I am happy to call myself one of the BAD people – a person who supports Behaviour Approaches for Diversity. I attended the BAD conference at Rotman School of Management on September 28 and thought I would share a few of the many highlights:

• Canada is the envy of other countries in the UN due to its gender focus and advanced gender approaches. This was revealed by Iris Bohnet, a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and the author of What Works: Gender Diversity by Design.
• Jackie VanderBurg, from the Bank of America Corporation, talked about “The Power of Investing with a Gender Lens”. She lauded the Canadian organization SheEO, even asking if the founder, Vicky Saunders, was in the audience. Another proud moment for this Canadian.
• The focus of this conference was on changing behaviours. Studies of diversity training generally reveal that implicit biases do not change or lessen with our awareness of their existence. By focusing on behavioural ways to disrupt the effects of implicit bias at organizational and societal levels, we stop the cycle of bias creation and confirmation. A great example is the use of blind auditions starting in the 1970’s to increase the number of female symphony musicians. The high tech version of blind hiring is now available through multiple apps.
• Societal views have changed over the past 70 years about Masculine and Feminine traits, with women being seen as more intelligent, competent and caring than men, but not as more competitive or more determined. Since these latter traits are associated with leadership, the predominant stereotype of leadership remains Masculine.
• Based on these findings, Alice Eagly suggested that women leaders “lean in” and show these traits while calling on organizations to recognize that cooperative and collaborative approaches are important for leaders. This advice contradicts findings that the “lean in” strategy does not work in advancing women; something that even the proposer of the strategy, Sheryl Sandberg, admits.
• Jeewam Chanica, the superintendent of Equity, Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression for the Toronto District School Board, shared many mind-expanding concepts. He observed that, though we share the world, we do not share the experiences of it. We may have conversations that greatly impact others without realizing it – such as discussions of Masculine and Feminine that injure non-binary children. Chanica also observed that when we talk about the “other”, we automatically define and validate the normative group. He suggested looking for people who are “other” first (who would not be represented in the conversation) and creating the dialogue around them.
• Data from the country of Jordan showed that people tend to overestimate the degree of negative bias – in this case, towards working women. This made me wonder if societal views are actually more moderate than individuals think they are, and, as a result, individuals live more restricted lives based on perceived societal norms than is necessary.
• Dolly Chugh, author of The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias, asserted that blind spots hide in those parts of ourselves that we don’t have to think about socially. For example, heterosexuals don’t have to think about their sexual orientation in talking with others, and thus are prone to making faulty assumptions about people with different sexual orientations. We are also less likely to see the advantages associated with having normative, socially accepted characteristics. Interestingly, in those areas where our blind spots hide we have the greatest ability to influence others.

The idea of changing behaviours rather than mindsets in pursuit of achieving diversity is a powerful one for me. From my work with conflict I know that opinions and beliefs are very difficult to change, let alone unconscious ones. Behavioural tools, especially communication tools like the ones set out in my book Understanding Gender at Work, are fundamental for exposing and breaking the cycle of implicit bias. I look forward to future BAD research showing us how to reduce bias through new behaviours and approaches so that no one feels they don’t belong, and all voices are welcome.