Summary
Across the industry, design teams are focused on growing and supporting a diverse workforce. But current efforts are often unsuccessful —?and despite an increase in time, effort and money behind organization’s DE&I efforts, most teams remain unchanged (and very white). To truly address bias and support diversity efforts, teams need to stop focusing on feelings and instead create hiring and performance review systems that prevent individuals from acting on their bias. As a Design Enablement and Operations practice, we have worked with designers and their teams to build practices that standardize hiring criteria and reduce the impact of individuals’ bias and racism. In this workshop, we will work together to: Define tangible core competencies that define each job and the criteria hiring and performance are measured on Create a Portfolio Review “Cheat Sheet” that allows a team to review a candidate with an anti-bias approach Review examples of performance review and correct instances of bias
Key Insights
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Burnout from diversity efforts often comes from lack of measurable impact and scalable approaches.
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Good attendance and engagement in DEI conversations do not necessarily lead to organizational change.
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Shifting from subjective discussion to objective evaluation criteria helps reduce bias in hiring.
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Defining 12 core competencies tailored by role creates clarity for both hiring managers and candidates.
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Action-oriented scoring (I can do X) is more reliable than perceived knowledge when assessing skills.
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Performance reviews are a major source of bias due to confirmation bias and the halo/horn effects.
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Requiring at least three pieces of evidence per feedback item reduces confirmation bias and unfair generalizations.
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Auditing and discussing peer feedback collaboratively helps uncover systemic bias in evaluations.
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Focus on objective data enables constructive conversations, rather than relying on subjective feelings or assumptions.
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Accountability linked to incentives is critical but remains an open challenge for systemic bias reduction.
Notable Quotes
"Scale is about doing less while having greater impact, not doing the most and having no impact."
"We were asking people to do a 401 level analysis on systemic inequity when they were at remedial race relations 101."
"Looking at objective measurements sharpens the view on inequity and stops moving the goalposts."
"We moved from I know to I can to shift from subjective knowledge to demonstrated action."
"Bias slips in when people are involved, so the more individual judgments, the more bias."
"Global ratings in performance reviews are petri dishes for bias."
"Give three pieces of evidence for every piece of feedback you provide."
"The halo/horn effect means one success can protect white men forever but one mistake can permanently mark BIPOC."
"We empowered people to audit others’ feedback rather than just reflect on their own."
"Let the bird fly of hearts and minds — don’t go chasing waterfalls — disrupt with checklists instead."
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