What color is Performance?
Today’s challenges in the talent acquisition space have diversified in some respects, to look more closely and culture, team, and innovation alignment and fit. Yet, the ability for organizations to be unbiased in issues of ethnicity, gender, race and other factors remain. The Boston Symphony’s famous “behind the curtain” selection process in 1952, which has received much attention and attribution as one of the earliest studies on bias ever since, clearly demonstrated that no matter how well-intended, our decisions are impacted by personal bias. In Malcolm Gladwell’s recent publication, “Talking to Strangers,” he superbly unveils more of our biases and faulty judgment when it comes to our perception of others in his inimitable fashion.
The pursuit of unbiased, quantifiable, scientific methodology around talent selection challenges most hiring professionals. So many solutions and yet a lack of diversity and inclusion persist. Personality, styles, and preferences; professional accreditations; proven job competencies and experience; problem-solving approaches; teaming behaviors; work preferences… they have all been explored. Many of these tools are highly valuable, indeed.
The reality is that behind every approach is one truth – an individual’s bedrock belief system. That sub-conscious “code” that provides the WHY behind the “what and how” of human behavior. That code drives thinking.
Everything we are and all that we do comes from how we think.
Think of the device you are using to read this. When you click on a link or button, it popped open a window. When you scroll, the words move down and/or across your screen. Did you ever stop to think about what coding some developer spent hours writing to make that even possible? When you started your car this morning, did you stop to think about the electrical surge that moved from the ignition to the alternator, to fire a signal to the rods, etc.?
It’s the same with how we live life. When that situation arose in last week’s team meeting, you responded instantly. She said “that one thing,” she “always,” says, and you got angry. Why is she able to get to you like that? Or maybe, he asked you a question in a way that put you on the defensive, which made you feel embarrassed. In any one day, the average person will go through a million stimuli – some offering a choice of response, but most carry an automatic response – generated by code in your brain. When you started your day today, did you think about exactly “how” to get out of bed, or what steps to take to brush your teeth? Most likely, you were on “autopilot.” Most of our behavior in life is so ingrained, so tied to our “code” that it can be difficult to change.
Temporarily, you can make some behavioral changes. You can “put on” a new set of behaviors, learn a new skill, even attend classes or undergo years of training to learn to act a certain way. Then that day comes when things get stressful, and you revert to the innate code in your brain. Until you change the code, any operational functions are only temporarily altered.
What does all this have to do with diversity and unbiased hiring? Everything.
[i] In today’s understanding of neuroplasticity, we can change those lines of code. A targeted development system is available from ThinkXGo.com
[ii] Development of leadership in core behaviors to obviate bias as much as possible, by way of mindset shifts is made possible with ThinkXGo.com. This technology also provides performance target templates that drive quick and long-lasting behavior change.