Giving Notice: Why the Best and the Brightest Leave the Workplace and How You Can Help Them Stay

5.6. Conclusion

Recognizing the existence of implicit bias can be inherently uncomfortable. Few of us want to acknowledge that we carry, and use, stereotypes. Yet understanding and accepting what is now a broad field of peer-reviewed and published research that confirms implicit bias creates a new and important opportunity. Corporate leaders, who for decades have sought to create a facade of diversity, primarily by trying to broaden the color of the people they hire, can now recognize an unprecedented opportunity to say that bias exists, whether or not they know about it.

This turns the diversity argument inside out. We start out on common ground. We are all biased, and many of our biases reflect familiar stereotypes in our culture. If we don't ...