Cognitive Biases in Decision Making
We are all subject to cognitive biases in our decision-making. These, coupled with leader’s tendency to be over-confident in their ability to make decisions, is a formula for making decisions based on the past, familiarity, emotions and comfort.
This engaging workshop builds on the foundational unconscious bias workshop, and asks participants to reflect on recent decisions, analyze them for cognitive biases, and create a strategy for making more grounded decisions moving forward.
The benefit of this inquiry are to make decisions that support the business strategy rather than keep leaders comfortable, drive employee engagement and connectivity and build strategic mindset of leaders by freeing them up from decisions which can be pushed down. This workshop also introduces a decision accountability model that brings clarity to the decision process.
Unconscious cognition is essential to human functioning; it helps us to be efficient and responsive to the world around us. However unconscious processes are also prone to errors; errors that remain unrecognised and uncorrected and which can lead to flawed decision-making, significant bias and blinkered thinking. Even the most passionate advocates of inclusive practices can – and do – have unconscious biases that mean that they respond to diversity of both ideas and people differently. These impact on the way we view the world, the way we view ourselves and hence the way we behave. While we can’t necessarily change our unconscious cognition, becoming aware of its potential consequences can have a profoundly positive effect on organisational culture, the quality of decision making, gender targets, HR processes and employee satisfaction.
Our Directors are the only Australians accredited in the use of the Diversity Australia’s Unconscious Bias Cognition Assessments which means we’re well equipped to help organisations connect their cultural aspirations with the individual’s understanding of his or her psychological processes.
PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES
We support clients to explore the ‘danger points’ for unconscious cognition in their organisation both through the use of the Diversity Australia’s Unconscious Bias Cognition Assessments tool and through:
- Inclusive leadership workshops for senior leaders, middle managers and line managers.
- Unconscious cognition seminars for larger groups.
- Presentations or keynotes on unconscious cognition and inclusive workplaces.
We’re not completely at the mercy of unconscious cognition – just because something is outside of our awareness doesn’t mean it’s outside of our control. But as long as it remains a mystery, the thinking that’s going on without our knowledge will continue to hinder diversity, inclusion, the quality of our decision making and the ability to effect sustainable cultural change.
