Courses/Teams & Culture/Understanding Unconscious Bias
Understanding Unconscious Bias
A half-day workshop on how bias shapes decisions at work
Overview
A half-day, trainer-led course on unconscious bias built on published research rather than folklore. Participants examine the mental shortcuts behind snap judgement, name common biases in realistic scenarios, map where bias enters their own organisation's decisions, and apply practical interrupters to hiring, reviews, meetings and task allocation. Ships with scripted slides, workbook, five handouts and two case studies — one international, one GCC-set.
Format. Half day. Designed for classroom delivery and adaptable to live online sessions.
Who it is for. Managers, team leaders, HR professionals and anyone whose role involves hiring, appraising or allocating work to others; open level, no prior study required. Written for trainers, facilitators and corporate L&D teams delivering to mixed audiences in any sector or region.
What delegates take away
- Explain how unconscious bias arises from normal cognition, citing the published research behind the claim.
- Recognise the common biases that distort people decisions — affinity, confirmation, halo and horns, attribution error, anchoring and recency — in realistic scenarios.
- Map the decision points and conditions where bias most influences outcomes in their own organisation.
- Explain why awareness alone rarely changes behaviour, and why decision design outperforms willpower.
- Apply practical bias interrupters to hiring, reviews, meetings and task allocation.
- Commit to a three-part if-then plan for the decisions they own.
Course outline
Establishes the two-systems account of thinking and reframes bias as a by-product of normal cognition rather than a character flaw, opening with a snap-judgement activity that lets participants catch their own assumptions forming.
Works through the biases that do the most damage in people decisions — affinity and in-group favouritism, confirmation, halo and horns, attribution error, anchoring and recency — then tests recognition in a scenario-matching activity.
Reviews the field evidence on hiring and evaluation, then maps the decision points in participants' own organisations where judgements about people carry the least structure.
Explains why introspection is unreliable, identifies the conditions that switch mental shortcuts on, and runs a private self-audit of each participant's highest-risk decisions and triggers.
Confronts the evidence that awareness alone changes little, then equips participants with decision-design interrupters for hiring, reviews, meetings and task allocation, applied in full to a case study.
Each participant commits to three specific interrupters in an if-then plan, shares one aloud, and the session closes by re-examining the real decisions harvested at the start of the day.
What is in the kit
Slide deck
33 branded, fully editable PowerPoint slides with facilitator notes on every slide
Trainer notes
Complete facilitator guide: agenda, slide-by-slide delivery notes and guidance
Case studies — two editions
The same case material in international and Gulf settings; pick by audience
Participant workbook
7 in-session exercises with writing space
Handouts
5 complete standalone handouts: worksheets, checklists and scenario sets
Certificates
Attendance and completion certificate templates with the MIZAN seal
Course administration
Feedback form and sign-in sheet
Editions
The license in one sentence
Buy once, deliver the course as often as you like to as many delegates as you like, edit anything, add your own branding — you only may not resell or redistribute the materials themselves. Every download is stamped with your name, tier and order number. Full license terms
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