Recognizing and mitigating unconscious bias in the workplace. 

Ball Corporation has partnered with Buck Davis & Company to produce a series of trainings to help address the issue of unconscious bias in the workplace. The training has three-parts—known as our “Inclusive Training” series that can be utilized separately or as a whole. The first module, “SPEAK Inclusively” grew out of an initiative started by one of our Ball Resource Groups who recognized that people often say hurtful things without realizing they are offensive. To cultivate content for this five minute video, Ball Corporation held a lunch and learn entitled “Words at Work” aimed to draw people’s attention to the fact that changing one or two words in our vocabularies can make a large impact on helping people feel included in the workplace.  One outcome of this training was the concept of an “OUCH”—a tool that we’re now using at Ball to let others know that their language was not inclusive.

The second module, Ball’s “THINK Inclusively” Unconscious Bias training is a three hour, instructor-led, interactive workshop that introduces participants to the concept of unconscious bias, identify their own biases and tease out ways to recognize and mitigate for bias in our everyday actions.

Finally, Ball’s “MEET Inclusively” training is a three-hour, instructor led training that delves deeper into concrete ways of creating an inclusive environment in meetings. The training addresses everything from the physical spacing in a meeting to our personal behavior to the way we interact with people during meetings.

To date, nearly 500 people across our Colorado campus have completed THINK Inclusively training.  We’ve also offered the training to several of our North American plants. At the end of each session, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with almost every participant asking for more training.