At one of our clients…
ABN Amro: I was very honoured to be a member of the jury of the Dutch Design Week after being nominated by ABN Amro. In recent months, we have looked at designs that allow people to experience what exclusion is and what it feels like. Dutch Designer Mies Loogman won the competition and designed a game #EenWereldTeWinnen – Congratulations to Mies and ABN Amro.
As many as 637 people participated in the BLM Challenge to examine their Unconscious Bias with regard to Skin Color and Trust using our Mindbugstest. What all these people and you might also want to know: what conclusions can we draw from the results? The results show the following: The respondents gave the following answers to the statements in the test: 99% of all respondents indicated that they viewed other people in a neutral or positive manner, regardless of their skin color. 99% of all respondents also indicated that skin color has no impact on their idea of whether someone would be a good leader for an organization. Then the people were tested for their possible bias on skin color. This part of your test is no longer about your opinion but measures your unconscious bias against people with a light or dark skin tone. The scores for this item showed that most respondents do allow themselves to be influenced by someone’s skin color: 24% of the respondents have a preference for people with a dark skin color, of which 7% strongly. 76% of the respondents have a preference for people with a light skin color, of which 52% are strong. For many of the respondents, the test shows a large discrepancy between how the respondents think they act and how they actually act on the basis of a person’s skin color. It is possible that people with large differences between their opinions and their unconscious bias may inadvertently exclude and discriminate against people based on their skin color. The bigger the discrepancy, the harder you have to work to give everyone a fair chance. Those who indicated that they interacted a lot with people with different skin colors or who grew up in a diverse environment showed less high unconscious biases on skin color. This is in accordance with research. Working on “friendship” with people who are different from yourself is a reliable way towards less unconscious prejudices. It’s called contact theory. It is also striking that the positive contact with people who are classified in one group can also make someone more positive towards people who belong to another group (secondary transfer effect). One of the first steps you can take to reduce biases to seek out and deal with more diversity of people. For background on the test, see our other site https://mindbugstest.nl. All people who have taken the test will receive their personal, confidential reports by email.
“If you get to know each other and you find out that people do not fit their label, than it becomes interesting”.
A wonderful interview from Norwegian talk show host Fredrik Skavlan with comedian Hannah Gadsby, about neuro-diversity and her autism, about the labels we automatically attribute to others and the importance of looking at the individual behind the labels.
For many leading organisations, Esther provides an internal Female Leadership course for their talented women. Each course is tailor-made and has slightly different points of attention.
The first goal of all courses is to empower talented women even more. The courses help them to take full ownership in shaping their business and personal ambitions. The participants get the tools to start steering their careers, but they are also offered insights on how “the world of organisations” works and how they can contribute to it successfully. The second goal of this curriculum is to fill the pipeline of those organisations with more female talent.
A course consists of several modules. One customer chooses to distribute the modules over the course of a year with various additional activities such as mentoring, peer reviews and an assessment to map the perceptions and strengths of the participating women. The other client opts for the intensive two-day training. The success of the courses is supported by the evaluations we receive from the participants. But what makes us even happier is that participants grow in their organisation to their full potential and thus make that organisation even stronger. Unbelievable: we have been working with some organisations for these training courses for 15 years. We are really proud of that. 
Some clients of the internal Female Leadership Curriculum: ING, VU, EY, Sogeti, LUMC, ABN Amro, Abbott, MN, and UMC Utrecht. For these courses, Esther happily collaborates with other experts. Two of them needs mentioning here: Erna Versteegden and Muriel Schrikkema, who take on the peer groups and personal coaching. Erna Versteegden also participates as an expert in some areas. Please contact Robert Smit for more information.
Together with our customers, we create customised training courses that improve the learning objectives of your team and/or organisation. Customisation is our daily work. We design and organise tailor-made programs that are 100% in line with the wishes and objectives of our customers. We help your team or organisation to translate gained insights into results. We like to think along with you, design interventions and help you achieve the desired result.