Better Think Tanking #3
Activism Works
Let’s start with some great news: Over a year ago, the Leadership Council for Women in National Security (LCWINS) convinced 17 US democratic presidential candidates to sign a pledge for gender parity in national security positions. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris signed it and the composition of their transition team looks promising.
LCWINS also made sure that the so-called argument of “lack of qualified women” will be exposed for what it is: a lazy excuse. For 190 national security positions, the council ended up with a list of 850 (!) qualified candidates. We’ll keep an eye on the turnout.
Fixing Yourself Is Hard. So Fix Your System!
The bad news: We are full of biases - affinity biases, in-group biases, evaluation biases, and many more. Even worse: We cannot get rid of them, says Iris Bohnet on the HKS Policy Cast. Instead of trying to change people, you should tackle structures in the workplace:
Don’t have one recruitment interview with a panel, but let each interviewer conduct a separate interview - or at least let interviewers assess candidates individually. As we tend towards agreement in groups, this allows for less biased assessments.
Avoid the likeability trap. We all want to work with people we get along with. But diverse backgrounds challenge us and lead to better output. If likeability is important to you, make it an explicit evaluation criterion among many.
If you can, hire in bundles. This will allow you to pay more attention to diversity, collective intelligence, and compatibility.
In a team context, carefully monitor everyone’s performance and development opportunities. Support bias - some receiving more support than others - is a mean thing. We suggest a standardized feedback system and making sure supervisors follow it.
Apropos feedback: Skip the supervisee’s self-evaluation before you assess them. People differ in how much light they shine on themselves (men do it more than women, white people more than POC). You can’t switch off the effects this has on you as a supervisor.
Walk Boldly Towards Your Biases
“We've gone about as far as we can go trying to make a difference trying to not see color. The problem was never that we saw color. It was what we did when we saw the color. It's a false ideal.”
Anti-racism is not only about deliberate racial discrimination. It means fighting the implicit biases and structures that discriminate against non-white people. And we’re all in it together: Women are biased against women, POC against POC, as Vernā Myers explains in her TED Talk. Time to get out of denial, she says: “Stop trying to be good people, we need real people.”
Myers suggests three steps to overcome your biases. First, actively disassociate: Stare at awesome black people and memorize them. Second, walk towards your discomfort and expand your (professional) circles. Who is missing? You're not gonna get comfortable before you get uncomfortable. Finally, speak out when you see lived biases, even to those you love (or work with).
Whose Futures Matter? Diversity and Foresight
“The future is not a distant place we are trying to find, but a shared space that we’re trying to co-create. (…) We know our discipline and practice are stronger and more effective when they are diverse, but we may still miss opportunities to ensure that is the case.“
The future of NATO, a carbon-free city, a fairer education system: To imagine a better future, foresight methods help structure our thinking. They are designed to counter cognitive and social biases like linear extrapolation and groupthink, for example through diversity of perspectives.
But countering biases is not the only reason to reconsider the invitation list of your next strategy meeting. Whoever gets to imagine the future - from 1984’s George Orwell to Space Odyssey’s Stanley Kubrick - has a profound impact on what we consider possible and what we set out to embrace or prevent. By shaping our imagination, dominant groups effectively colonize a so far uninhabited future.
A group of seven futurists from around the world think it’s time to decolonize the future. They explain how your foresight can make the future more inclusive. Co-author Pupul Bisht pioneers decolonizing the future for inclusive policy-making, for example by engaging marginalized communities in foresight. Way to go, fellow foresighters!
German: Die innere Kritikerin überwinden
“Mal wieder nicht ‘Nein’ gesagt, der*die Letzte im Büro gewesen oder bis nachts an der Präsentation gefeilt?”
Leistungsorientierung und Karrierestreben können unbemerkt zur emotionalen Falle werden. In der neusten Folge ihres Podcasts Deep Shit Talks beschreiben die Therapeutinnen Katrin Terwiel und Tina Steckling, wie Persönlichkeitsanteile unser Empfinden und Verhalten beeinflussen und was uns helfen kann, aus belastenden Mustern auszubrechen. Dabei decken sie Nachteile moderner, selbstverantwortlicher Arbeitsstrukturen mit hohem Identifikationsfaktor auf.
What We Are Thinking About
Go, mums! Apparently, you are more productive, enhance the productivity of others, are approachable, create a more positive workplace experience, are more focused on diversity and inclusion, and manage your energy better. Time to end the motherhood penalty and hire more mums.
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See you in 2021,
Theresa & Sarah