The Art of Becoming a Better Mentor and Mentee - Implicit Bias

Donna Dean and Cynthia Simpson Author

10/17/2016 Added

55 Plays

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Part of workshop on mentoring lead by Donna Dean, executive consultant for Association for Women in Science (AWIS) and retired senior federal executive for the National Institutes of Health, and Cynthia Simpson, the chief business development officer for AWIS. The workshop was tailored to a community of both women and men and faculty, staff and students.

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[00:00:00.207]Okay, I'm gonna call time,
[00:00:03.198]and just have you,
[00:00:07.012]any reactions, any comments,
[00:00:09.487]any things you'd like to share with the group?
[00:00:12.769]What are some of the misconceptions that
[00:00:15.420]some people may have about you?
[00:00:18.105]When they first meet you, what do people think?
[00:00:21.299]Yes?
[00:00:22.467](student mumbling)
[00:00:36.990]It's really interesting that when you've got
[00:00:38.665]a really good Southern accent that people think
[00:00:41.207]you're really dumb.
[00:00:44.767]Alright accent, anyone else?
[00:00:51.374]Nobody else?
[00:00:52.457]Oh she's good.
[00:00:53.995](student mumbling)
[00:01:00.052]Oh yeah!
[00:01:02.565](student mumbling)
[00:01:09.228]That's why her book was so good, yeah, right.
[00:01:11.460]Yes you're right, people do have biases about, again,
[00:01:16.922]I haven't done it lately because it makes me angry
[00:01:19.032]every time I do it, but if you Google images "scientist,
[00:01:23.015]"engineer," they've gotten better actually,
[00:01:25.337]but many times in my career, certainly in earlier years,
[00:01:29.053]"well you don't look like a chemist."
[00:01:31.750]Well what's a chemist supposed to look like!?
[00:01:35.685]I don't know, you know...
[00:01:40.973]Alright accents, scientific disciplines, other biases?
[00:01:45.750]For those of you that are younger, have you ever experienced
[00:01:48.817]any biases because of your age?
[00:01:51.724]Yes.
[00:01:52.869]Age.
[00:01:53.702]Alright, example?
[00:01:56.773](student mumbling)
[00:02:02.946]Yeah, yeah.
[00:02:03.779]Alright, comments on your age.
[00:02:06.542]For those of you that are older, you may see bias
[00:02:09.491]because of your age.
[00:02:11.520]It's the same as when you're younger, when you're old.
[00:02:15.407]Anyone else?
[00:02:16.967]Definitely a bias for the age.
[00:02:20.634]Anyone else, yes?
[00:02:23.131](student mumbling)
[00:02:25.460]Oh yes.
[00:02:27.462]Oh you mean you people that live here in fly over country?
[00:02:33.247]Yes for example, yes.
[00:02:34.851]Lots of biases that emanate from the east coast
[00:02:40.298]and the west coast to the rest of us.
[00:02:45.316](student mumbling)
[00:02:56.870]Alright, so location.
[00:03:02.306]Yeah, urban and rural, another one over here.
[00:03:08.846](student mumbling)
[00:03:09.779]Oh right!
[00:03:11.848](student mumbling)
[00:03:16.833]Mhm, bias against, yeah.
[00:03:20.974]Parental status, single parent, working parent,
[00:03:25.742]non-working parent, working in the home parent.
[00:03:29.564]All kinds of biases that we hold and perceive, great.
[00:03:36.198]That was just a little exercise to get you to think
[00:03:40.471]about that, and I think we've done that enough,
[00:03:43.844]they can continue to talk about that a little bit,
[00:03:46.090]because it says we will have,
[00:03:48.081]yeah of course we all would like the biases that people
[00:03:51.151]have about us that are good ones, we'd like those to
[00:03:55.116]upright continue.
[00:03:57.864]But we would like the biases that people have about us
[00:04:01.703]that aren't good ones to sort of go away.
[00:04:05.436]So that's interesting.
[00:04:07.090]Sometimes challenging bias, this is particularly
[00:04:10.782]where you have allies, that you can have allies,
[00:04:15.142]they can sometimes be, they can also be as when you're
[00:04:18.476]in sexual harassment situations and other things,
[00:04:21.211]sometimes, when somebody says something that is biased
[00:04:24.975]about someone, or that you think is inappropriate,
[00:04:28.496]you can say "oh, I can't believe you said that."
[00:04:31.820]Or a little softer "I beg your pardon?"
[00:04:34.985]I've had people say things to me about other people that I
[00:04:37.966]think are totally inappropriate.
[00:04:40.257]And I'll just "I beg your pardon, could you repeat that?"
[00:04:43.921]Say that a little louder!
[00:04:45.296]I beg your pardon!
[00:04:46.415]Would you say that a little bit louder, yes good point!
[00:04:49.080]Would you say that louder?
[00:04:50.574]Sometimes you can say "that comment is offensive to
[00:04:52.826]"all of us, that is not acceptable."
[00:04:55.241]Or pretend not to understand, "I don't get the point
[00:04:58.032]"of your remark."
[00:05:01.033]"I don't understand what you mean."
[00:05:03.821]And then there's always that private reprimand.
[00:05:06.878]This is particularly a good thing where if something
[00:05:13.271]negative is said about a woman, where our male colleagues
[00:05:18.737]can be the ones to say that.
[00:05:22.269]"John, I can't believe you said that to Fred about Ginger."
[00:05:29.277]So it isn't just those of us who may fit that profile
[00:05:36.546]that are the ones objecting to it.
[00:05:38.250]It also comes in very, very, very handy particularly
[00:05:43.244]in racial situations where people might be saying
[00:05:46.601]something about someone who is of a different race
[00:05:49.559]than us, that is not a good thing to say.
[00:05:53.025]We can say "I can't believe you said that,"
[00:05:54.495]or "what do you mean by that?"
[00:05:58.278]Or "I'm not sure that is the right thing to say."
[00:06:01.415]These are just simple tools, and then again sometimes
[00:06:04.853]the private reprimand or the private conversation,
[00:06:09.229]doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna fuss at someone,
[00:06:11.974]but you may perceive that you have a colleague that
[00:06:14.989]may not be engaging in, not necessarily inappropriate
[00:06:19.796]behavior but perhaps not the best mode of interacting
[00:06:24.101]with certain people or certain types of people.
[00:06:27.368]The big guy that looks like he was a hustler linebacker
[00:06:30.463]15 years ago, and is counseling the young, example,
[00:06:38.016]Chinese student male or female, or the petite female
[00:06:42.131]and is being very kind and very gentle but is looming
[00:06:46.320]over her.
[00:06:47.680]Sometimes a private conversation, "you know, I kind of
[00:06:50.772]"noticed that when you talk to Jen Shi, she looks
[00:06:55.064]"like you're an elephant that is looming over her
[00:06:57.849]"about to kill her, maybe you might wanna think about
[00:07:01.333]"sort of softening your stance, sort of leaning
[00:07:04.227]"back a little bit, not being so physically intimidating."
[00:07:07.988]Sometimes it can be the reverse, "Jen Shi, when you're
[00:07:10.474]"talking to your professor, Dr. Big, just tell him
[00:07:15.605]"speak authoritatively, if you can leave him
[00:07:19.631]"down here and walk up here so at least you're a
[00:07:21.437]"little more on the level."
[00:07:22.270]Those are not reprimands but they're helpful hints.
[00:07:26.268]Sometimes people may not be aware of how they come
[00:07:30.279]across to other people, but they do also help us
[00:07:34.686]deal with some of these gender issues.
[00:07:37.514]There is one instance that I think does get to
[00:07:41.992]challenging bias, it was a very, very interesting way,
[00:07:46.020]the director of the national institutes of help
[00:07:48.713]has an advisory board, it's kind of like the board
[00:07:51.104]of governors of a university, and it was always very,
[00:07:53.855]very diverse, and the institution when I was there
[00:07:57.503]and still is, was dealing with a lot of the issues
[00:08:01.028]and unfairness and equity of a lot of other issues
[00:08:04.239]in terms of African American principle investigators.
[00:08:07.614]And there were always two or three African Americans
[00:08:09.994]on his advisor panel, three, four.
[00:08:12.981]And when we would talk about it, it would always
[00:08:18.306]be one of them that would be bringing up and discussing
[00:08:21.340]that, and one memorable meeting, not too long before
[00:08:23.983]I left, one of the Caucasian guys from Boston,
[00:08:30.540]when they were in the meeting, had said "you know,
[00:08:32.796]"we haven't yet talked about what's going on now
[00:08:36.630]"with the profiles and the demographics of
[00:08:38.851]"the African American.
[00:08:41.499]"African American PI's that we know, success rates
[00:08:46.523]"are very, very low."
[00:08:48.442]And they were a very collegial group, now this is
[00:08:50.574]a public setting, very collegial group, and one of
[00:08:54.103]African America guys who everybody know his father
[00:08:56.801]was a preacher, and just in a moment of humor
[00:08:59.806]he said "praise the Lord, a white person has finally
[00:09:04.877]"asked the question, not one of us!"
[00:09:08.992]And then they went on to talk about it, but the point
[00:09:12.239]is, it was a nice way of making,
[00:09:15.217]everyone took ownership of that idea, so sometimes
[00:09:19.224]it can't be people who look like us, that are making
[00:09:24.374]the point about us.
[00:09:25.557]Anyway, I think we can talk about that a little bit further.
[00:09:28.894]We'll move into the mentoring tool kit just a little
[00:09:32.138]bit into that and we'll have our coffee break.

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The Art of Becoming a Better Mentor and Mentee - Implicit Bias

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