We all have unconscious bias; it’s hardwired in each of us. When these biases become part of the important decisions we make at work, it can negatively impact our workplace and prevent us from achieving our most innovative work. Surfacing and understanding the unconscious biases that we all have, and learning how to counteract them, is crucial as we strive to create an inclusive workplace.
WLN Singapore invited all IPG staff to take part in ‘Managing Bias’, a two and half hour foundational training course using academic and industry research, to illustrate four types of unconscious bias most prevalent in the workplace across the Asia Pacific region.
The workshop was organized in direct response to the feedback following WLN’s ‘Be The Ally’ event held in July which contained a condensed version of the Managing Bias training module. The response was so positive with requests for more information, that WLN collaborated with the talent leads across IPG to make the full training workshop available to our people, hosted and delivered by our partners at Facebook.
We had 42 attendees from across 12 IPG companies attend the workshop. We had highly active participation by all attendees on the day, and great energy levels throughout. The trainer and content were customized to be very relevant and relatable not only to the APAC region but also to the agency world.
Early results from the feedback survey have been very positive, indicating that people found the training valuable and left with positive intentions to modify/interrupt bias behavior.