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Surfacing Bias and Triggers: A Path to Better Business Decisions

All of our thoughts, especially those composed to make informed and impactful decisions, are necessarily bathed in personal bias — both conscious but, more likely, unconscious biases.

Xapa holds that addressing and leveraging biases can lead to better choices for teams and companies. In the Xapa Xperience called “Surfacing Bias and Triggers,” you’ll learn that recognizing bias is the first step toward eliminating it.

Surfacing Your Biases and Triggers

Biases are an unavoidable but manageable feature of human nature, shaped by our experiences, culture and environment. They manifest in various forms, from subconscious thoughts and knee-jerk reactions to intentional stereotyping and conscious partiality.

The key to managing bias is first to become mindful of it:

  • The Unconscious Mind: Our unconscious mind holds thoughts, memories, opinions, and desires outside our current awareness. It silently but significantly influences our emotions and behaviors.
  • Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs): ANTs are negative thoughts that arise in response to situations, shaping our perceptions in a detrimental way.
  • Positive Empowering Thoughts (PETs): PETs are the positive thoughts we deliberately impose to replace negative thoughts, transforming our reactions and decisions.

Addressing Triggers: Managing Emotional Responses

Triggers are those words or actions or circumstances that produce a personal, negative emotional response, usually due to a bad past experience. If you don’t recognize triggers when they happen, your responses can lead to unintended outcomes. Here’s how to handle them:

  • Recognize Triggers: Easier said than done, but staying attuned to what provokes unreasonable or unmanageable negative emotions allows you to make conscious decisions about your responses.
  • Avoid Acting on Triggers: This is the key! Learn to intervene between a trigger and your response. Immediate, unbridled reactions to triggers can perpetuate the biases that caused them, resulting in poor and regrettable decision-making. Pause and reflect before responding.

Stereotypes: A Shortcut Gone Wrong

Stereotyping is an automatic, oversimplified belief about a group of people. We’re all subject to it. Stereotyping is a reflexive mental shortcut our brains take that can lead to prejudicial and downright faulty judgment.

To combat stereotyping:

  • Acknowledge Stereotypes: Understand that stereotyping is a natural cognitive process, not a moral failing. Recognizing this helps in addressing it objectively.
  • Empathy as a Tool: Empathy, the ability to understand and share others’ feelings, is crucial in overcoming stereotypes.

Build the Xabits for Respect and Inclusivity

There are things we can develop to recognize our biases, intercept them, and create a more respectful and inclusive environment.

  1. Unconscious Influence: Actively identify how your unconscious mind is shaping your emotions and behaviors.
  2. ANTs: Challenge and reframe Automatic Negative Thoughts to improve your perceptions.
  3. PETs: Regularly practice Positive Empowering Thoughts to counter negativity.
  4. Triggers: Recognize your emotional triggers and implement strategies to manage them effectively.
  5. Conscious Decisions: Identify triggers and respond with thoughtful, informed decisions.
  6. Stereotyping: Actively challenge and address generalized beliefs you hold about different groups.
  7. Bias Activation: Recognize when triggers are activating biases and consciously adjust your thinking.
  8. Cognitive Shortcuts: Be aware of when you rely on mental shortcuts and assess their accuracy.
  9. Empathy: Practice empathy daily to understand and build deeper connections with others.
  10. Types of Empathy: Engage in cognitive, emotional, and compassionate empathy to fully connect with others’ experiences.

Xperience It For Yourself

In team environments, biases stemming from diverse experiences are inevitable. Be transparent about these biases and strive to address them.

Finish the Xperience, “Surfacing Bias and Triggers” in the Xapa World mobile app, to get a self-assessment and practice your skills at spotting your and others’ biases. Your effort will be rewarded with a more respectful and inclusive environment where everyone can shine.

Discerning and disabling bias helps us all build a better and more joyful world, one person at a time. That’s Xapa’s mission. Send us your feedback! We want to hear your stories.