Unconscious Bias and Its Impact On Organization Design

Join an ODF Community Conversation
May 22 | 12:00 – 1:00 (EDT)

Unconscious Design Bias
&
Its Impact On Organization Design

Join community members Bonnie Toland and Arnold Levin with Gensler who will be leading a conversation focused on will explore how unconscious bias guides and impacts the decision process within organizational design, our relationship with work, and our organizational models, ultimately privileging and promoting our own worldview, values, and patterns of interaction.

Participants will learn a framework for understanding unconscious bias in relation to how people understand and relate to their organizations and will look at eight types of organizational and temporal unconscious biases. Together we will reflect on how these biases impact organization design and our work.

The American approach to work, heavily set within an American concept of productivity and efficiency, is America’s primary export. As multinational companies that set up offices globally, a single notion of work and work spaces homogenizes a vast tapestry of potential alternatives.

Gensler is a global architecture, design, and planning firm with 55 locations across Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and the Americas. Every day we impact millions of people’s lives with the spaces we create, which is why people are at the center of everything we do. Designing for the human experience is what allows us to tackle the toughest challenges facing cities and shape a more resilient and equitable future for everyone.

Arnold Levin is a South West Regional Strategy Practice Area Leader with Gensler. With over 45 years’ experience in design strategy, organizational design, , workplace design, and design research, he has worked with a wide range of clients globally helping to solve complex organizational challenges through design strategy. This diverse range covers government and private sector organizations including GSA (CDC, US Department of Commerce, US Parks Service), LA County Government, Bloomberg, Caterpillar, the Gates Foundation, Microsoft, Capital One and Blue Cross Blue Shield. With an undergraduate degree in design, Arnold went on to complete an MBA in Design Management and an M.Phil. in Organizational Design. His research on organizational design, design strategy and workplace has been published in the Journal of Facilities Management, Journal of Design Management and WorkDesign.

Bonnie Toland develops roadmaps with organizations to align their space, technology, policies, and culture. Bonnie has two BAs, one in Cultural Studies and Political Science, and the other in Interior Design and has also worked extensively nationally and internationally as an interior designer. Prior to design, Bonnie worked as an interpreter, led anti-racism workshops, led a folkloric dance group, and taught Italian. She has lived in 6 regions in the US and 3 continents, which has shaped her perspective and enriched her work. She speaks 4 languages.