45% of Australian managers admit unconscious bias toward their team. Most can't see when it's happening.
45% of Australian managers admit bias toward their team - but awareness alone doesn't reduce it in the decision-moments that matter. Our approach uses Corporate Theatre, expert facilitation and skills-in-practice activities to shift from classroom-aware to decision-moment-aware.
From classroom-aware to decision-moment-aware
The bias literature has moved on dramatically in the last decade. We know now that awareness alone doesn't reduce bias in decision-moments. We know that training which over-personalises bias - frames it as moral failure - tends to generate defensive reactions that entrench rather than disrupt. And we know that the transfer problem (being aware in the classroom, biased in the hiring panel) is where most bias training quietly fails.
That's why ours works differently. Our immersive training tests instincts under pressure. Corporate Actors model real behaviours and expert facilitators guide learners to shift perspective and slow down thinking when it counts - treating bias as a cognitive process, not a moral failing.
The key shift is from classroom-aware to decision-moment-aware. Sceptical participants consistently rate our sessions higher than the generic training they expected, because the Corporate Theatre format bypasses the usual defensive reaction.
Skills In Practice activities close the transfer gap. Learners apply their learning in inclusive challenges that teach the intentional-thinking habit for hiring panels, performance reviews, and promotion decisions - the specific moments where bias typically takes over.
Corporate Theatre
Biased behaviours in visceral action - tailored to real-world workplace situations. Ignites a-ha moments that slideshow training can't manufacture and that sceptical participants don't expect.
Dynamic Facilitation
Skilled facilitators make the science of bias accessible - showing it's a natural mental shortcut, not a flaw. Judgment-free, insight-driven sessions that build practical strategies for recognition and management.
Skills In Practice
Conscious choices in critical moments. Activities designed to shift from instinct to intentional thinking - applied in inclusive challenges that are as thought-provoking as they are engaging.
What Unconscious Bias training usually gets wrong
Believing Unconscious Bias can be tackled by roping in a slideshow specialist might just be your bias thinking. Online self-assessments feel productive, but they're often just digital mirrors - reflective, but not transformative.
The bias literature has moved on dramatically in the last decade. We know now that awareness alone doesn't reduce bias in decision-moments. We know that training which over-personalises bias - frames it as moral failure - tends to generate defensive reactions that entrench rather than disrupt. And we know that the transfer problem (being aware in the classroom, biased in the hiring panel) is where most bias training quietly fails.
That's why ours works differently.
How our Unconscious Bias training works
Our immersive training tests instincts under pressure. Corporate Actors model real behaviours and expert facilitators guide learners to shift perspective and slow down thinking when it counts. Three components:
Corporate Theatre
Spot and understand Unconscious Biases in action. Our plays turn the biased behaviours you read about into visceral experiences. Tailored to reflect real-world workplace situations and ignite "a-ha" moments in all learners.
Dynamic Facilitation
The brain is complex; learning how it works doesn't have to be. Our facilitators make the science of bias accessible, showing it's not a flaw but a natural mental shortcut - and giving participants strategies to recognise and manage it.
Skills In Practice
Conscious choices in critical moments. Activities designed to teach learners to engage their mind fully under pressure, shifting from instinct to intentional thinking through inclusive, thought-provoking challenges.
The plays we use for this topic
Nothing is delivered off the shelf. These are the plays in our repertoire - every one gets tailored to your workplace before it goes in the room. Jacob picks and adapts on the scoping call.
Gary the GM hires Joey, a very different creature, to boost diversity. The team struggles to adapt. Fun, irreverent characters surface unconscious bias in a way that disarms defensiveness - no lecture, no moral finger-pointing.
Kendall prioritises the bottom line over the people side when a DEI overhaul hits his business. Includes Deloitte's six signature traits of inclusive leadership.
Particularly useful where bias intersects with generational and cultural dynamics in outdoor, high-vis and trade teams - the settings where bias is most entrenched and least examined.
Aneela, a recent immigrant, joins an all-white team. Respect, inclusion and the gap between intent and impact.
What a session looks like
Half-day or full-day. Often scoped around specific decision-moments - hiring panels, performance review calibration, promotion decisions - where bias affects your organisation's outcomes most directly.
- Corporate Theatre play tailored to your specific bias challenge
- Facilitated science of bias - cognitive process, not moral failing
- Skills In Practice activities building the intentional-thinking habit
- Can be scoped to recruitment, performance or promotion contexts
- Often paired with Embracing D&I or Gender Equity programs
- Pre and post measurement available
“The unsolicited feedback I've already received tells me it hit the right balance for participants between awareness, discomfort and fun. There was such joyful engagement with the audience and resonance with the message that I genuinely felt a shift in our collective awareness and determination to do better.”
— Director of Human Resources, Wesley College
Frequently asked questions
Online modules generate awareness but rarely transfer to decision-moments. Our approach uses Corporate Theatre to create visceral recognition, facilitated discussion to translate it to their workplace, and Skills In Practice activities to build the intentional-thinking habit for the moments where bias typically takes over.
Yes. The Corporate Theatre component creates a-ha moments that slideshow training can't manufacture. Sceptical participants consistently rate our sessions higher than the generic training they expected because the format bypasses the usual defensive reaction.
Yes. We can scope the delivery toward recruitment panels, promotion decisions, performance calibration - the specific decision-moments where bias affects your organisation. The scenarios reflect those situations rather than generic workplace dynamics.
Yes. Our facilitators keep current with the cognitive science literature. We treat bias as a cognitive process, not a moral failing - which is what the evidence supports and which is what makes the training land without generating the defensive responses that moralising approaches produce.
Ideal 30 to 40. Up to 50 also possible. If you're targeting a specific cohort - a hiring panel, a leadership group, a performance calibration committee - smaller focused sessions often produce stronger transfer to decision-moments.
Training Delivered Differently
Let's talk about your bias challenge
If you've seen bias patterns in hiring or performance data, or you're scoping Disrupting Unconscious Bias as part of a wider D&I program, twenty minutes with Jacob will help you understand what a program for your workforce could look like. Bring the specific concern.