed in work and life. These pathways must extend their reach globally, nationally, and locally. For them to be sustainable, they must be felt by all peoples, the individual must feel and believe these structures benefit them their families and communities.
Pathway #3 is designed to support organizations that are interested in addressing (un)conscious bias from a deeper personal and organizational level. Building on content offered in Pathway#1, Pathway #3 addresses bias as a continuous cycle that is designed to feed and sustain the system of racism. This Pathway more than equips leaders and their employees to develop a deeper awareness of the role bias plays in the continuum of exclusion and unequal power relationships. It helps prepare leaders to take the next step of building anti-oppressive and anti-racist structures within their organizations.
Foundation 1- Getting Started: The Foundational Tools for Managing (Un)conscious Bias-this module prepares leaders and their employees to use two important tools for managing (un)conscious bias. They are first introduced to Improvisation as a communication tool. Improvisation helps leaders skillfully navigate unexpected diversity-related situations that are sensitive and potentially conflictual.Holding Council is a tried and proven communication tool that is well-suited for dealing with and managing (un)conscious bias. Leaders practice using both tools as a way to prepare for interacting with the remaining content of Pathway #3 as well as for use in their organization.
Foundation 2-Unearthing the Roots of Inequity -this module walks leaders through The Cycle of (Un)conscious Bias and its role in maintaining the system of racism.
Foundation 3- Diversity- engages leaders in a candid conversation about the visible and invisible aspects of diversity and identities. Leaders are introduced to the Diversity Grid and are gently invited to reflect on the role (un)conscious bias plays in shaping their organizational makeup and leadership structure.
Foundation 4-Critical Consciousness: Facts to Know vs Conditions to Challenge and Change-in this module leaders use the concepts of critical consciousness and the principles of public health, to dive deep into conditions of bias that permeate societies and are (un)consciously perpetuated within too many organizational structures. Conditions such as race vs racism, poverty vs oppression, are examples of conditions of bias that are deconstructed in this module.
Foundation 5-The many faces of (Un)conscious Bias & The Social Determinants of Equity-in this module leaders are shown four key faces of bias and how they intersect with the social determinants of equity. Leaders are supported to get comfortable exploring bias from the faces of white privilege (Economic) and Equity ( Political) plus more. The purpose of this module is to really dig down and unearth the roots of bias as it may present in their organization. Knowing about bias is not enough, leaders are supported to identify reasonable actions that are designed to foster a level playing field for all employees within their organizations.
Foundation 6- The Many Levels and Ideologies that Shape (Un)conscious Bias-this module captures the practical ways in which (un)conscious bias permeates organizations and societies. Leaders explore the role bias plays in establishing and maintaining unequal power relationships, while shown how ideologies such as colour blindness, secularism, and meritocracy, to name a few, are used to shape how racialized and non-racialized groups navigate workplaces and other institutions.
