My year 9 classmates couldn’t believe their eyes. The A student was taking the teacher to task, defending a classmate against what I saw as an unjust accusation. The girl accused of poor behaviour towards a visiting student teacher was no angel. But on this occasion, she hadn’t been at fault and I felt she’d been singled out unfairly. This is my first memory of being stirred by injustice.
Fast forward 30 years.
My middle son was once again complaining about the unfairness of his life – he didn’t have the freedoms his brother four years his senior enjoyed, and I held him accountable for behaviour that I let slide with the other brother who was seven years younger. My mantra, as usual, in response to his accusations of unfairness was “fair doesn’t mean equal.”
Two decades on again, it’s still injustice and inequity that drives me. And I draw on a lifetime of working with people on the margins, where injustice is most readily experienced.
On my years working with children with disabilities – of the joys of the small steps that were actually huge.
I draw on my time as a chaplain in aged care, and the privilege of being with a man as he slipped from time into eternity.
And, as a Salvo, supporting a woman struggling with schizophrenia to navigate the public housing system to find a place to live where she felt safe and not under threat.
I know how deeply I’ve been changed by working with asylum seekers on Nauru –
* sitting by the bedside of a man on a hunger strike with his lips sewn together in protest at his treatment by our government,
* building a relationship with a couple from Iran who were so traumatised that the young wife could barely talk, and
* holding a memorial service for a Hindu couple whose baby was drowned when the boat they were fleeing to Australia on started to sink.
It was while working on Nauru that my #biases of racism and white privilege showed themselves, #biases that did not fit with my personal values and how I saw myself, but which operated unconsciously none-the-less. It was only as I recognised that my biases existed parallel to my beliefs and values that I had the choice – to operate intentionally out of my values or to allow my #unconsciousbiases to drive my decision-making. Because I was now recognising that #bias lies beneath all inequity and injustice.
As The Bias Specialist, I take all that experience and insight coupled with input from Forbes, HBR, University of Pennsylvania and McKinsey, to equip businesses, corporations, government departments, industry associations and not-for-profits to address the #bias that creates toxic culture, damages relationships, impairs decision-making and impacts the bottom line.
Now, I use my passion for justice to fuel my goal of making bias conscious so that inequity and injustice might become things of the past. A lofty goal I know. But…what the heck…shoot for the stars!
What drives you?
What are you shooting