On keeping my own side of the street clean
There’s a person I get to occasionally do work with who thinks that they are right about almost everything. This otherwise smart, reasonable, capable, and pleasant to be with human being simply can’t back down when their perspective is being challenged. As I’ve considered the reason this may be the case, I believe it’s a combination of their strong ability to reason (which helps them “get it right” very often) and also their blindness to their own unconscious bias.
Bias very often does not serve us or others, and the more it goes unrecognized the more havoc it can create in and through a person’s life.
This week I read a book about bias. In Sway: Unraveling unconscious Bias, the writer and behavioral scientist Pragya Agarwal explores the biological and social/cultural history of bias, and she offers solutions to recognizing unconscious bias, with the hope of decreasing this bias—especially, it seems, gender and racial bias—in our lives and in the world.
The book made me think of several other books we’ve read in this program so far. From our first mindset orientation reading of Kathryn Schulz’s Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error to Bobby Duffy’s Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything, to Daniel Lieberman’s Spellbound, to David Rock’s Your Brain at Work, and even David and Tom Chivers’ How to Read Numbers. It seems that every time we turn around, we are being reminded how easy it is to get it wrong; this reminder was at first was frustrating, but by now I’ve come to greatly appreciate the warnings (and I will need to make sure I keep reading and heeding such books after I earn my doctorate).
But the strongest connection I kept making was to Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, partly because Agarwal explicitly mentioned it in her book a few times, and partly because I’m once again being forced to recon with System One and System Two thinking in my own life.
In Jim Wilder and Marcus Warner’s Rare Leadership I found a justification (and great relief) for my often deferred-to System One thinking. They suggested that a leader can practice certain leadership skill so often that those skills become second nature and are expressed as automatic, intuitive and near instantaneous responses. Some of my leadership leanings and decisions can at times feel like the spiritual gift of discernment because they come quickly and naturally after decades of practice.
But as close as they may seem, I believe supernatural spiritual discernment and System One thinking are two different things. True spiritual discernment, energized by the Holy Spirit, would root out ungodly bias and discrimination, but System One thinking can keep that bias unconscious and unseen, and unfortunately, alive and well.
It’s like practicing a golf swing for years using poor mechanics, which only reinforces and habitualizes bad habits. I can practice wrong for decades and have an automatic, intuitive swing that I don’t have to think about but that is in terrible form. Worse yet, after so many years of practice it may become nearly impossible to undo those bad habits (fortunately I gave up golfing long before I could practice enough to ingrain any bad habits).
As much as I embraced the principle of “Practice makes perfect” in Rare Leadership (and similarly in Eve Poole’s Leadersmithing) I need to remember the lesson from the iconic American Football coach Vince Lombardi that “Practice doesn’t make perfect; only perfect practice makes perfect.” I want to be more intentionally cautious and recognize the fact that years and decades of leadership practice will not help—and can actually lead to harm—if it ends up only solidifying the unconscious bias that I started out with.
If Agarwal’s goal was to make her reader aware of the possibility of their own and other’s unconscious bias, I think she was successful. My first paragraph in this post referenced a denominational colleague who clearly struggles with unconscious bias. But in pointing them out I may have also been secretly suggesting that bias isn’t something I wrestle with myself very much.
Transparently, after reading so many books about it over the last couple of years I was convinced I could be wrong, but I still didn’t understand how biased I could be. While it stings to recognize the deep well of unconscious bias that’s possible in my mind, I’m hoping the self-realization is a threshold moment for me, and that I will not be able to unsee the potential of unconscious bias within me, and that it helps me to work harder at keeping my own side of the street clean.
About the Author
Tim Clark
I'm on a lifelong journey of discovering the person God has created me to be and aligning that with the purpose God has created me for. I've been pressing hard after Jesus for 40 years, and I currently serve Him as the lead pastor of vision and voice at The Church On The Way in Los Angeles. I live with my wife and 3 kids in Burbank California.14 responses to “On keeping my own side of the street clean”
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Hi Tim- Great reflections on threshold moments! As I read the final paragraphs of your post, I had a question: How do you find the balance between seeing the potential for your own wrongness and then, as a leader, moving confidently forward? I can certainly see myself getting into a loop of self-doubt that then results in nothing getting done. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but the threat is real for over-analyzers like me!
NOT ridiculous, at all. That’s a really astute question.
I trained myself a long time ago to get the best information I can, and pray about it, and then just make a decision (and own it).
I’ve realized every decision is flawed at some level and I’ve seen the problems related to ‘analysis paralysis’ and decided I don’t want to go there. Often a decision can be reviewed and, with humility, corrected or adjusted if so wrong it brings harm, but even if it can’t, it provides motion to make the adjustment moving forward (no decision allows for no motion).
Honestly, there are a handful of times where I’ve made a decision and later thought “that really sucked and it messed stuff up” but MOST of the time getting as much information as possible, sleeping/praying about it, and then making the best decision I (or we if collaborative) can and then accepting responsibility for it works for me.
(and by the way, I LOVE over-analyzers like you because you are the ones who help me have the best information possible).
Tim, you wrote, “I want to be more intentionally cautious and recognize the fact that years and decades of leadership practice will not help…if it ends up only solidifying the unconscious bias that I started out with.” I would be curious to know what you’ve discerned, perhaps with the help of other discerning voices who know you well, to be an area of potential unconscious bias in your leadership that you are more aware of today. For example, something I’m more aware of today, with the help of my oldest son, is my tendency to elevate only vetted, “credible,” peer reviewed “sources” when it comes to believing or even desiring to read or learn about someone’s story or even particular take on a story. I go immediately to discrediting a story without certain criteria being in place. This came up as recent as last week when my son was sharing about a perspective on a subject…a perspective that I immediately questioned without really listening (as I doubted sources). And, he called me out on it. This certainly plays into the way I often lead, but that would be a longer blog post response – ha.
I was thinking about the biases of sex and race she talks about as I wrote that. I pride myself as someone who champions women and non-white leaders, but damned if I don’t find myself recognizing unconscious bias with both.
But… there ARE other biases, too. Uneducated people. The far right. The far left. The houseless. People who don’t like U2. The list goes on.
The book was good for me to remind me that those biases exist and not to deny that. It’s like in 1 John 1:8 “if we claim we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us”. I don’t want that to be me with bias.
I read your first line and thought, “It’s John Fehlan, isn’t it?”
I AM KIDDING!
First of all, you syntopicaled the heck out of that blog post! I had forgotten about some of those books you mentioned!
Second, the comment you made about decades of leadership practice causing more harm than good if you continue to practice unconscious bias was so important. I am finding that I have more unconscious bias than I ever wanted to admit which means I have been practicing it for a very long time. I hope I am beginning to untangle some of those biases from my leadership. Thanks for your super syntopical post. You gave me a lot to think about.
Hahahaha. YES it’s John!!!! (kidding)
“You syntopicaled the heck out of this blog post” is the BEST comment I’ve EVER got!!! Full transparency, I did that because I “inspectional read the heck out of this book” and felt deficient in writing the post.
Thanks Kally!
Hi Tim, You said something very profound when you wrote, “I believe supernatural spiritual discernment and System One thinking are two different things.” I agree. There is a danger in thinking that our System One thoughts are automatically God speaking to us (I could tell you a few stories to prove my point!). My husband recently shared with me a tool he uses with many of his counseling clients who struggle with reactivity and other thinking errors, “First thought wrong!” It does not mean that our thoughts are all wrong or that God isn’t speaking to us through them, but it is a reminder to pause and discern. How do you conceptualize supernatural spiritual discernment as being different from System One thinking?
I think spiritual discernment will hold up under scrutiny and confirmation by others in ways that system one thinking doesn’t always do. It will also be “Spirit-forward” and biblically grounded where system one thinking may just be instant response. Not saying that there is never overlap, but it’s especially important to take a beat with discernment to discern if that’s what it really is.
“There’s a person I get to occasionally do work with who thinks that they are right about almost everything. This otherwise smart, reasonable, capable, and pleasant to be with human being simply can’t back down when their perspective is being challenged.”
Bro…is there something you wanna tell me? I know you’re talking about ME – the smart, reasonable, capable and pleasant one! Ha! 🙂
Actually…funny: I just swiped up and notice that Kally made a joke about it being ME too. I resemble that remark, you guys!
I see humility and discernment of the Spirit as two vitally important resources for us to war against these pesky unconscious biases. Help us Lord.
Amen John, to your last comment, not that you are the one I’m talking about…. although…. (J/K).
Hi, Tim,
I actually read your post early on in the week but haven’t been able to think through my post until now. I was stirred by this sentence and actually mentioned it in my post: “I want to be more intentionally cautious and recognize the fact that years and decades of leadership practice will not help—and can actually lead to harm—if it ends up only solidifying the unconscious bias that I started out with.”
In this season of life, wisdom gleans much of her fruit by spending time with Jesus in reflection on what no longer serves us well and also what needs to be repented of for future maturity and growth.
So true that as we age we learn what to jettison. I’m in the middle of that task in this season.
Great title!! And closing argument! I wonder if most of the battle is our own inner workings and in being able to be honest about our own stuff, that gives freedom for others to “keep their side of the street clean”? With great power (and wisdom) comes great responsibility. I will keep praying for you brother as you step into these threshold learnings and do so, while leading many! Whew!
Thanks Jana, for your encouragement and for ‘seeing’ me. You are good at that.