COURSE 2:
The Impact of Implicit Bias on Decision Making in Service and Care

We all have biases—some explicit, many implicit. These biases have an effect on how we view others and how we make decisions, including decisions about providing service and care. implicit biases can be in conflict with our conscious values and standards, but have been greatly influenced by the societal and social influences surrounding us. In any workplace, there will likely be many situations where managers or employees need to make an informed business decision. Both critical thinking and an assessment of the different outcomes from various decisions are necessary to make a decision that will produce the desired outcome. However, sometimes without realizing it, decision-makers hold some bias during their decision-making process when our brains coping mechanism takes shortcuts, making assumptions and jumping to conclusions in order to balance the mental load. But, when we make quick decisions based on our "gut feelings and the implicit biases we hold, we open ourselves up to mistakes in the decision-making process.

In this 3 unit course we’ll address how implicit bias plays a role in the decision-making process and provide steps for how you can recognize, then prevent decision-making biases.