It was early on a Sunday morning. I was arriving at church, and upon entering, I greeted several of our leaders in the sanctuary who were preparing for worship. I was approached by a couple who had recently joined our congregation. They were prominent members in our community. The husband a public figure whose status was pretty well known amongst the congregants employment was motioning pretty demonstratively attempting to get my attention. He then proceeded to ask me a loudly voiced concern: \u201cPastor, what are you going to do about all these homosexuals in church? When are you going to preach a series on homosexuality?\u201d At this point, many of those in the sanctuary now have fixed their eyes on me. As I looked him dead in the eye, my response to him was direct and loud. \u201cAfter I finish preaching a series on stealing, lying, breaking the sabbath, gluttony and coveting and a few more! Immediately, I can tell I struck a nerve with him. Needless to say, the couple stayed two weeks more before withdrawing their membership. The root cause of their concern, bias!<\/p>\n
Pragya Agarwal\u2019s book Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias tackles the prevalent issue affecting us all. Agarwal states that when it comes to bias, it can be both hidden and explicit.[1] This concerned couple was guilty of explicit bias and was egrigiously oblivious to it. Agarawal digs deeper on this thought stating, there are other explicit biases which we know and we are aware of, but there are some which we either not voice them because we think that that is going to make us look like racist or sexist or ageist or just prejudicial. [2] Agarwal references Anthony Greenwald as the ignitor of the concept of implicit bias, who debunks the assertion that humans are guided solely by explicit beliefs and by their conscious intentions [3]<\/p>\n
As Agarwal is thorough in her argument for cognitive biases that sway us she suggests a familiar anecdote to better guide our actions and desires through System 1 and System 2 Thinking a direct parallel to Daniel Kahneman\u2019s Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow book. Being publicly confronted on my stance on homosexuality impromptu in front of those I lead was a difficult conversation, but one I was forced to engage in. In another book, The Leaders Guide to Unconscious Bias by Pamela Fuller, Mark Murphy and Anne Chow<\/em>, I was appreciative of the trio’s suggestion concerning this, as they recommend embracing difficult conversations while remaining unbiased. A proposition they offer is listening with an open antenna. While you\u2019re listening, you\u2019re not imposing your views on the person. You are not trying to figure out how to get them to see it your way. [4]<\/p>\n Seeing things our way is a fight that causes our flesh to be forced to die daily. This is an unconscious bias that gains traction the more we become unaware. In my context as a pastor, I had to contend with bias on several fronts and with good reason. One of the biggest challenges came moving a congregation of people forward, who were highly skeptical of my administrative decisions and leadership capabilities due to prior leadership flaws and failures. On many occasions, I posed what I deemed good ideas and strategies, but these were killed before I got them off the ground. What I quickly discovered were a few faithful, longstanding members who stood at the ready to shut down any move towards progress. Hidden within them was hindsight bias. Agarwal states, hindsight bias affects our ability to learn from our experiences. When we believe that we already knew what was going to happen, we are likely to overestimate our abilities. We all tend to selectively recall information consistent with what we now know to be true as we try and impose meaning on our knowledge [5]<\/p>\n While the senior members of the congregation were assuredly guilty of this, time proved they would not be the only culprit. As I matured in my ministry capacity, I could recall several instances to which I could plead guilty to hindsight bias, using my previous experience as a block in preventing certain plans from going forward. The Holy Spirit was not just a teacher but would convict me in private moments, helping me to reframe my thoughts and my openness to embrace possibilities where skepticism and apprehension prevailed. As unconscious bias is prevalent in all of our lives, I was inspired to hear Agarwal share this truth: no one not even yourself can cure your bias. Anybody who does that is actually fooling you- because nobody can really cure your biases. But what we can do and the hope is that y acknowledging them, accepting them, understanding them more and being more open minded upon about them, we can start slowly minimizing them. [6]<\/p>\n As I think of ways to counter and deal with the various forms of unconscious bias, my mind centers on a couple of possible solutions:<\/p>\n 1. Nueroplasticity\u2014Nueroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to create lasting change at any age. If we authentically seek to reduce our personal biases, we should do our best to create neuroplasticity.<\/p>\n 2. Embrace Mindfulness- Reframing our thoughts, actions, and decisions can yield positive results. This helps set us in the proper mind space and makes us cautious of bias behavior. Mindfulness should no longer be considered a nice to have for executives. it\u2019s a must have [7]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1] The Royak Institution Podcast: Unravelling Unconscious Bias- with Pragya Agarwal. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6vYVOQ5NLog\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n [2] The Royak Institution Podcast: Unravelling Unconscious Bias<\/em><\/p>\n [3] Pragya Agarwal,\u00a0<\/span>Sway: Unraveling Unconscious Bias<\/em>,\u00a0<\/span>(Bloomsbury Sigma Series. London\u202f; New York: Bloomsbury Sigma, 2020).16<\/span><\/p>\n [4] <\/em><\/span>Chow, Anne, Pamela Fuller, Mark Murphy, The Leader\u2019s Guide to Unconscious Bias: How to Reframe Bias, Cultivate Connection, and Create High-Performing Teams<\/i>. (Skillsoft, 2021). 127.<\/p>\n [5] Agarwal, 195<\/p>\n [6] The Royak Institution Podcast: Unravelling Unconscious Bias<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was early on a Sunday morning. I was arriving at church, and upon entering, I greeted several of our leaders in the sanctuary who were preparing for worship. I was approached by a couple who had recently joined our congregation. They were prominent members in our community. 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