Unconscious Bias Blind Spots Tour Bus Coming to Campus

UPDATE from CEO Action: 

Given the evolving circumstances around coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States, CEO Action has made the difficult decision to suspend the Check Your Blind Spots unconscious bias tour through May 2020.

As you know, the World Health Organization has declared COVID-19 a public health emergency, and public health officials have recommended voluntary social distancing by individuals and communities to help mitigate the spreading of the disease, which is what has led us to this decision.

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A plethora of research shows that everyone has unconscious bias blind spots.

But what are yours? And how can they be identified?

The University of Alabama’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion can help with that.

On March 23, the division is bringing the CEO Action “Check Your Blind Spots Unconscious Bias Tour” to UA’s Ferguson Center Plaza from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (NOTE this has been canceled.)

The tour – a bus and inclusive lounge outside of the bus – uses a series of interactive elements to help raise awareness about unconscious bias and how people can change their behaviors.

“These executives are driven by a realization that addressing diversity, and inclusion is not a competitive issue, but a societal issue. This year the goal of CEO for Action is to have this bus engage with over one million people stopping in all 50 states so that people can begin the conversation about becoming more aware and proactively engaged with issues related to DEI. We are glad one of the stops is The University of Alabama,”  said Dr. G. Christine Taylor, vice president and associate provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

“More than 900 CEOs of the world’s leading companies and business organizations are leveraging their individual and collective voices to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and we are excited to be a university partner with this initiative.”

Taylor said the blind spots bus experience takes about 12-15 minutes, is interactive and provides a great way to start the critical conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion.

“We hope that our campus, faculty, staff and students will come out for the bus stop so that we can begin the conversation.”

Also occurring the week of March 23 are “Disrupting Everyday Bias” workshops, led by Renee Collins, professional development lead with Cook Ross consulting firm.

Collins will conduct a total of four workshops for UA faculty and staff March 25 and 26. The 3.5-hour training sessions include the following learning objectives:

• Explore how bias functions in the brain and its impact on decision-making.
• Examine how experiences and identities shape our biases.
• Practice the PAUSE model and perspective-taking to disrupt bias.
• Commit to implement strategies for disrupting bias in key work situations.