full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Kim Scott and Trier Bryant: How to reduce bias in your workplace

Unscramble the Blue Letters


KS: The other day, you and I were renoridcg a podcast and I said, "HR seevrs three masters," and you wvaed the pplrue flag. I knew what I had done wrong. Why was I using a slavery metaphor? We hit puase, I thanked you, and we rerecorded. It was no big deal. The thing I love about the purple flag is how efficient it is.

TB: Flagging the bias didn't prevent us from getting the work done. In fact, it helps us work together more honestly.

KS: It's even harder when I don't know what I did wrong. Once, I asked someone out to lnuch. Out came the purple flag. I had no idea why, so I was relveeid to know what to say next. "Thank you for pointing it out, but I don't get it. Could we talk after the meeting?" Afterwards, the person reminded me that they were fasting for rdmaaan. It instantly made sense to me, and I discovered something that I could be more aware of. But to get to awareness, I had to move through shame. It was hard to say, "I don't get it." The shared norm helped me listen and learn rather than getting defensive. The fact that there was a norm at all reassured me that other plepoe are making similar kinds of mistakes and that we're all lnaireng together.

Open Cloze


KS: The other day, you and I were _________ a podcast and I said, "HR ______ three masters," and you _____ the ______ flag. I knew what I had done wrong. Why was I using a slavery metaphor? We hit _____, I thanked you, and we rerecorded. It was no big deal. The thing I love about the purple flag is how efficient it is.

TB: Flagging the bias didn't prevent us from getting the work done. In fact, it helps us work together more honestly.

KS: It's even harder when I don't know what I did wrong. Once, I asked someone out to _____. Out came the purple flag. I had no idea why, so I was ________ to know what to say next. "Thank you for pointing it out, but I don't get it. Could we talk after the meeting?" Afterwards, the person reminded me that they were fasting for _______. It instantly made sense to me, and I discovered something that I could be more aware of. But to get to awareness, I had to move through shame. It was hard to say, "I don't get it." The shared norm helped me listen and learn rather than getting defensive. The fact that there was a norm at all reassured me that other ______ are making similar kinds of mistakes and that we're all ________ together.

Solution


  1. waved
  2. recording
  3. people
  4. lunch
  5. serves
  6. purple
  7. pause
  8. ramadan
  9. learning
  10. relieved

Original Text


KS: The other day, you and I were recording a podcast and I said, "HR serves three masters," and you waved the purple flag. I knew what I had done wrong. Why was I using a slavery metaphor? We hit pause, I thanked you, and we rerecorded. It was no big deal. The thing I love about the purple flag is how efficient it is.

TB: Flagging the bias didn't prevent us from getting the work done. In fact, it helps us work together more honestly.

KS: It's even harder when I don't know what I did wrong. Once, I asked someone out to lunch. Out came the purple flag. I had no idea why, so I was relieved to know what to say next. "Thank you for pointing it out, but I don't get it. Could we talk after the meeting?" Afterwards, the person reminded me that they were fasting for Ramadan. It instantly made sense to me, and I discovered something that I could be more aware of. But to get to awareness, I had to move through shame. It was hard to say, "I don't get it." The shared norm helped me listen and learn rather than getting defensive. The fact that there was a norm at all reassured me that other people are making similar kinds of mistakes and that we're all learning together.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
purple flag 7
shared norm 5
shared vocabulary 3
disrupting bias 3


Important Words


  1. asked
  2. aware
  3. awareness
  4. bias
  5. big
  6. day
  7. deal
  8. defensive
  9. discovered
  10. efficient
  11. fact
  12. fasting
  13. flag
  14. flagging
  15. hard
  16. harder
  17. helped
  18. helps
  19. hit
  20. honestly
  21. idea
  22. instantly
  23. kinds
  24. knew
  25. learn
  26. learning
  27. listen
  28. love
  29. lunch
  30. making
  31. masters
  32. meeting
  33. metaphor
  34. mistakes
  35. move
  36. norm
  37. pause
  38. people
  39. person
  40. podcast
  41. pointing
  42. prevent
  43. purple
  44. ramadan
  45. reassured
  46. recording
  47. relieved
  48. reminded
  49. rerecorded
  50. sense
  51. serves
  52. shame
  53. shared
  54. similar
  55. slavery
  56. talk
  57. thanked
  58. waved
  59. work
  60. wrong