Recognising & Reducing Unconscious Bias in the Workplace

Read time: 3.5 minutes

Is your workplace truly fair, or just seemingly fair?

Unconscious bias affects everything—from who gets hired to who gets heard in meetings.

If your organisation isn’t actively addressing bias, it’s likely reinforcing it.

Unconscious bias shapes the way we hire, promote, and interact at work—often without us realising it.

This workshop will help you recognise where bias exists and what you can do about it.

Why Unconscious Bias Matters

Bias isn’t just a social issue—it affects career growth, workplace culture, and business success.

Left unchecked, it limits opportunities, stifles innovation, and creates environments where only certain voices are heard.

Recognising and addressing bias creates fairer, stronger, and more inclusive teams.

Many people assume that being “fair” is enough.

However, unconscious bias operates below awareness, meaning good intentions alone won’t fix it.

Without structured processes and self-reflection, even the most inclusive workplaces can unintentionally reinforce bias.

“To not be biased is to not be human. Failing to admit your bias makes you part of the problem.” - Howard J. Ross

Howard is a lifelong social justice advocate and is considered one of the world's seminal thought leaders in identifying and addressing unconscious bias.

Diversity isn’t the challenge—unconscious bias stops diversity from thriving.

The real work isn’t just in hiring diverse teams; it’s in creating systems that ensure everyone has an equal chance to succeed.

What Participants Will Gain from This Workshop

By attending this workshop, participants will:

This workshop uses insights contained in the bestselling book "Biased" by Jennifer Eberhardt.

Let’s get into it…

Workshop Title

Recognising & Reducing Unconscious Bias in the Workplace

Duration: 2.5 hours

Overview: This session helps teams identify and address unconscious bias in decision-making, collaboration, and workplace culture. It is interactive, fostering self-awareness and actionable strategies for reducing bias.

Workshop Objectives

✅ Understand unconscious bias and its impact.
✅ Identify personal and organisational biases.
✅ Develop strategies to mitigate bias in everyday work.

Materials Needed

🛠️ Slide deck
🛠️ Flipcharts or whiteboard
🛠️ Markers
🛠️ Printed case studies (for Step 3)
🛠️ Printed Workplace Decision Scenarios (for Step 4)
🛠️ Bias awareness self-assessment sheets
🛠️ Laptop and projector (if using slides or videos)

Workshop Agenda

1. Opening & Icebreaker (15 min)

Facilitator Introduction: Explain the purpose of the workshop.

Activity – Implicit Associations: Ask participants to quickly associate words with images (e.g., leader, success, criminal, intelligence) and reflect on their instinctive responses.

2. Understanding Unconscious Bias (25 min)

Brief Presentation: Define unconscious bias, using examples from Biased (e.g., biases in policing, hiring, and education).

Discussion Questions:

3. Case Study Analysis (30 min)

Scenario Groups: Provide real-world case studies (or organisation-specific scenarios). Examples:

Discussion: Groups identify biases and propose ways to mitigate them.

4. Bias in Decision-Making (25 min)

Interactive Activity – Decision Walk:

5. Strategies for Reducing Bias (20 min)

Developing Organisational Commitments:

6. Reflection & Closing (20 min)

Reflection Activity:

Group Sharing:

Final Discussion:

Facilitation Tips

This workshop helps organisations move beyond awareness to actively reduce bias in their workplace culture.

Conclusion

By using this workshop, you’ll never have to wonder if unconscious bias is quietly shaping your workplace decisions.

Instead, it becomes a simple process of recognising bias, applying structured decision-making, and creating a culture where fairness and inclusion drive success.

Well, that’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed it.

If you want the unbranded slides and handouts for this workshop, you can get them in my Bestselling Book Workshops Bundle.

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See you next week.