Inclusion, Exclusion, Illusion and Collusion : Helen Turnbull at TEDxDelrayBeach
-
0:11 - 0:14I was driving down the
interstate the other day -
0:17 - 0:20when I came up behind a truck
-
0:20 - 0:23and I saw a large sign
on the truck that said, -
0:23 - 0:29“If you cannot see my
mirrors I cannot see you”. -
0:29 - 0:33And we all know that when we
have a car in our blind spot -
0:33 - 0:36that that’s not a very good thing.
In fact, it could be dangerous -
0:36 - 0:38but it made me think
-
0:38 - 0:39about our blind spots.
-
0:39 - 0:43It made me think about what
our blind spots can do to us -
0:43 - 0:45as well-intentioned people
-
0:45 - 0:47and that sometimes perhaps
-
0:47 - 0:51we’re not as inclusive
as other think we are. -
0:51 - 0:55So I want to talk a little bit about inclusion
today and about the inclusion paradox -
0:55 - 0:58that it is true that we
are all human beings -
0:58 - 1:00and that we are all alike.
-
1:00 - 1:03We share a human experience.
-
1:03 - 1:08Paradoxically however we are
all uniquely different. -
1:08 - 1:10We all have different DNA,
-
1:10 - 1:12different fingerprints,
-
1:12 - 1:14different patterns in our eyes,
-
1:14 - 1:19and we all have different stories
and different experiences -
1:19 - 1:21and different frames of
reference on the world. -
1:21 - 1:24But, I think the
issue of inclusion -
1:24 - 1:28is actually in this bullet point
is we are like some people -
1:28 - 1:30more than others.
-
1:30 - 1:34That we have a propensity
for affinity bias. -
1:34 - 1:40We have a preference to surround
ourselves with people who are like us. -
1:40 - 1:43However, it is nevertheless
-
1:43 - 1:45a part of the human experience
-
1:45 - 1:47that we all have a deep need
-
1:47 - 1:49to feel included,
-
1:49 - 1:54so you would think that if we all
have a deep need to feel included -
1:54 - 1:57that the path to inclusion
would be smooth, -
1:57 - 1:59flat,
-
1:59 - 2:01and completely
without obstacles. -
2:01 - 2:03And yet I’d like to
suggest to you today -
2:03 - 2:06that not only is it
flat and smooth, -
2:06 - 2:11it is actually filled with
visible and invisible obstacles -
2:11 - 2:18that stop us even when we think we’re being
inclusive from being fully inclusive. -
2:18 - 2:23It will not surprise you to know that our
in group is smaller than our out group -
2:23 - 2:27But it may surprise you that in recent
years in the field of neuropsychology -
2:27 - 2:30has been able to demonstrate
-
2:30 - 2:33hat the neural
pathways that we use -
2:33 - 2:36when we think about ourselves
-
2:36 - 2:40and the neural pathways that we use when
we think about members of our in group -
2:40 - 2:42are the same neural pathways,
-
2:42 - 2:45causing us to be
much more empathetic -
2:45 - 2:49and much more sympathetic
to people in out in group. -
2:49 - 2:53We use different neural pathways
for people in our out group -
2:53 - 2:59causing us to be somewhat indifferent
to their success of failure. -
2:59 - 3:02I was in Dallas Fort Worth
Airport a few years ago -
3:02 - 3:04and it was pre 9/11
-
3:04 - 3:06and I have an unconscious habit
-
3:06 - 3:10that I didn’t realize I had
until that particular evening. -
3:10 - 3:13When I boarded the plane I
would always look to the left -
3:13 - 3:15and look into the cockpit
-
3:15 - 3:22and on this particular evening there was
a woman sitting behind the pilot seat. -
3:22 - 3:26Now she smiled at me
and I smiled at her -
3:26 - 3:30and I sat down and my
stomach began to churn -
3:30 - 3:34and then my inner voice started to
run like a ticker tape that said -
3:34 - 3:39“Oh my goodness, perhaps I
need to change my flight. -
3:39 - 3:41Really? A woman
flying this plane -
3:41 - 3:43to Fort Lauderdale tonight?
-
3:44 - 3:46A 757? A Woman pilot?”
-
3:46 - 3:50Now I’m a diversity consultant
-
3:50 - 3:54and I am not meant
to think like that. -
3:54 - 3:59So I then began to examine what is
happening. Why am I thinking like that? -
3:59 - 4:02And I realized that
I had a blind spot, -
4:02 - 4:09that for me the image of a competent
airline pilot looks like this: -
4:09 - 4:10he’s tall,
-
4:10 - 4:11he’s male,
-
4:11 - 4:12he’s white,
-
4:12 - 4:16he preferably has
silver-grey hair, -
4:16 - 4:18and he looks like
he’s ex-military. -
4:18 - 4:21Now he could fly the plane,
-
4:21 - 4:24I wasn’t sure that she could.
-
4:24 - 4:27I’d like to share with
you some of the data -
4:27 - 4:30from cognizant my unconscious
bias assessment tool -
4:30 - 4:32this is aggregate data from
-
4:32 - 4:35quite a large number of people
from different client systems -
4:35 - 4:40and what you’re looking at is
70% of this group were men -
4:40 - 4:42and 30% were women.
-
4:42 - 4:46What you can see in these
results is that the men said -
4:46 - 4:50that men exhibit leadership
qualities greater than women do, -
4:50 - 4:52that men are more
assertive than women, -
4:52 - 4:56and that men are more serious
about their careers than women. -
4:56 - 5:00However, they also said that men
and woman were valued equally -
5:00 - 5:03for their revenue
generation skills -
5:03 - 5:07and were equally likely to
be allocated major projects. -
5:07 - 5:12But let’s look at what the woman said;
the 30% of the group that were woman. -
5:12 - 5:16It may surprise you to see
that the woman also said -
5:16 - 5:19that men exhibit greater
leadership skills. -
5:19 - 5:24The woman also said that men are slightly
more serious about their careers than men, -
5:24 - 5:29and the woman also said that men
are more assertive then woman. -
5:29 - 5:31They did however
disagree with the men -
5:31 - 5:35on the issue on being values for
their revenue generation skills -
5:35 - 5:40and being valued or likely to be
allocated major projects and clients. -
5:40 - 5:41Now how can this be?
-
5:41 - 5:46Because consciously we
believe that we are actually -
5:46 - 5:50striving for equity that we have a
meritocracy in our organizations -
5:50 - 5:54and that we’re being fair and that we are
conscious of the gender differences. -
5:54 - 6:01And yet not just the men but the woman
were colluding in this process. -
6:01 - 6:04So implicit biases
are very pervasive, -
6:04 - 6:07in fact of the fifteen
million people -
6:07 - 6:11who have taken Harvard
University’s IAT test -
6:11 - 6:1480% of that group,
-
6:14 - 6:16both men and women,
-
6:16 - 6:18cannot resist the tendency
-
6:18 - 6:20to associate men with careers
-
6:20 - 6:23and woman with home.
-
6:23 - 6:28Now I had a professor once that said
there’s no such thing as the innocent eye. -
6:28 - 6:32And that we really are not always
seeing as clearly as we think we are. -
6:32 - 6:34The brain distorts the message.
-
6:34 - 6:36In fact, we actually
do physically -
6:36 - 6:40have a blind spot in the
retina of each eye. -
6:40 - 6:43And it wouldn’t stretch
the imagination to think -
6:43 - 6:46that perhaps this giraffe is
looking at himself and saying, -
6:46 - 6:50“Oh my, I look a little
bit small and fat today.” -
6:50 - 6:53Because the brain
distorts the reflection, -
6:53 - 6:56and if its distorting the
reflection of ourselves -
6:56 - 7:02what is it doing in terms of your
reflection or patters for other people. -
7:02 - 7:04Deepak Chopra said that
-
7:04 - 7:10“Our ideal body weight is hiding
inside us waiting to be discovered.” -
7:10 - 7:15Just like Michelangelo discovered
David in that piece of rock. -
7:15 - 7:19But what I’d like to suggest to
us today is there’s a better self -
7:19 - 7:22hiding inside each of us.
-
7:22 - 7:28There’s a better self who’s capable of
being more inclusive than we really are. -
7:28 - 7:30Because despite the fact
that we’re well intentioned -
7:30 - 7:33we’re not always as inclusive
of other human beings, -
7:33 - 7:37particularly if
they’re not like us. -
7:37 - 7:41Now David’s face is carved
in marble in perpetuity -
7:41 - 7:43however as part of our
human experience, -
7:43 - 7:45we have many faces.
-
7:45 - 7:47I’d like to talk about
a couple of the today. -
7:47 - 7:51First of we have what I
call our professional face, -
7:51 - 7:54that’s the face that we take out of the
car in the morning as we go to work, -
7:54 - 7:59that’s the face we use when we’re
doing business with other people. -
7:59 - 8:03But we also have our
politically correct face, -
8:03 - 8:09that’s the face you use when you’re
saying one thing and thinking another. -
8:09 - 8:12But then I believe we have what I
call your curious tourist face. -
8:12 - 8:15Your curious tourist face
is when you go overseas -
8:16 - 8:19and you visit another country and you
meet the people and you love the locals -
8:19 - 8:22and you love the food and their
music and their tradition, -
8:22 - 8:26and maybe you even buy some touristy
things to take home to remind of the trip, -
8:26 - 8:34but just as long as they don’t
all move into your neighborhood. -
8:34 - 8:38We also have what I call an
irritated customer face, -
8:38 - 8:42and I’m sure you can relate to the
idea of being in a taxi somewhere -
8:42 - 8:45and the taxi driver doesn’t
speak your language -
8:45 - 8:46and perhaps he gets you lost
-
8:47 - 8:48and you get a little irritated.
-
8:48 - 8:51One of the blind spots
that I’ve noticed -
8:51 - 8:55is that we are willing to
express more irritation -
8:55 - 8:57towards people from
a different culture -
8:57 - 9:00than we are towards people
from our own culture. -
9:00 - 9:04And so that’s something I’d
like to pay attention to, -
9:04 - 9:07is when I’m dealing with people
who are different from me. -
9:07 - 9:09So in terms of language,
-
9:09 - 9:11language is one of the
areas that I do think -
9:11 - 9:14language, accent, pace
of speech, tone of voice -
9:14 - 9:17are all areas that
we can actually -
9:17 - 9:20imperceptibly cause us
to have blind spots -
9:20 - 9:22and to treat people differently.
-
9:23 - 9:26I was in Publix once and I
asked the woman for six bagels -
9:26 - 9:30“Oh my, you sound
so intelligent.” -
9:30 - 9:35And I said, well the fact that she’s
right isn’t really the issue. -
9:35 - 9:38The issue is what she
was projecting onto me, -
9:38 - 9:41and what she was projecting
was intelligence. -
9:41 - 9:45Whereas it made me question what
does she project onto other people. -
9:45 - 9:48I’d like to share with you also some
data from my unconscious bias tool -
9:48 - 9:53and this time comparing Anglo to
non-English speaking background -
9:53 - 9:56where you can see that
in every instance -
9:56 - 9:58people from non-English
speaking backgrounds were rated -
9:58 - 10:02lower than people
of Anglo descent. -
10:02 - 10:05And what this is suggesting
is that there is a real issue -
10:05 - 10:06around the talent pipeline
-
10:06 - 10:10and around how people’s
careers can progress -
10:10 - 10:13when we have these blind spots
and these unconscious biases -
10:13 - 10:19that are impacting our decisions
about people’s competence. -
10:19 - 10:22So I’d like to ask you to choose two
colors that you really like the most, -
10:22 - 10:26just shout out a
couple of colors. -
10:26 - 10:28I heard blue and yellow, OK,
-
10:28 - 10:34so now I’d like you to choose two
colors that you like the least. -
10:34 - 10:36So what happened because
what I noticed there -
10:36 - 10:39is you were very quick when
I asked you the first time, -
10:39 - 10:42but the second time there was a
silence that fell over the room. -
10:42 - 10:44Let me tell you what happened:
-
10:44 - 10:46it’s called the stroop effect.
-
10:46 - 10:49It was developed by a man called
John Riddley Stroop in 1935, -
10:49 - 10:51an English man, and
what he discovered -
10:51 - 10:54was that the brain
seeks congruency. -
10:54 - 10:57The brain is lazy, the brain is
habitual, it seeks congruency. -
10:57 - 11:01The first slides were easy
because there were congruent, -
11:01 - 11:03the color matched the swatch.
-
11:03 - 11:07The second slides, the color
and the words do not match, -
11:07 - 11:11so it causes us to have and
imperceptible hesitation. -
11:11 - 11:14It is in that hesitation
that we can exclude people. -
11:14 - 11:17So this time I’d like to
ask you to pick two people -
11:17 - 11:22that you would least like
to have on your team. -
11:22 - 11:26I hear one and four, OK.
-
11:26 - 11:31Interestingly one and four on every
single time I do this exercise -
11:31 - 11:35either one and four or
three and four are picked -
11:35 - 11:38as the people that would be least
welcome on someone’s team. -
11:38 - 11:42The ensuing discussion is always
about the issue of appearance -
11:43 - 11:45and height and weight.
-
11:45 - 11:51And so these are also issues in
which we can exclude others. -
11:51 - 11:56I was on a flight from Canberra
to Sydney just last year -
11:56 - 11:59and it was a 30 seater
commuter flight -
12:00 - 12:03when the female flight
attendant was in the isle -
12:03 - 12:08serving orange juice when I hear a
female voice come over the intercom. -
12:08 - 12:12And she said, “Ladies and
gentlemen, we’re at 27,000 feet. -
12:12 - 12:17We’ll be landing in Sydney shortly.
I hope you’ve enjoyed your flight.” -
12:17 - 12:21I looked at the flight
attendant and I thought, -
12:21 - 12:24“Her mouth isn’t moving,
how can this be?” -
12:24 - 12:26And then I realized,
-
12:26 - 12:33“Oh my goodness, there’s a female
pilot and I forgot to check.” -
12:33 - 12:37And at 27,000 feet I was
not exercising the option -
12:37 - 12:40to get off the plane.
-
12:40 - 12:42Socrates said that
-
12:42 - 12:45“the unexamined life
is not worth living”. -
12:45 - 12:47But I would like to
suggest to you today -
12:47 - 12:50that the unchallenged brain
is not worth trusting. -
12:50 - 12:54And I would like to invite you
to think about what it is you do -
12:54 - 12:56to exclude others.
-
12:56 - 12:59What is it you do that might
be a blind spot for you -
12:59 - 13:03that may cause you, if you
paid attention to it, -
13:03 - 13:05to widen the size
of your in group. -
13:05 - 13:06Thank you.
- Title:
- Inclusion, Exclusion, Illusion and Collusion : Helen Turnbull at TEDxDelrayBeach
- Description:
-
CEO of Human Facets, Helen has a 25+ year successful track record in the field of Global Inclusion. She is an internationally recognized Thought Leader on Unconscious Bias, global inclusion and diversity. As creator of "Cognizant" -- Unconscious Bias assessment tool and the "ISM Profile" for measuring Inclusion Skills gaps, her work has contributed to clients winning the Catalyst Award for Gender improvements. Helen is passionate about Inclusion work and relaxes by watching and playing golf.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
- Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 13:16