37 minute read
Repurposing Code-Switching Habits as Career Assets for Black Professionals
by Lee V. Pham, Esq.
Black professionals who code-switch are wired to be great executives. Code-switching and interdisciplinary behavior share a common point of origin in the human brain. Because of this shared neurobiological foundation, Black professionals’ tendency to code-switch can serve as a proxy for identifying interdisciplinary corporate leaders among their ranks, presenting an unexpected gateway for Black professionals to excel as 21st century executives. This opportunity rests on three distinct but related propositions:
■ Proposition 1: Interdisciplinary Leadership Is Required for 21st century Corporate Competitiveness ■ Proposition 2: Code-Switching and Interdisciplinary Leadership
Ability are Enabled by Common Neurobiological Processes ■ Proposition 3: Black Professionals May Generally Possess a
Heightened Capacity to Lead in the Modern C-Suite as an Unintended
Consequence of Code-Switching Habits.
LEE PHAM – is an experienced business leader with interdisciplinary expertise in strategy, finance, law, and engineering. He holds a distinct competency in intellectual property as a patent attorney.
CCORPORATE LEADERSHIP in the 21st century requires an interdisciplinary repertoire of skills.1 Research indicates that people connected across groups are more familiar with alternative ways of thinking and behaving, thereby driving innovation.2 Being interdisciplinary involves communicating across boundaries, as does the practice of code-switching relied upon by Black people.3
But code-switching is generally viewed as a necessary evil and a burdensome survival mechanism imposed on Black people, especially in corporate and professional contexts.4,5
One’s propensity to code-switch may serve as a personal career asset when holistically viewed as an indicator interdisciplinary leadership ability. Specifically, Black professionals may generally possess a heightened capacity for the interdisciplinary skillset valued in the modern C-Suite, made possible by the same neurobiological processes that drive code-switching.
An important caveat: The gravity of the negative impacts of codeswitching endured by Black professionals cannot be understated. This paper does not intend to glorify, promote, or fetishize codeswitching behavior. These impacts are discussed further on in the analysis of Proposition 2.
While counterintuitive, we can conclude that the notion of code-switching serving as an indicator of interdisciplinary leadership ability is conceptually sound – both behaviors involve sociolinguistics and subliminal cueing.6 To apply the habits underlying code-switching in a constructive way, business leaders and Black professionals will have to stretch their understanding of the phenomenon while remaining wary of the psychological toll that it exacts.
To be interdisciplinary simply means to relate to more than one branch of knowledge. Experts describe interdisciplinary practice as integrating the insights of different knowledge domains to produce a more comprehensive understanding of complex problems, issues, or questions.7 The term interdisciplinary most frequently refers to academic or scholarly pursuits. But in a commercial context, interdisciplinarity is an element of both innovation and agility, two widely accepted prerequisites to commercial success in the 21st century.
First of all, who’s your A&R?
A mountain climber who plays an electric guitar?
But he don’t know the meanin’ of dope when he’s lookin’ for a suit-and-tie rap that’s cleaner than a bar of soap.
GARY EARL GRICE D/B/A GZA
PROTECT YA NECK, BY THE WU TANG CLAN (ENTER THE 36 CHAMBERS, 1993)
Innovation and Agility Require Interdisciplinary Participants. Interdisciplinary participants drive innovation where people connected across groups integrate insights from different domains to better understand complexity. These individuals are more likely to express ideas, less likely to have ideas dismissed, and more likely to have ideas evaluated as valuable.8
Agility also requires interdisciplinary participants insofar as it involves balancing the comfort of standard operations with the pursuit of innovation and risk-taking.9 This balancing act “forces leaders to get out of their silos and work together as a multidisciplinary group, breaking through impediments and pivoting when necessary.”10
Organizations need leaders who embody innovation and agility to remain competitive into the 21st century. It follows that corporations should recruit, retain, and promote professionals that possess interdisciplinary backgrounds. Future-Focused Industries Investing in Interdisciplinary Talent. One example of an entire sector embracing interdisciplinary leadership is the automotive industry. The century-old industry faces transformation without precedent in business history.11 Auto companies with insular organizational silos are addressing the challenge in part by adjusting their talent strategies. They are hiring software engineers from the digital technology industry as they face competition from Uber, Apple, Alphabet, Tesla, and others.12 Doug Betts, a veteran auto industry executive who spent time at Apple and now leads a division of J.D. Power, asserts that car companies must change employees’ mindsets and approach new ventures by getting different parts of their organizations to work collaboratively.13 Betts himself embodies interdisciplinary leadership; he trained as a mechanical engineer in the early 1980s, has a decades-long career across top automotive competitors, pivoted to consumer technology by joining Apple, and now leads a division of a data analytics and consumer intelligence company.14
Examples of interdisciplinary efforts are evident in other sectors as well. In a collaboration between space agencies and the financial services industry, NASA and the Universities Space Research Association have explored how quantum computing can benefit investment portfolios by partnering with Standard Chartered Bank.15 And in the luxury goods space, the Spanish subsidiary of LVMH has been praised for appointing two enologists (wine experts) to coordinate the efforts of the company’s marketing and sales groups with positive economic results.16 Talent Strategy and Interdisciplinary Focus at LVMH. LVMH, the multinational corporation and conglomerate specializing in luxury goods, also offers examples of investment into interdisciplinary talent. LVMH has consistently tracked or outperformed the S&P 500 over the past three years.17 And a
2014 INSEAD report titled, LVMH Möet Hennessy • Louis Vuitton: The Rise of Talentism, outlines a talent philosophy and executive hiring profile that demonstrate a recognition of the value that interdisciplinary professionals offer. The report opens by quoting the Executive Chair of the World Economic Forum, who asserts that “[t]he success of any national or business model for competitiveness in the future will be placed less on capital and much more on talent.”18
LVMH proves this sentiment by cultivating agility through mobility. A shortage of available talent and the company’s rapid growth forced its human resources organization to adopt an interdisciplinary recruiting strategy, looking to industries that it had not previously considered for hiring. To attract talent from other industries, LVMH made mobility central to its appeal to external talent beginning in 2007, later turning its focus inward to further cultivate retained talent with a sustained focus on mobility. Acquiring interdisciplinary professionals and then investing in their mobility across functions resulted in increased collaboration across brands, which in turn led to lower operating costs, customer savings, and increased profits without sacrificing the legacy of LVMH’s portfolio of brands.
LVMH’s focus on mobility also elevated the prospects of lateral moves in such a way that they held the same appeal as vertical promotions among employees. This further institutionalized the value proposition of agility and the interdisciplinary professional. The INSEAD report highlights an unnamed executive who was an aerospace engineer by training, had a career as a management consultant, and held prior roles in other luxury goods companies prior to joining LVMH. Over a relatively short period, the executive was promoted repeatedly across business units and geographies, taking on stretch assignments that demonstrated credibility, versatility, agility, and ultimately legitimacy as a global business leader.
Another notable interdisciplinary hire and now recent alumnus of LVMH is Ian Rogers.19 Rogers made a name for himself in digital media as CEO of Dr. Dre’s Beats Music, joined Apple to help lead
Apple Music and aid their integration of Beats, and later joined LVMH in 2015 to be the luxury company’s Chief Digital Officer. In late 2020, Rogers exited LVMH while retaining an advisory role to help lead a cryptocurrency startup in France. Once again, we see the luxury brand investing in an interdisciplinary leader who was able to demonstrate credibility, versatility, agility, and legitimacy as an executive. Individual Interdisciplinary Leaders. At an individual level, successful figures in other future-focused businesses present additional evidence that interdisciplinary leadership is key to success in the 21st century.
In his current iteration, Ken Chenault sits on the boards of major Silicon Valley technology companies and serves as chair of General Catalyst, a venture capital firm focused on early stage and growth investment.20,21 The Black business luminary also recently joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway, assuming the seat previously occupied by technologist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.22 Taking a static view of Chenault’s current commitments would lead anyone unfamiliar with him to conclude that he is a product of Silicon Valley. But Chenault is widely known for his storied tenure as Chairman and CEO of the payments juggernaut American Express, and he is a legend of Wall Street rather than of Silicon Valley. In fact, Chenault’s tenure in financial services was his third career having worked in management consulting after practicing law.23 The extraordinary leadership value that Ken Chenault presently brings to Silicon Valley and to the venture capital community is undergirded by his interdisciplinary career across law, consulting, and financial services.
Another executive whose interdisciplinary background has advanced her leadership, and who worked under Ken Chenault at American Express, is Discover’s Wanji Walcott. Discover has generally outperformed the S&P 500 for the past 10 years, and the company recently announced restructuring that prepares the company to compete for the future of fintech.24 A Black business luminary in her own right, Walcott is known to have earned more than the CEO who she reports to as Discover’s Chief Legal Officer
in 2019. But Walcott is more than an accomplished legal leader; reporting from that year indicates that she “provided strong leadership and counsel in ongoing innovation, litigation strategy, and business initiatives.” Black Enterprise named Walcott to its List of The Most Influential Blacks In Technology in 2018 while she was still General Counsel of PayPal.25 And she launched her career by going directly to an in-house legal role at aerospace and defense firm Lockheed Martin. Walcott’s highly valued leadership is interdisciplinary, integrating law, technology, finance, and strategy.
Other examples of interdisciplinary executives include Boeing’s CEO of Global Services, Ted Colbert, III (earned degrees in engineering and interdisciplinary science with career experience across defense, financial services, automotive, and telecommunications); Disney’s new Chairman of Media and Entertainment Distribution, Kareem Daniel (earned degrees in engineering and business with experience in investment banking); and Bank of America’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion and Talent Acquisition Officer, Cynthia Bowman (earned degrees in engineering and business with career experience in consulting). Boeing, Disney, and Bank of America are all investing in the futures of their industries.26,27,28 Colbert, Daniel, and Bowman all happen to be Black executives at the helm of those companies.
In sum, we see ample evidence at industrial, corporate, and individual career scale for the proposition that interdisciplinary leadership is required for 21st century competitiveness. And at the individual level, we have evidence that Black interdisciplinary leaders are rising to the C-Level and are achieving great success when they do.
Proposition 2: Code-Switching and Interdisciplinary Leadership Ability Are Enabled by Common Neurobiological Processes
Code-switching is a Behavioral Adjustment Relied Upon by Black People. In 2019, the Harvard Business Review published the findings of a team of experts who conducted research on code-switching. The team outlined the drivers behind code-switching behavior among Black professionals, the benefits and drawbacks of relying on that behavior, and how professionals and companies should respond in turn. The report notes that “[r]esearch suggests that codeswitching often occurs in spaces where negative stereotypes of Black people run counter to what are considered ‘appropriate’ behaviors and norms for a specific environment.”29 Generally, code-switching involves adjusting speaking style, physical presentation, and behavior to achieve equitable treatment. A summary of literature in the Harvard Business Review report identifies three principal reasons why Black professionals codeswitch in the workplace: 1. To increase perceptions of professionalism and the probability of being hired in light of their membership in a stigmatized and under-included racial group, 2. To boost their perception as leaders in spite of negative racial stereotypes, and 3. To increase their chances of promotion in the workplace by expressing shared interest with dominant groups, projecting similarity with powerful members of the organization.
The report’s authors developed a survey and scale for determining the complexities and nuances of code-switching among Black professionals as a part of their research. In their survey of about 300 Black, college educated professionals, the researchers identified a few key situations that invoke code-switching behavior:
■ When Black professionals aspire to corporate leadership, ■ When they attempt to exhibit “fit” in their organizations, ■ When they are constantly braced for potential discrimination and mistreatment, and ■ When they sense a need to be visible in their racial identity where a work environment espouses to value racial diversity
With respect to this last scenario, it may also be true that Black professionals rely on code-switching to signal camaraderie to each other in workplace environments that impose a general sense of “otherness” on them as a group.30
An example of code-switching that recently circulated in popular culture is the viral video clip of Barack Obama greeting members of the U.S. men’s Olympic Basketball Team in 2012. In the video of the impromptu exchange, President Obama greets a white coach and Black NBA player Kevin Durant with starkly different gestures, even as they stood next to one another. The codeswitching employed by Obama in that moment was parodied in a subsequent sketch by comedy duo Key & Peele. 31
It’s funny, but the truth is I do hear about guys in the corporate offices who psych themselves up listening to my music, which sounds odd at first, but makes sense.
My friend Steve Stoute, who spends a lot of time in the corporate world, tells me about young execs he knows who say they discovered their own philosophies of business and life in my lyrics. It’s crazy.
SHAWN CARTER D/B/A JAY-Z
DECODED (2010)
Code-switching is Both Necessary for and Harmful to Black Professionals. At a neurological level, the cognitive load associated with negotiating interactions in which race is a factor is shown to result in diminished performance in task-oriented tests.32 The Harvard Business Review report asserts that code-switching is one of the key dilemmas that Black employees face regarding racial identity in the workplace based on a collection of anecdotal accounts. The researchers note that code-switching results in social and psychological harm to Black professionals. The behavior fosters hostility among Black colleagues, depletes cognitive resources thereby hindering performance, and contributes to burnout due to
self-imposed stifling of authentic expression and suppression of identity. A sampling of quotes from Black professionals who were surveyed for the referenced report illustrates the harm caused by code-switching:
■ “…I find it easy to modify my behavior slightly to consistently outpace [unfairly low] expectations of my abilities.”
■ “In my actions and verbal communications, I try to avoid any opportunity for someone to label me as the ‘angry Black woman.’ I also carry myself in a professional manner that may seem to be a step above the somewhat casual professional environment of the office.”
■ “I also feel as though I am in a constant battle of censoring/ watering down my views, thoughts, and personality for the possibility of being looked at differently than a non-Black man or woman in the workplace if they exhibited the same behavior.
It’s exhausting navigating an all-white workplace.”
■ “… it is simply easier to anticipate the complaints, jokes, and negative comments from white people and just adapt to their discomfort and ignorance in order to maintain workplace peace.”
Similar sentiments are cataloged in a piece entitled The Only One in the Room, published by Bloomberg in August 2020. In it, a number of Black corporate leaders as high as the C-Level share the challenges that they face as Black professionals in the financial services industry.33
The gravity of the negative impacts of code-switching endured by Black professionals cannot be understated. Code-switching is a survival tactic that Black people and members of other excluded groups employ in hopes of achieving fair treatment. It is also the case that perpetuating code-switching “damages organizations, which may miss out on the distinct perspectives and contributions from racial minorities who are uncomfortable being themselves in the workplace.”34
Us/Them Behavior and The Brain. There is a neurobiological set of processes that dictate codeswitching. The human brain forms what neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky refers to as Us/Them dichotomies, or “Us/Them behavior.” The process of Us/Them behavior occurs in the human brain within milliseconds in response to minimal cues about race and gender. The process involves a part of the brain called the amygdala, the section of the brain where unconscious biases originate.
Us/Them behavior is hardwired into the human brain and is observed as early as infanthood. “The strength of Us/ Them behavior is shown by: the speed and minimal sensory stimuli required for the brain to process group differences, the unconscious automaticity of such processes, its presence in other primates and very young humans, and the tendency to group according to arbitrary differences, and to then imbue those markers with power.”35
Contrary to these Us/Them dichotomies being formed in milliseconds however, Sapolsky indicates that we can still feel positive associations with people who we believe to share the most meaningless traits.36 Aside from the attributes of race and gender, “even if groupings are based on flimsy differences (e.g., whether someone over- or underestimated the number of dots in a picture), in-group biases, such as higher levels of cooperation, [nevertheless] still soon develop…. People preferentially allocate resources to anonymous in-group individuals.”37
Research indicates that mimicry of certain traits serves to induce this positive in-group association. Mimicry activates hormones in the person being mimicked that result in a pleasing effect and a higher willingness to assist and cooperate with the one doing the mimicking.38
Along with the enhanced assistance and cooperation that flows from mimicking generally, Sapolsky notes that implicit racial bias decreased in white research subjects following subliminal cueing, or exposure to counterstereotypes. One study showed how
subliminal cueing decreases implicit racial bias by invoking the likeness of favored celebrities of the same race.39 Other research has shown that an audio cue in the form of classical music written by a white composer being whistled by a young Black man signaled to those observing him that he was not a threat as he walked through a wealthy white neighborhood at night.40
Sapolsky’s research further indicates that Us/Them behavior is also mitigated by Contact Theory, which brings “Us-es” and “Thems” together to achieve superordinate goals where everyone works together on a task they care about. The result is disappearing animosity and greater emphasis on similarities.41 Code-switching is a Form of Us/Them Behavior. Strategic mimicry, subliminal cues, and a focus on superordinate goals can offset the Us/Them behavior that flows from identifying a person as being from another race. These practices disrupt the default processes undertaken by the brain’s amygdala and the hormonal releases that otherwise drive group identification and Us/Them behavior.
Code-switching behavior (adjusting speaking style, physical presentation, and behavior) is a strategic and unconscious use of mimicry and subliminal cues to achieve less disparate treatment from a dominant group in a given environment. The behavior stems from predictable activity in the human brain that is as strong in its control over our behavior as it is innate.
For Black professionals, an endemically excluded group, codeswitching is a cultural habit developed over centuries of seeking equitable treatment in all facets of life. The habit is a well-developed and unconscious reaction to a set of subliminal cues stemming from individual interactions with in-group (white) colleagues or the working environment established by powerful in-group members of corporate organizations.42
Even so, Sapolsky warns us to manage Us/Them behavior rather than seeking to suppress it. Forming in-group associations is necessary for the functioning of groups, organizations, and society. “From massive, breathtaking barbarity to countless pinpricks of
microaggression, Us versus Them has produced oceans of pain. Yet our generic goal is not to ‘cure’ us of Us/Them dichotomizing. It can’t be done, unless your amygdala is destroyed, in which case everyone seems like an Us. But even if we could, we wouldn’t want to eliminate Us/Theming.”43 When understood and productively managed, Us/Them behavior can yield valuable achievement. Us/Them Behavior and its Common Neurobiological Roots with Interdisciplinary Behavior. We defined interdisciplinary behavior and highlighted its value in Proposition 1. Recall now that both innovation and agility comprise interdisciplinary behavior as a foundational element.
Regarding innovation, remember that those connected across groups integrate insights from different domains to better understand complexity. These individuals are more likely to express ideas, less likely to have ideas dismissed, and more likely to have ideas evaluated as valuable. By cueing likeness based on training or experience (e.g., college majors or tenures in certain industries) or being able to mimic jargon as a familiar tactic, an interdisciplinary professional can effectively achieve in-group status more easily, thereby driving innovation. In effect, interdisciplinary individuals who drive innovation do so by utilizing their familiarity of different disciplines to offset Us/Them behavior by colleagues, garnering the perception of in-group membership and the cooperation that comes with it.
Regarding agility, recall that interdisciplinary professionals are adept at balancing the comfort of standard operations with the risky pursuit of innovation, giving teams the psychological safety to work together across silos. To balance familiar ways of doing business with risky innovation requires a focus on superordinate goals, which is another mechanism for offsetting Us/Them behavior among professionals. A focus on superordinate goals can also garner the perception of in-group membership and the cooperation that comes with it.
Here is where the neurobiology overlaps: In the same way that Black professionals instinctively adopt shared vocabularies and behaviors by code-switching to achieve in-group status based on race in the workplace, shared vocabularies and behaviors across disciplines are involved in achieving corporate innovation and agility.
Interdisciplinary professionals position themselves to drive innovation and agility inside of otherwise foreign practice groups by offsetting Us/Them dichotomies with mimicking, subliminal cueing, and directing attention to superordinate goals. These are the very same offsetting tactics employed by Black professionals who code-switch to the same ends. And in both cases, the behaviors are governed by the same neurobiological processes that begin in the amygdala.
Black professionals’ tendency to code-switch can serve as a proxy for identifying promising interdisciplinary talent among their ranks. Black professionals who are adept at code-switching are likely to be equally adept at interdisciplinary behaviors where both phenomena are grounded in the same neurobiological processes. Because interdisciplinary leaders drive innovation and agility, we can conclude that Black professionals who rely on code-switching are psychologically equipped to successfully lead 21st century organizations.
In short, Black professionals who code-switch are wired to be great executives.
Proposition 3: Black Professionals May Generally Possess a Heightened Capacity to Lead in the Modern C-Suite as an Unintended Consequence of CodeSwitching Habits
“At this point in my career, code-switching feels natural. I am not even cognizant that I do it anymore.” — 30-year-old Black male researcher cited in the Harvard Business Journal report
Clout chasin’
(Clout chasin’)
Let me truth on the verse
If they paid you to do it, you don’t gotta ask what you worth
(Yeah)
DONALD GLOVER D/B/A CHILDISH GAMBINO
MONSTER, BY 21 SAVAGE (I AM, I WAS, 2018)
What Corporations Can Do. The idea that code-switching can be leveraged as an indicator of interdisciplinary leadership ability is worthy of consideration where, despite corporate efforts over the past decade, the number of Blacks in executive ranks and on boards remains unacceptably low.44 To address this persistent opportunity deficit for Black professionals, corporate leaders must look beyond the nowubiquitous diversity and inclusion playbook and invest creatively in cultivating the innate capabilities already possessed by the next generation of Black executives.45
At the executive management level, corporations must decide that identifying and investing in interdisciplinary talent is an
ongoing imperative – and more than a program undertaken as part of the HR group’s typical portfolio of initiatives. Actionable commitment to a philosophy akin to LVMH’s focus on socalled talentism is required.46 Whatever philosophy is adopted, management must also acknowledge that its Black and otherwise excluded employees are prone to modify their behavior to achieve equitable treatment, even when workforces are diverse and inclusive, and that the prevalence of racism both in and outside of the organization is the root cause.
Further research is recommended to undergird the proposition that Black professionals may generally possess a heightened capacity to lead in the modern C-Suite, or at least business leadership roles, as an unintended consequence of code-switching habits. Nonetheless, sufficient evidence and existing research exists to test the proposition in practice.
Operationally, HR or talent management staff groups could offer to survey a company’s employees who self-identify as Black to gauge their own individual perceptions of how they rely (or don’t) on codeswitching in their professional lives. Under such an initiative, those who express willingness to take the survey and have their results considered could be evaluated for potential cross-functional roles, high mobility assignments, or learning and development programs if they do not already possess interdisciplinary backgrounds. Like LVMH did with its talentism philosophy, such an initiative should create opportunities for Black professionals to assume stretch assignments that demonstrate their credibility, versatility, agility, and ultimately legitimacy as business leaders.
Corporations that undertake such an endeavor must measure and report on the business impact of such an initiative not only in numerate commercial terms, but also in terms of changes in the population of Black employees who occupy management roles with meaningful tenures. Anecdotal evidence of individual success stories above a certain paygrade is insufficient to make the case that a corporate talent strategy is fully leveraging the potential of its pipeline. A deeper understanding of Black professionals’ potential must be accompanied by reciprocal effort.
And even while organizations identify and advance Black interdisciplinary talent on the basis of their tendency to codeswitch, companies still “can and should play a pivotal role in creating environments where code-switching is not necessary for success, particularly by cultivating spaces that value inclusion and differences.”47 What Individual Black Professionals Can Do. The dilemma that code-switching poses for Black professionals should not be left to them to solve on their own. It is beneficial however for Black professionals to build an informed selfawareness of the behavior, its impacts, its underlying psychology, and how it can be managed.
To the extent that Black professionals have interdisciplinary education or experience, it may be valuable to reflect on whether they adjust their behaviors across disciplinary groups to achieve better communication, acceptance, or cooperation. If these behavioral adjustments are apparent, then one can assess how their own cross-disciplinary adjustments help drive innovation (by expressing ideas that those from other disciplines find valuable) or drive agility (by achieving a consensus that balances familiar ways of doing business and risky innovation). This exercise may help one identify whether they possess the hallmark attributes of interdisciplinary leadership, which are career assets with or without code-switching. The Risk of Overlooking These Three Propositions. Andrew Hill, an associate editor and the management editor of the Financial Times proposes that, “[t]he moral is obvious: if a company’s people cannot communicate the how, why and what of innovation to each other, the chances of progress are low.”48 Black professionals who instinctively adjust their communication and behavior to survive likely possess a heightened capacity to drive the innovation and agility required for corporate competitiveness as we all press farther into the 21st century.
We see that Black interdisciplinary leaders like Ken Chenault, Wanji Walcott, Ted Colbert, Kareem Daniel, and Cynthia Bowman
are well suited for the C-Suite. And an entire generation of Black interdisciplinary professionals are present in talent pipelines throughout corporate America.
Specific to this pipeline, the moral is equally obvious: if a company does not identify its Black interdisciplinary professionals, come to terms with the challenges they face as an excluded racial group, and then repurpose their capacity to overcome these challenges in order to advance them as innovative and agile leaders, the changes of progress are low. Corporations that fail to identify and advance their most innovative and agile contributors risk losing those professionals to other employers or stifling their own competitiveness. Notes:
1 – Rigby D, Elk S, Berez S. 2020. The Agile C-Suite. Harvard Business Review [Internet]. [cited 2021 Jan 14]. Available from: https://hbr.org/2020/05/the-agile-c-suite 2 – Duhigg C. 2016. Smarter Faster Better. New York (NY): Random House. p. 215. 3 – McCluney C, Robotha K, Lee S, Smith R, Durkee M. 2019. The Costs of Code-Switching. Harvard Business Review [Internet]. [cited 2021 Jan 14]. Available from: https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-costs-ofcodeswitching?ab=seriesnav-bigidea 4 – Davis M. 2020. Black and White on Wall Street: The Unwritten Code on Race. Bloomberg [Internet]. [cited 2021 Jan 14]. Available from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-06-29/rules-of-working-onwall-street-from-black-employees-who-lived-it 5 – Roberts L, McCluney C. 2020. Working from Home While Black. Harvard Business Review [Internet]. [cited 2021 Jan 14]. Available from https://hbr.org/2020/06/working-from-home-while-black 6 – Sapolsky R. 2017. Behave. New York (NY): Penguin Books. p. 84-90. 7 – Mission, Vision, & Core Values [Internet]. [updated 2021 Jan 14]. Association for Interdisciplinary Studies; [cited 2021 Jan 14]. Available at: https://interdisciplinarystudies.org/mission-vision-core-values/ 8 – Ibid note 2. 9 – Ibid note 1. 10 – Ibid note 1. 11– Colias M, Higgins T, Boston W. 2018. Will Tech Leave Detroit in the Dust?. The Wall Street Journal [Internet]. [cited 2021 Jan 14]. Available from: https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-detroit-become-a-softwarebusiness-1540008107 12 – Ibid. 13 – Ibid. 14 – Betts D. LinkedIn Profile [Internet]. [updated 2021 Jan 14]. LinkedIn; [cited 2021 Jan 14]. Available from: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doug-betts-854309b/ 15 – Walker O. 2018. Nasa says quantum computing is the future for funds. The Financial Times [Internet]. [cited 2021 Jan 14]. Available from: https://www.ft.com/content/195ce103-2419-30e4-a19d-96e8cb8a3c9b 16 – Casciaro T, Edmondson A, Jang S. 2019. Cross-Silo Leadership. Harvard Business Review [Internet]. [cited 2021 Jan 14]. Available from: https://hbr.org/2019/05/cross-silo-leadership 17 – LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE [Internet]. [updated 2021 Jan 14]. The Motley Fool; [cited 2021 Jan 14]. Available from: https://www.fool.com/quote/otc/lvmh-moet-hnsy-l-vutn/lvmhf/ 18 – Leung N, Godart F, Shipilov A. 2014. LVMH Möet Hennessy • Louis Vuitton: The Rise of Talentism. INSEAD European Competitiveness Initiative. INS905:1. 19 – LVMH digital chief to join French fintech start-up [Internet]. [updated 30 Nov 2020]. Thefinanceinfo.com; [cited 14 Jan 2021]. Available from: https://thefinanceinfo.com/2020/11/30/lvmh-digital-chief-to-join-frenchfintech-start-up/ 20 – Sorkin AR. 2018. For His Next Act, Ken Chenault Turns His Focus on Silicon Valley. The New York Times [Internet]. [cited 14 Jan 2021]. Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/business/dealbook/ kenneth-chenault-silicon-valley.html 21 – Carson B. 2018. Airbnb Adds Outgoing American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault To Board of Directors.
Forbes [Internet]. [cited 14 Jan 2021]. Available from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bizcarson/2018/01/25/ airbnb-adds-outgoing-american-express-ceo-kenneth-chenault-to-board-of-directors 22 – Dingle T. 2020. Ken Chenault Leaving Facebook Board; Appointed First Black Berkshire Hathaway Director. Black Enterprise [Internet]. [cited 14 Jan 2021]. Available from: https://www.blackenterprise.com/ ken-chenault-leaves-facebook-board-as-he-is-appointed-l/ 23 – Bianco A. 1998. Ken Chenault: The Rise Of A Star. Bloomberg [Internet]. [cited 14 Jan 2021]. Available from: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/1998-12-20/ken-chenault-the-rise-of-a-star 24 – Discover Forms New Internal Data and Analytics Organization [Internet]. [updated 2 Nov 2020]. Discover; [cited 14 Jan 2021]. Available from: https://investorrelations.discover.com/newsroom/press-releases/pressrelease-details/2020/Discover-Forms-New-Internal-Data-and-Analytics-Organization/default.aspx 25 – Editors. 2018. List Of The Most Influential Blacks In Technology. Black Enterprise [Internet]. [cited 14 Jan 2021]. Available from: [https://www.blackenterprise.com/list-of-the-most-influential-blacks-in-technology/ 26 – Colbert T. 2020. Road to Recovery. LinkedIn [Internet]. [cited 14 Jan 2021]. Available from: https://www. linkedin.com/pulse/road-recovery-theodore-ted-colbert-iii/ 27 – The Walt Disney Company Announces Strategic Reorganization Of Its Media And Entertainment Businesses [Internet]. [updated 12 Oct 2020]. The Walt Disney Company; [cited 14 Jan 2021]. Available from: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/the-walt-disney-company-announces-strategic-reorganization-of-its-mediaand-entertainment-businesses/ 28 – Isaacson T. 2020. The Blockchain Patent Landscape Shows Accelerating Growth. IPWatchdog [Internet]. [cited 14 Jan 2021]. Available from: https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2020/12/04/the-blockchain-patentlandscape-shows-accelerating-growth/id=127922/ 29 – Ibid note 3. 30 – Duhigg C. 2014. The Power Of Habit. New York (NY): Random House Trade Paperbacks. p. 219. 31 – Ibid note 3. 32 – Ibid note 6. p. 416. 33 – https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-black-on-wall-street/?sref=Gku5p9jW 34 – https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-costs-of-codeswitching?ab=seriesnav-bigidea 35 – Ibid note 6. p. 392-93. 36 – Ibid note 6. p. 390. 37 – Ibid note 6. p. 389-90. 38 – Ibid note 6. p. 390. 39 – Ibid note 6. p. 418. 40 – Ibid note 6. p. 89. 41 – Ibid note 6. p. 420. 42 – Ibid note 30. p. 162. 43 – Ibid note 6. p. 423. 44 – Sahadi J. 2020. After years of talking about diversity, the number of black leaders at US companies is still dismal. CNN Business [Internet]. [cited 2021 Jan 14]. Available from: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/02/ success/diversity-and-black-leadership-in-corporate-america/index.html 45 – Ibid note 4. 46 – Ibid note 19. 47 – Ibid note 3. 48 – Hill A. 2018. Successful innovation needs a shared vocabulary. The Financial Times [Internet]. [cited 14 Jan 2021]. Available from: https://www.ft.com/content/6640fe1e-f480-11e8-ae55-df4bf40f9d0d
Cognitive Biases and the Danger of the DecisionMaking Gap
Confronting Systemic Judgment Errors That Lead to Flawed Reasoning, Animus, and Stereotypes
by Karima Mariama-Arthur, Esq.
Decisions are an important part of our everyday lives. To create the most direct path toward an objective, we reach for a single option from an array of alternatives in hopes of achieving the best result. But determining which option is best can be tricky and often time-consuming.
KARIMA MARIAMA-ARTHUR – is founder and CEO of WordSmithRapport, a boutique consulting firm with exclusive expertise in professional development and advisory services worldwide.
RRESEARCHERS ESTIMATE that humans make an average of 35,000 decisions every day, and a good chunk of them are affected by cognitive biases.1 According to one study, 20 percent of healthcare providers’ diagnostic mistakes are caused by cognitive biases.2 And that’s after years of training. With a universe of competing interests vying for first place in our lives, we often feel pressured to act quickly. The problem is there is often a chasm between the information we have and the information we need to make good decisions. Thus, we take mental shortcuts known as heuristics. Unfortunately, heuristics often fuel our cognitive biases. Cognitive biases are systematic judgment errors.3 They comprise the perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes that exist within our subconscious, and are therefore commonly referred to as unconscious or implicit biases. Born of flawed reasoning, they often cause us to misinterpret information and draw false or inaccurate conclusions. Not surprisingly, cognitive biases are
quite common: We all have them. Our penchant for self-delusion is consistent.4
Dr. Daniel Kahneman, world-renowned psychologist, and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, notes that the neurological basis for cognitive impairment or illusion is great, especially where perception and choice are concerned.5 One such example is illustrated in the Müller-Lyer illusion, an optical illusion, wherein the brain struggles to reconcile depth cues, size constancy and conflicting cues. The research makes clear the human brain’s tendency to process information reflexively, rapidly, and unconsciously, not just in this experiment, but also in the real world.
When unchecked, cognitive biases frequently inspire emotional ambivalence toward valued-based differences, including aptitude, race, class or political views and lead to varying degrees of interpersonal conflict. One salient example is that of moral licensing, which occurs when “people derive such confidence from past moral behavior that they are more likely to engage in immoral or unethical ways later [and without any negative selfjudgment].”6 In a 2010 study, researchers found that “participants who had voiced support for U.S. President Barack Obama just before the 2008 election were less likely, when presented with a hypothetical slate of candidates for a police force job, to select a Black candidate for the role.7 According to their hypothesis, “presumably, the act of expressing support for a Black presidential candidate made them feel that they no longer needed to prove their lack of prejudice.”8
This example emphasizes the need to address the elephant in the room more directly, particularly where race relations are concerned.
It is important to note that cognitive biases are not merely problematic at the individual level. They also pose a danger at the organizational level. The main difference is that the impact is increasingly multifaceted and pervasive. “[I]nsidious [cognitive] biases are often the main cause of ineffectiveness [within] organizations; but knowing about [their] existence and how they operate can lead to effective solutions to organizational
problems.”9 Understanding their impact on the portfolio of an organization’s attributes to include culture, communication, engagement, boundaries, influence, and relationships is critical to successfully managing its performance. Such insight has proven largely useful for customer-facing organizations where, for example, “operational transparency” and customer service are critical for attracting and retaining clientele.10
The good news is that, regardless of the target audience, awareness and the application of proactive strategies can help anyone think more clearly and make better overall decisions. According to a recent study, debiasing training can improve [one’s] ability to make rational decisions and avoid the errors commonly associated with faulty ways of thinking.11 This is why education and training are necessary to effectively address cognitive biases, especially in the workplace.
Anchoring Bias Salespeople exploit our susceptibility to the anchoring bias, wherein we use an initial piece of information as the yardstick for measuring other information. After seeing the sticker price on a new car (i.e., the initial information), a buyer might feel like they’ve beaten the bank by negotiating the price down 15 percent. In reality the dealership still comes out ahead. The buyer only believes they received a deal because they are comparing the final price to the initial price.
The following are seven common examples of cognitive biases12
Pro Tip: An effective way to combat the anchoring bias is to immediately delay the decision (or in some cases, the conclusion). Then, during an information-processing window, conduct an appropriate level of research and analysis before reaching a conclusion. If someone walks into a dealership knowing the average out-the-door prices in their area, that sticker price will be less likely to sway them. The goal here is to avoid an over-reliance on the anchor, which is no substitute for due diligence.
Availability Heuristics The availability heuristic is the reason some people deny climate change. Memories of the one-hundred-year blizzard that buried the East Coast a few years back are easier to recall than those of gradually rising temperatures over decades. Too often we make decisions based on easy-to-recall facts that require little mental exertion.
Confirmation Bias In a world of hyper-fractured media, it is easy to fall into the confirmation bias trap. The tendency to search for, interpret, or embrace information in a way that supports our existing beliefs and values does not necessarily legitimize them. More than that, the practice often leads to skewed thinking and poor decisionmaking.
An example of confirmation bias is illustrated in the widespread notion that police officers only shoot Black males when they’re “up to no good,” so goes the belief, and the officers feel their lives are in danger. While this narrative functions mostly as pretext, it also sanctions an internalized fear of Black males, even when the evidence does not support such assertions.13 For example, Harvard sociologist Charles Ogletree points out that, “Ninetynine percent of Black people don’t commit crimes, yet we see the images of Black people day in, day out, and the impression is that they’re all committing crimes.”14
Inasmuch as confirmation bias is often associated with subjective validation, there are also inherently social and political
Pro Tip: To avoid the availability heuristic, acknowledge that our memories may not always serve us best. Then seek out credible information to best understand the landscape. In the climate warming example, before shooting down the collective knowledge of the scientific community, consider researching and evaluating their claims for validity. A fair amount of sweat equity is usually required to obtain accurate and trustworthy information, but such efforts are certainly worthwhile.
factors that may influence and bolster an individual’s or a group’s belief system.
Fundamental Attribution Error When we commit a fundamental attribution error, we overemphasize character as the reason for anomalies in an individual’s behavior, while minimizing the role of situational dynamics. The cashier making mistakes at the register might not be a careless person; she may have just learned her mother passed and is easily distracted. Likewise, the fourth grader’s record-breaking consumption of his lunch each day—without regard to the rules of etiquette—may not be a function of poor home training. Perhaps this is the only meal he gets each day and cannot quite nourish himself fast enough.
Halo Effect The halo effect tricks us into believing that if one part is exceptional, then the whole must be, too. Companies collectively spend billions on advertising because they know consumers are prone to the halo effect. An excellent ad campaign often translates into increased sales across the board (not just for the featured sale items), even for average products.
We see the impact of the halo effect across industries and it confirms the fact that knowledge, when effectively leveraged, can
Pro Tip: An excellent way to confront confirmation bias is to examine information from multiple sources, including those offering evidence that counters your beliefs. Engaging in contrarian thought and healthy debate are also productive ways to counter this bias.
Pro Tip: To avoid fundamental attribution errors, resist the urge to instinctively levy blame and instead look for cause. Assume a person’s undesirable behavior is caused by tough luck or some other factor, rather than a reflection of poor character. Our tendency to judge and find fault usually fuels this bias. Empathy is a more valuable response.
be extremely powerful. As a practical matter, it also demonstrates that critical thinking is not often prioritized when we engage in various modes of decision-making.
Ostrich Effect Ostriches don’t actually bury their heads in the sand to avoid unpleasantness, but we humans have a knack for avoiding mental discomfort by ignoring facts that contradict our beliefs. When someone continues to invest in poorly performing stocks despite repeatedly losing large sums of money, they might be suffering from the ostrich effect.
Another common example is avoiding a doctor’s visit or follow-up appointment to circumvent an unwanted diagnosis. Yet another is disregarding unopened bills in hopes of distancing one’s obligations from the balances due. Obviously, tactics such as these only make matters worse, as the facts remain no matter how creatively one attempts to conceal them.
Framing Effect Spin doctors are masters of exploiting the framing effect. They know that opinions (whether held by an individual or the public
Pro Tip: To avoid the halo effect, acknowledge that people—and organizations—are complex, and unfortunately being good at one thing doesn’t always translate into competency across the board. Additionally, increasing our level of cognitive strain—often achieved by escalating the amount of time and mental energy involved in making the decision—can expand our mental acuity and decrease our reliance on heuristics.
Pro Tip: To avoid falling victim to the ostrich effect, pay just as much attention to costs as to benefits. Toe the line between faith and skepticism by being optimistic and acknowledging hard truths, rather than pretending they don’t exist. Finally, work diligently toward rectifying the situation, instead of being tormented by stress of the unpleasantness.
at-large) can be swayed by the way they present information. Rather than admitting over-the-month unemployment increased ten percent, they might say it decreased three percent yearover-year.
To be clear, the positive or negative connotations associated with the way information is presented often determines whether an individual will be risk adverse or risk tolerant. Those who seek to influence others are sensitive to this probability and likewise knowledgeable on how to frame information to their advantage.
By realizing the various ways in which our thinking can go astray, anyone can learn to correct cognitive biases. And, by applying practical strategies that support our increased awareness, we can make the changes stick. It takes practice to make good decisions, but the rewards of rational choice are incalculable. To this end, individuals and organizations who prioritize this work can avoid the worst results. By changing our minds, we can change the world around us - one good decision at a time.15
Pro Tip: If someone is prone to changing their opinions based on the way facts are framed, a great strategy is to seek points of comparison that shine the light on them differently. Illumination can make half-truths wither.
Notes:
1 – Dr. Joel Hoomans. “35,000 Decisions: The Great Choices of Strategic Leaders.” The Leading Edge, March 20, 2015, https://go.roberts.edu/leadingedge/the-great-choices-of-strategic-leaders. 2 – Darcie Reeson. “Cognitive Bias and How It Affects Healthcare Providers’ Decision Making.” Children’s Hospital Association, July 30, 2018, https://www.childrenshospitals.org/Newsroom/Childrens-HospitalsToday/Issue-Archive/Issues/Summer-2018/Articles/Cognitive-Bias-and-How-it-Affects-Health-Care-ProvidersDecision-Making. 3 – Jeff Desjardins. “Every Single Cognitive Bias In One Infographic.” Visual Capitalist, September 25, 2017, https://www.visualcapitalist.com/every-single-cognitive-bias/. 4 – Ben Yagoda. “The Cognitive Biases Tricking Your Brain.” The Atlantic, September 2018, https://www. theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/09/cognitive-bias/565775/?gclid=CjwKCAjwsan5BRAOEiwALzomXRWgYWl4Yme3nsFUE_rOn4yZWcM8U0ZKShTGjyX0_zQqxzeo5eL2hoC67gQAvD_BwE 5 – Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011). 6 – Adwoa Bagalini. “ 3 Cognitive Biases Perpetuating Racism at Work and How to Overcome Them.” World Economic Forum, August 19 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/08/cognitive-bias-unconsciousracism-moral-licensing/. 7 – Ibid. 8 – Ibid. 9 – John Beshears and Francesca Gino. “Identifying the Biases Behind Your Bad Decisions. “ Harvard Business Review, October 31, 2014, https://www.google.com/amp/s/hbr.org/amp/2014/10/identifying-thebiases-behind-your-bad-decisions. 10 – Ibid. 11 – Anne-Laure Sellier, Irene Scopelliti and Carey K. Morewedge. “Debiasing Training Improves DecisionMaking in the Field.” Psychological Science, July 26, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619861429. 12 – Karima Mariama-Arthur. “Expose Cognitive Biases for What They Are.” Entrepreneur Magazine, November 20, 2020, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/352159. 13 – Carol Rivers. “Confirmation Bias Has a Long History of Helping Whites Demonize Blacks.” Los AngelesTimes, December 12, 2014, https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-rivers-confirmation-bias-race20141212-story.html%3f_amp=true. 14 – Ibid. 15 – Michael Lewis. The Undoing Project: The Friendship that Changed Our Minds. (New York: Norton, 2016).
