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8 <br /> <br />Our approach is grounded by practices that reinforce the assets and wisdom of people who experience <br />disinvestment and discrimination and draws on Targeted Universalism, setting universal goals that can <br />be achieved through targeted strategies to meet the needs of different populations situated differently. <br />Perception Institute is a consortium of researchers and strategists who turn cutting-edge mind <br />science research about identity differences into solutions that can be applied to everyday <br />individual and institutional interactions. <br />We design interventions, trainings, and evaluation to help organizations communicate across <br />difference, disrupt cycles of biased behavior, and integrate practices of fairness and opportunity. We <br />work with institutional stakeholders, with a strong commitment to change and who value innovation and <br />empiricism, to test solutions and bring them to scale, thereby transforming the lives of those most <br />affected more efficiently and with greater accountability. We ground our work in 3 core concepts: <br />Implicit Bias, Identity Anxiety, and Stereotype Threat. <br />The majority of Americans consciously adhere to egalitarian values and strive to treat others with <br />fairness, not based on identity characteristics. However, research shows that judgments are often <br />shaped by a set of tacit associations between racial and ethnic groups and stereotypic traits—shaped <br />over time by history, media, and culture—even those who are deeply committed to equity can be <br />influenced in subtle ways by broader social norms. Left unchecked, routine biased behavior leads to <br />systemic discrimination. And racial and gendered anxiety—the fear that our biases may be revealed, or <br />that we may become the object of bias—can unintentionally lead our brains to shut down, causing us to <br />avoid interactions between identity groups, limiting our ability to reap the innovation benefits of diversity <br />or transform practices that may negatively affect identity groups. <br />Accordingly, to achieve racially equitable outcomes in our systems, it is crucial to address the <br />behavioral responses to automatic, unconscious stereotypical associations and related phenomena <br />linked to racial and ethnic differences. We can also use the science to foster environments that <br />promote equal treatment and guard against the impact of biases. When leadership, common practices, <br />and institutional procedures promote fairness, we can meaningfully shift dynamics and reduce <br />disparities throughout our systems. <br />Perception’s approach helps organizations center their strategies for diversity, equity, and inclusion on <br />the latest evidence-based research on implicit bias, racial anxiety, and stereotype threat among other <br />core concepts in the mind sciences that can be applied to everyday individual and institutional <br />interactions. Last, we are driven by a healthy optimism that is undergirded by exciting empirical <br />evidence that suggests we can override our biases and navigate differences in ways that create better <br />experiences and opportunities for all. <br />Consultant Team <br />john a. powell <br />john a. powell is a co-founder of Seed Collaborative. He is also the Director of the Haas Institute for a <br />Fair and Inclusive Society and Professor of Law, African American, and Ethnic Studies at the University <br />of California, Berkeley. john was one of co-developers of the adequacy theory/approach to education. <br />He is a co-founder of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and serves on the boards of several <br />national and international organizations. john led the development of an “opportunity-based” model that