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Unconscious bias refers to the stereotypes, both negative and positive, that exist in our subconscious and affect our behavior (including data selection and interpretation). Interest in unconscious bias modeling has skyrocketed over the past decade. As the global workforce becomes increasingly diversified and the speed of change more volatile, our internal blinders to new people, information and ideas have kicked into overdrive.

If you’re in a position of leadership today, then you’ve definitely experienced what it means to be “environmentally challenged.”

In recent years, huge companies such as Google and Facebook have adopted the practice of “Unconscious Bias Modeling,” taking their employees through workshops to uncover hidden biases and assumptions that are impacting innovation, diversity, creativity and decision making.

Early in the 20th century, Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the phrase ‘creative destruction’ to describe the disruptive process of ongoing technological and economic innovation within capitalism.

As futurists, it is our job to help clients to build the future. That may mean that we are helping them to identify potential risks, discover emerging opportunities or simply navigate the unfolding trends.

When sharing this concept with clients from many different industries and sectors, I often begin by telling them that my first reaction to this phrase was probably the same as the one they are presently experiencing: “The only idea that is ridiculous is this saying!

One of the greatest deficits of our time is an impoverishment of “creativity generators” or cultures of creativity within our organizations.

We love it when a story or movie has a resolution, or when the conflicts we face can be overcome with a straightforward answer. More specifically, we love it when all of our problems and solutions fit neatly into the confines of our prevailing mental models. We get exasperated and become belligerent when our stories don’t go according to a fixed script, or when our heroes don’t always wear masks and capes when defeating the villain.

As we seek to gain clarity amidst the unprecedented impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is clear many were caught off guard, seemingly unprepared to deal with a global crisis of this nature.

Old systems that were built on mindsets of linear thinking, simplistic viewpoints and predictable models act as traps that keep us from evolving past short-term strategies, fear-based governance and “fight and flight” reactions.