Sunday Rewind: Building fair and innovative teams: The promise and power of behavioural science by Bibi Groot

This week’s Sunday Rewind is a 2022 #mtpcon London session from Bibi Groot, then Head of Behavioural Science at Fair HQ, in which she shares some insights from behavioural science that help us build fair, innovative and empowered teams.

Bibi starts by explaining that behavioural science focuses on how and why people behave in the way that they do, and on helping us make better decisions.

Bibi then looks at how diversity in its many forms is key to creating conditions for creative problem-solving, and how we make decisions and make sense of the world. Building diverse and equitable teams is something we can all contribute to as product people, she says.

She then runs through the theory of System 1 and System 2 thinking and its role in different types of bias. System 1 thinking is quick and automatic, System 2 is slow and deliberate.

She then asks how we can make our workplaces work for everyone. Ways forward include:-

• Inviting unique perspectives and celebrating them. For example, this might mean getting a different person from the team to lead your meeting each week or inviting junior team members to speak before the senior team member
• Building bridges across differences
• Recruiting the best evidence – past experience isn’t always a good indicator of future performance
• Being specific and focusing on behaviours in feedback

Watch the original talk: Building fair and innovative teams: The promise and power of behavioural science by Bibi Groot