HITS

In a recent “Women in Leadership” webinar, “Intentional Inclusion,” executives from host Tech Mahindra, Amazon and Ingram Micro discussed ways that companies can change the notion of unconscious bias to being intentional when it comes including and valuing women in the workplace, especially in the technology center.

“You chose to be here, which means this matters to you as much as it matters to us,” according to moderator Sumit Grover, SVP at Tech Mahindra. “We are truly grateful for that,” he said.

“We live in a world inundated with stereotypes: Stereotypes of gender, age, name, beauty, confirmations, conformity, affinity, contrast or just perception bias,” he pointed out.

“I’m sure, like me, you have heard this many times,” he said, imploring viewers to “be conscious of your unconscious biases.” The question, however, is “how?” he noted.

“For someone like me who was born and raised in India, the realization started much earlier at home with my mother,” he said, pointing out: “Many of us have been doing a lot of things intentionally for our mothers, and I’m sure you can relate with this.”

There were, he explained, “so many first lessons doing things for our mother intentionally and it got us on a journey on changing the notions of unconscious bias I would like to thank my mother for this again, for bringing the intentional inclusion mindset, starting with her.”

He added: “Our goal today is to enable the building blocks for an open, flexible, and an aggregated environment, which encourages inclusion, and I’m not going to bore you with my spiel on it. Let’s hear it from the experts.”

First up among the panelists was Christina Aguilera, head of technology workflow and strategy at Amazon Studios,  as well as president of Women in Technology: Hollywood Christina Aguilera, head of technology workflow and strategy at Amazon Studios,  as well as president of Women in Technology: Hollywood (WiTH) Foundation. She introduced Nicole Little, head of anti-piracy strategy and technology at Prime Video and Amazon Studios, and Andrea Chin, executive director at Ingram Micro.

One key topic they focused on was the need to “give no more excuses for somebody to be unconscious with their bias.”

“This is an area that I am incredibly passionate about,” said Aguilera, who argued: “The reality is that the term unconscious bias gives individuals an out. And that’s not okay. So, if someone makes a mistake, they may apologize; they may change their behavior. If they continue to make that mistake, then they haven’t learned from it and it has a negative reflection on that individual. And, to me, it has that negative reflection because the term mistake has a negative connotation with the term unconscious bias. There is no negative connotation. The term alone continues to allow individuals to repeat their behaviors without learning from their actions because it’s considered unconscious. And personally, I’m not okay with that.”

She added: “I feel that the term unconscious bias should be removed from our vocabulary. We really need to flip the narrative. We need to hold people accountable for their choices and their actions, and we need to insist that how they treat others becomes an intentional act. We shouldn’t be giving them any more excuses to behave poorly. So I really feel passionate in this space, and I’m hoping that today’s conversation can help us start flipping the narrative because it’s not okay.”

To view the entire webinar, click here.