By Joseph Santana, CEO, Joseph Santana, LLC
Corporate America has sought and found that evil villain that prevents us from being highly productive and inclusive diverse organizations. Our very own “hidden misogynistic, homophobic, racist: our subconscious mind. And in a move that is reminiscent of the New Testament advice offered by Jesus to his followers when he said, “if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out,” Corporate America has dedicated itself to uprooting and removing this evil villain with billions of dollars invested in Unconscious bias training. It’s noble, it’s powerful, but unfortunately it hasn’t worked, and it never will.
Here’s why. Our subconscious minds process huge amounts of data at phenomenal speeds, like a mighty hare on steroids. On the other hand, our subconscious mind resembles a severely impaired turtle that can only handle small amounts of data at a small fraction of the speed of the subconscious. That’s not much of a competition. Another way to look at is like this: Training our conscious minds in the hope of controlling our subconscious is like trying to get Babbage’s Analytical Engine invented in 1873 to dominate IBMs Summit Supercomputer unveiled in 2018.
But what if I told you that there is a way to harness the power of that powerful subconscious engine to make us more inclusive? What if I told you, you could save millions and years of effort while still achieving the inclusion you seek, by not plunking down big bucks and time into unconscious bias training, but simply enrolling the power of the subconscious as your ally in the quest for inclusion?
That is the topic covered in my June 2019 article titled “Don’t Just Try to Eradicate Bias – Build Bridges of Inclusion.”