by Howard J. Ross
As a human, you are biased. Bias impacts us in large and small ways and, in many cases, for understandable reasons.
That’s the message stated clearly in the first chapter title: If You are Human, You Are Biased.
Howard J. Ross is a founder of one of the largest diversity consulting firms in the country. He uses his extensive research to lay out the facts and back this first point. The rest of the book dives deeper and applies the research in specific situations. This is research that really should matter to all of us. With it, we can better understand how and why we think and decide the way we do. And how these decisions relate to our interactions with others.
The best reason for reading this book comes from a line in the introduction:
“...most cases of bias, especially those that deferentially affect people in organizational life, are not conscious in origin at all. They are not decisions made because someone is ‘out to get’ somebody, but rather because all human beings have bias. Possessing bias is part and parcel of being human. And the more we think we are immune to it, the greater the likelihood that our own biases will be invisible or unconscious to us.”
We are all biased - make no mistake. But the book tells us why and how, and gives us some ways to overcome potentially hazardous biases.
This is a fascinating and worthwhile read. It is well written but it is research based so it won’t read like a novel. But the lessons and ideas are worth far more than the next five novels you will read.
I recommend this book. I am reading and studying it and hope it will help make me a more effective leader and human being.
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