Tough conversations and total transparency help overcome biases

The older we get the more ready we are to admit that everyone has biases of one kind or another.


The wiser we get, the more transparent we are when we discuss those biases with people with whom we strive to build sustained and secure relationships.

Neither the admission nor the discussion is necessarily easy, and both are unfortunately roads less traveled for the members of some organizations. Even today.

However, those tough conversations help build relational fortresses of trust around people who team with each other and have to rely on one another for support and encouragement during the most vulnerable times.

Moreover, an abundance of trust is needed between true teammates so they can embrace hard talks about delicate, fragile, or even controversial issues.

When the trust and the discussion are missing links in organizational relationships, the result is usually discord and disharmony.

Knowing that to be the case, what sometimes prevents strong trust from growing and honest dialogue from happening?

Some say the answer is simply DNA.

A common argument is that bias is part of everyone’s DNA; making it a factual, not fictional, part of each person’s daily reality.

Now, hair color and hair texture are DNA-embedded parts of our individual wiring and make-up.

Yet, we can think about what we want to do with our hair color and hair texture; and can change both anytime and any way we want to.

The trick to a favorable outcome with both is to expect that it will take time to get just the right hair color and hair texture we like.

If bias is part of everyone’s DNA, is it also something we can spend time reflecting about and alter whenever we decide it’s time for a shift in mindset, philosophy, and actions?

Converse to a lack of trust and honesty, when personal biases are deliberately altered by the owner to allow trust and transparency to take over…would this not be a formula for accord and harmony?

The only way to find out is to try it on for size and see what happens…we may be very pleased by the end results…but the trick is to acknowledge and accept that it will take time to get it just right…

Sharon M. Biggs, M.A., is a wife, mother, and 21st Century educational leader & school district administrator who serves as Co-Chair & President of Lifeline Foundation, Inc.  This 24-year educator is also Founder, Editor, and Chief Writer of LifelineExtensions.blog.  View other published works at http://www.examiner.com/.  Contact Sharon directly for more information: smbiggs@mylifelinefoundation.org.

"Children are the globe's most precious commodity." (Terence H. Biggs, Jr. ~ 2009)