You searched for ‘active bystander’

Worker Protection Act – What you need to know before October 26th

Stress Awareness Month: What can organisations do to reduce workplace stress?

Anti Bullying Week: How to tackle workplace bullying

How can we challenge so-called ‘innocent’ stereotypes?

We know that, left unchecked, our biases can impact business decisions, and stereotypes can feed into these biases.

One particularly poignant example of a stereotype, that I encountered during a washup discussion in a development centre, will stay with me for a long time.

During the discussion, we considered a participant from Denmark who had performed well but lacked international exposure and experience. A potential development opportunity proposed was for him to take on an international assignment. When mentioned, a senior leader in the client organisation said that in his experience, “Danish people don’t like moving out of Denmark”. 

Whilst based on his personal experience, it was clearly a stereotype, and fortunately, another leader in the discussion commented that in his experience, this wasn’t always the case. The challenge presented was a good one – and helped to prevent a decision from being influenced by bias – but challenging stereotypes and bias is not always easy to do.