Buki Mosaku is easily one of the finer writers on the topics he covers in “I Don’t Understand”: Navigating Unconscious Bias in the Workplace. As the deliberately plainspoken and matter-of-fact titling suggests, in a manner akin to an MLA paper, Mosaku is exploring through his own brand of workplace implementation strategy how to address titular Unconscious Bias. Particularly as it pertains to an increasingly digitized and remote vista, where so-called ‘standard’ methodologies and practices are being critically reevaluated.
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Mosaku writes about this not without his own, personal stakes highlighted, but using his experiences as effective and humanized analogies to the greater points he’s interested in highlighting in the text. The effect is the read comes across as uncommonly genuine, and Mosaku seeming visible as a person behind the drier aspects of presentation. There’s an earnestness with which he highlights the pros and cons, highlighting how said cons can be addressed in a manner beneficial for all in the implementation of new strategy, and new, diverse thought. “The personal costs (of unconscious bias) also should not be forgotten,” he warns. “Unconscious bias can profoundly affect the physical and mental health and well-being of its victims, which brings serious knock-on effects to families and communities.
Like many others, I’ve been exposed to unconscious bias training in the past. The primary objective in these sessions is to help build awareness of unconscious biases towards minorities and marginalized groups and see how this training impacts traditional perpetrators’ behavior. It’s thought that from this position of personal bias awareness that participants can work on themselves to reduce the frequency and negative impact of their bias-related decision-making and behaviors.”
Mosaku also writes, “Being aware of this phenomenon is an important part of addressing unconscious bias. Yet in my opinion, far too much weight is placed on merely making people aware of their propensity for bias. It’s a good first step, but more is required if we want to tackle unconscious bias effectively in the workplace. Unconscious bias operates at every level of society, but this book will focus on unconscious bias as it manifests at the interpersonal level—between people—in the workplace.”
Therein lies the key. Mosaku avoids what many before him have done, to varying degrees of success. With “I Don’t Understand”: Navigating Unconscious Bias in the Workplace, he makes it personal. By humanizing things in an on-the-ground, immediate sense, Mosaku is able to make all of the points, already expertly summed up and cited with outstanding evidence, to hit that much harder. He also engages the reader by almost breaking the fourth wall.
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By making parts of the book feel like a conversation, Mosaku is able to simultaneously pack multiple ideas into condensed, communicatively effective form, and make the reader feel empowered each step of the way. “To navigate workplace bias successfully, it’s important to know what we are up against,” he states. “This begs the question: what is the greatest obstacle to navigating unconscious bias in the workplace? Consider this question further as we progress with additional obstacles to effectively navigating workplace bias.”
Garth Thomas