What Might You Be Missing?

I’ve recently started listening to LBC radio in the car.

It grew out of a craving to get a more rounded view on a bigger range of issues rather than getting sucked into social media keyboard warfare.

And it didn’t take long to realise how much room for improvement there was for me… how very naive and underinformed I am on a lot of topics and how much privilege and bias lurks in the shadows of my awareness.

Hearing the views of people calling in live on air has been quite challenging at times… I’ve agreed and disagreed but mostly I’ve been muttering to myself about how I genuinely had no idea of the statistics, the impact of things or the time lost to X, Y or Z.

We all live in our own bubble of awareness and unless we go looking, we often have no idea what’s out there.

And that makes me think about bias.

But rather than thinking about bias in the way we treat the people around us, I wonder if we need to go a step further back and look at what comes before that.

Like… what is feeding the bias?

Like… what information are you choosing to consume about your working relationships?

Because no matter how hard you try not to be biased in how you behave, you could still be completely unaware of what is shaping your opinions and perspective in the first place.

You can’t change what you don’t know about, and you won’t know about it if you never look.

I know that just being exposed to more opinions doesn’t magically switch off bias, but it does improve your chances of noticing it creeping in.

Try this

For the next 24 hours, just notice:

• Who you listen to (and who isn’t contributing or getting a word in edgeways)

• What you’re reading (or not)

• Whose opinion you seek out on what topic

• What gets your attention even on a busy day

And then when you notice it, take an interest and ask…

What might I be missing?