Everday actions

Small, everyday actions can have a significant impact on how team members feel.

Click for examples of everyday actions that can feel like someone is being excluded or not valued.

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Withholding praise of great work done by others

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Using slang or acronyms and/or sharing in-jokes in a group where not everyone is familiar with these

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Overlooking a team member with expertise on a problem you are working on - not seeking their input

2

Forgetting to include a project team member in a relevant invitation or email

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Interrupting or speaking over another team member

Presentation

Actions like these, which can lead to feelings of exclusion, often happen without the intention to exclude or awareness of the impact. Regardless of the intention, the impact can be very hurtful.

5

Withholding praise of great work done by others

Continue

4

Using slang or acronyms and/or sharing in-jokes in a group where not everyone is familiar with these

3

Overlooking a team member with expertise on a problem you are working on - not seeking their input

2

Forgetting to include a project team member in a relevant invitation or email

1

Interrupting or speaking over another team member

Presentation

These small actions can lead to others feeling excluded,without intention or even awareness by the other person.

Self-evaluation

While we have all experienced everyday actions that exclude, the frequency of this is disproportionately experienced by members of under-represented identities.

By under-represented identity, we are referring to identities including:

• Women
• LGBTQIA+
• Disabled
• Having a mental health condition
• Neurodiverse
• A member of the Historically Under-represented Minorities (e.g. Black, Hispanic, Indigenous)
• A person of color

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46% of LGBTQIA+ employees experienced unfair treatment at work at some point in their lives. Source: UCLA School of Law, Williams Institute

Women are more likely to be interrupted in meetings than men. This has been measured at a rate of 3:1. Source: 50 Ways to Fight Bias, Lean In

A hidden benefit of being in the majority is you can think of yourself as an individual, rather than as a member of a specific identity, e.g. a white person, or an abled-bodied person, for example. Employees from under-represented groups do not have this luxury, and report higher rates of feeling out of place at work. - The Power of Belonging Report, Center for Talent & Innovation (2020)

A hidden benefit of being in the majority is you can think of yourself as an individual, rather than as a member of a specific identity, e.g. a white person, or an abled-bodied person, for example. Employees from under-represented groups do not have this luxury, and report higher rates of feeling out of place at work because of their identity. - The Power of Belonging Report, Center for Talent & Innovation (2020)

Women are more likely to be interrupted in meetings than men. This has been measured at a rate of 3:1. Source: 50 Ways to Fight Bias, Lean In

46% of LGBTQIA+ employees experienced unfair treatment at work at some point in their lives. Source: UCLA School of Law, Williams Institute

Self-evaluation

The disproportionate impact of everyday actions that exclude on individuals from under-represented identities is heavily influenced by unconscious biases.

Unconscious biases prime us to favour and trust those like us, and to exert caution towards those who are different. They also influence our thinking through stereotypes and associations that can disadvantage individuals from under-represented identities.

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Seeking out their input and perspective before a big meeting.

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Regularly checking-in and sharing friendly messages over slack.

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Skipping over their suggestions in a brainstorming activity.

Which action is more likely to be unintentionally directed towards someone who is quite different to us?

Correct!

Unconscious biases can have a big impact on our thoughts and interactions with others.

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Intent vs Impact

As with all human interactions, intention does not always equal impact. Click for examples including tips that can help proactively include.

Example 2

Example 1

Example 3

It's enoughAs long as you have the right intention, that's all you can do.Continue to focus on acting from the right intentions.

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It's not enoughGood intentions are a great start when working with others, though unconscious biases can impact our actions without our awareness. In these instances, having proactive measures in place is helpful.

Good intentions are enough when working with others.

Learning sessions / 02

Correct!

Unconscious biases can have a big impact on our thoughts and interactions with others.

Sesiones de aprendizaje / 02

Learning sessions / 02

Learn more

Self-evaluation

While we have all experienced everyday actions that exclude, the frequency of this is disproportionately experienced by members of under-represented identities.

By under-represented identity, we are referring to identities including:

• Women
• LGBTQIA+
• Disabled
• Having a mental health condition
• Neurodiverse
• A member of the Historically Under-represented Minorities (e.g. Black, Hispanic, Indigenous)
• A person of color

Continue

5

46% of LGBTQIA+ employees experienced unfair treatment at work at some point in their lives. Source: UCLA School of Law, Williams Institute

Women are more likely to be interrupted in meetings than men. This has been measured at a rate of 3:1. Source: 50 Ways to Fight Bias, Lean In

Disabled individuals are more likely to be invited to a meeting they can't physically attend than able-bodied individuals. Source: https://www.accessliving.org/newsroom/blog/ableism-101/

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A team member recognizes that they are never invited to the informal social catch-ups others in the team frequently have.

Scenario 3

Intent

Proactive Inclusion

Impact

• Invest time in getting to know others in your team or group, beyond the team members you feel an instant connection with
• Seek out points of connection with those where we share fewer obvious similarities
• Prompt yourself to expand your social catch-ups now and then, and share an invite to a broader group at different times.

The team member feels isolated and excluded. They also miss out on valuable ad-hoc work conversations and information that others get.

While the others didn't set out to exclude the team member, they didn't ever invite them. Instead, they focused on the connection that felt easy and familiar, which inevitably were team members like them (Similarity Bias).

Manage Unconscious Bias in the Workplace

Learn more about unconscious biases and managing these in our daily interactions through our 360 Learning course:

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Manage Unconscious Bias in the Workplace

Learn more about unconscious biases and managing these in our daily interactions through our 360 Learning course:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit

A team member learns that they have been left off a project meeting invitation.

Scenario 1

Intent

Proactive Inclusion

Impact

• Establish project norms & practices, including approach for syncs & async input, so everyone is clear about expectations up front.
• Have a Confluence page with roles and responsibilities; potentially list project meetings with topics and invitees
• Include meeting notes from all project meetings centrally, so everyone can view, regardless of whether they were in the sync
• Have periodic check-ins with project team members to check how things are going

The team member feels undervalued, excluded and frustrated by yet 'another example' of being treated differently.

The project lead wanted to protect team members' time and only have those involved in specific parts of the project at the relevant meetings.

The contributions of the only woman in the group went unacknowledged but were later credited to a male colleague who restated them.

Scenario 2

Intent

Proactive Inclusion

Impact

• Establishing sync norms & practices, including a no-interrupting rule
• Capture contributions in a range of formats, including a miro board or shared document, to reduce the biases of a different voice bringing an idea
• Encourage team members to credit the original contributor of an idea when it is restated.

The team member feels frustrated and not valued within the group.

While no one in the team intentionally ignored the team member, the environment of an unstructured meeting with no meeting practices or norms meant that unconscious biases were more likely to influence the interactions.