The Impact Of Bias On Innovation

If you think that unconscious bias only applies to interpersonal relationships, think again. Bias can have a massive impact on your organization’s ability to innovate effectively.

Not too long ago, a well-known organization developed a mobile app that let people upload videos to their website using their phone. The company quickly noticed that about 10% of the videos were being uploaded upside down. At first, they assumed user error, but eventually they observed something unique about the users. They were all left handed. The way they swiped their phones started and ended at a different place than right handed users. No one on the development team was left handed, so they had unconsciously assumed that all users swiped their phones the same way.

Human beings are prone to bring their own view of the world into all that they do, especially when trying to innovate. That leaves us susceptible to bias.

To improve innovation, you should hire and develop a talented and diverse group of people who can question assumptions and see the world the way your customers do—all of them!

Download our guide, Manage Your Biases to Better Manage Your Team, to learn some strategies for identifying your biases as a leader and what you can do to manage them.

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The Impact Of Bias On Innovation

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Unconscious biases affect how we make decisions, engage with others, and respond to various situations, often limiting potential, inhibiting performance, and leading to poor decisions.

Written in an approachable and practical style, The Leader’s Guide to Unconscious Bias gives readers the tools to reframe bias, cultivate connection, and create high-performing teams at work.

Research has shown that organizations that address bias achieve better organizational results. Jimmy McDermott shares how addressing bias impacts engagement, performance, and impacts the bottom line.

Until recently, having a diverse workforce was seen as desirable but not necessary. It could be acknowledged with a handful of initiatives to make progress for the future, but times have changed.

Combat the unconscious biases that are affecting decision making in your organization.

Attribution bias is the tendency to have different rationale for your own behavior versus that of others. Irene Stone shares ways to identify and address attribution bias in the workplace.

Are your likes and dislikes based on objective fact or your own subjective experience? The first step to confronting unconscious bias is to admit to yourself that you can be harboring these biases.

Cultivate meaningful connections with the members of your team to significantly improve your decision making and consequently, their engagement.

Bias can be a heavy word. People often conflate it with prejudice, racism, discrimination, or sexism. But bias, on its face, is not inherently good or bad.

Identity matters. Each of our unique identifiers is a lens through which we experience life. Brandon Stone explains how some identifiers grant advantages and disadvantages.

When it comes to our biases, it’s important to get feedback on how we are perceived and how our actions and decisions might be impacting others.

Effectively addressing bias means being both bold and careful. Sydney Eichers shares some ways to be bold and courageous to address bias in the workplace.

Bias isn’t just about ‘disliking’ someone, or something, it is equally about favoring groups or individuals over others.

How we cope with bias can be different in every situation. Kory Kogon shares some ways to act with courage when addressing bias.

Kory Kogon discusses negativity bias in the workplace and how to avoid it by not allowing one negative thing to override many positive things.

You’ve decided to take bias seriously, but don’t know where to begin. Here are some tips to help you succeed in identifying and addressing bias in your personal and professional life.

Mike Hassett explains three common bias traps where we are more prone than usual to rely on biased thinking.

Everyone has biases, whether they are conscious or conscious, but where do they come from? Bias is often traced back to these five things.

Pamela Fuller, FranklinCovey’s Inclusion and Bias Thought Leader and Global Client Partner, answers the question of whether or not everyone is biased.

Gender and race aren’t the only areas where people commonly harbor unconscious (and conscious) biases. Here are some other common (and lesser-known) areas where bias comes into play.