Author: Iris Bohnet
_Iris Bohnet_
Reading time: 20 minutes
Summary
Make Work Fair (2025) suggests a new way to make workplaces fair. This way uses facts and information instead of diversity training that doesn’t work well. The book shows how to change work systems. It explains that if you look at how things happen, remove obstacles, and make people responsible for their daily tasks, workplaces become fairer and work better.
What’s this about? Find the best way to make work fair.
Old voice recognition software worked very well for some people. But for others, it did not work at all.
Engineers taught the computer programs mostly with voices from white men in California. They thought this would be enough for everyone. But studies showed something else. These systems did not understand 35% of words spoken by Black Americans. They only misunderstood 19% of words spoken by white Americans. Women had more problems than men in all groups.
In the UK, Scottish accents caused so many mistakes. When Siri first came out, Scottish users had trouble with simple commands. Smart speakers did not understand Welsh accents more than 23% of the time. This technology failed half of the people who might use it. This was because it was made for only one type of voice.
These design choices create problems. Most people only see these problems if they are affected by them. Many company leaders have good intentions. But many employees still face difficulties. These difficulties are caused by how systems are set up.
This summary looks at why normal company actions do not make workplaces fairer. Things like diversity training or awareness campaigns often fail. It explains why changing systems using facts, not trying to change what people think with ideas about right and wrong, is the way to go. When fairness is part of daily work, it will surely happen.
Blink 1 – Hidden unfairness
From the mid-1960s, engineers used crash test dummies to make cars safer. They made these dummies a standard height of five feet nine inches. Their weight was about 170 pounds. All seatbelts, airbags, and safety features were made to work best for this one body type.
The result was sad but not surprising. Women and children were hurt or died much more often in car accidents. This was not because they were naturally weaker. It was because safety systems were not made for their smaller, lighter bodies.
This is not just about cars. It shows how most systems in the world work. Someone, at some time, decided what “normal” looked like. They chose a standard. Often, they did not even know they were making a choice. This standard became part of everything. This includes office temperatures, medical studies, and work rules.
Think about a typical career path in a company. It expects you to work long hours without stopping. It rewards people who can travel a lot and move house quickly. It values working in the office and being available all the time. This way of working suits some people. But for anyone who takes care of others, has health issues, or just works differently, the system creates problems everywhere.
Museums are another surprising example. The system can really work against anyone who doesn’t fit the “normal” idea. About half of all professional artists are women. Most art school graduates are women. But women artists make up less than 10% of major museum collections. The problem is not a lack of talented women artists. It is that decisions about collecting, showing, and buying art were based on ideas about whose work was most important.
This pattern happens in all jobs and situations. Safety rules, work policies, hiring steps, and company cultures all show choices someone made about what “normal” means. Every design choice helps some people. But it also creates problems for others. The playing field seems fair until you see it was built on a slope.
To see this in your own workplace, look at one process you manage. This could be running meetings, hiring people, or checking how people perform. Ask yourself: who was this process made for? Who does it help? Whose needs might not be seen in how it is set up now?
Then you can find problems you could fix. Maybe meeting times always clash with school pickup. Or job descriptions ask for skills that are not really needed for the job. As we will see later, small changes to systems lead to big changes in the results.
Blink 2 – Use facts to make changes
Most companies say they care about fairness. They write it in their main goals and show it in their yearly reports. But here is a simple test: do they measure fairness like they measure money, how much work gets done, or how happy customers are? If fairness is important, you should see it in the numbers you check every day.
A TV presenter at the BBC did not know if his evening news show had equal numbers of women and men as experts. He thought it was probably balanced. But he had never actually counted. So, his team started to spend two minutes after each show. They wrote down who appeared on screen. It was not complicated; they just used sticky notes.
But even this simple way of collecting facts showed surprising results. Only 39% of the experts on air were women. This was much less than the team expected. This difference between what they thought and what was real made them act right away. In a few months, they had equal numbers of men and women. Just by counting, people became responsible, and this changed how they acted.
The lesson is clear: show what is hidden, and people will be responsible. One big technology company looked at how many employees left the company. The first facts showed that more women were leaving than men. This looked like a women’s problem. But a deeper look showed something more specific. New mothers were the main reason for this trend, not women in general. With this new information, the company made parental leave longer, from 12 to 18 weeks. The problem of people leaving went away. Without more detailed facts, they would have tried to fix the wrong problem.
Facts work because they show the real situation. They do not just show what people think or mean well. You do not need complex systems or big teams to start. One person can begin to look at patterns in their own work area. Who speaks most in your team meetings? What types of people are you helping or supporting? Who gets important projects? Even simple counting can show hidden patterns.
The main point is to treat facts about fairness like other company facts. Make it simple and useful. Even better, share it right away. Then people can change what they do without waiting for a new rule. Look at the facts to find the real reasons, not just the numbers you see. And most important, use these facts to make choices.
Start by choosing one thing to measure about fairness in your job. Count something specific and do it regularly. Then share what you find with your team. Facts alone do not solve problems. But they show you exactly where to put your effort.
Blink 3 – Make fairness part of daily work
When companies want to make things fairer, they often start new projects. Maybe a training session here, a special group there, or a person in charge of “diversity.” But this way of thinking misses a key point. Fairness is not a separate thing you do alongside your real job. It is a main part of your real job.
Think about a simple CV (resume). For many years, job seekers wrote down their work history with exact start and end dates for each job. No one questioned this. Then, researchers tried something different. They asked some job applicants to list only their total years of experience, not exact dates.
This small change removed clear gaps in careers that employers often dislike. Women are more likely to have these gaps because of looking after family. Both women and men who used this new CV style got many more invitations for interviews. The CV itself was changed to be fairer.
This is what making fairness part of your work looks like. You take the things you already do and change how you do them. If you create products, you make them work for all body shapes and sizes. If you lead meetings, you make sure everyone has a chance to speak. If you write job descriptions, you remove things that sound good but are not truly needed for the job.
This change is important because old ways of making things fair usually try to change what people believe. “Go to this workshop, and you will see your own biases.” “Watch this video, and you will think differently about including everyone.” The problem is that changing beliefs is very hard. Our brains are built by nature and shaped by what we experience. Even people who mean well find it hard to stop their usual, unplanned actions in the moment.
Changing systems is different. One big employer stopped asking for college degrees for technical jobs. The number of applications from groups not often seen in these jobs went up a lot. No one had to check their beliefs or fight their biases. The obstacle just went away, and people’s actions changed.
This way also fixes another common problem. Work to make things fair often falls on the people who need fairness the most. Women and minorities often serve on every diversity committee. They do this while still doing their normal jobs. Making fairness part of existing work means everyone takes part as part of their regular tasks.
Look at one task you do often. It could be hiring, giving out projects, reviewing performance, or leading meetings. Ask yourself what ideas are built into the current way of doing it. Then try one small change that removes a problem or makes things equal. You are not adding more work. You are doing your existing work more fairly.
Blink 4 – Build a fair culture
Changing systems is important. But systems alone do not make changes last. You also need to change what feels normal in your workplace. When fairness becomes the usual way of doing things, instead of something special or extra, it stays.
Having role models makes a very big difference. They help shape what people believe is possible. When high school students met women scientists for just one hour, their ideas changed. Girls were more likely to think about science jobs. But the effect was more than just inspiration. These role models showed proof that women could do well in a field where there were not many women. They made fitting in clear to see, not just an idea.
The same thing happens at work. When people see different kinds of leaders in senior jobs, or people in roles that break old ideas, it shows something. It shows that the company values different ways to succeed. Role models inspire, yes. But they also give clear examples of what good behavior looks like in that workplace. They become part of how the company defines what is excellent.
Studies also show that people act more carefully when they know others can see what they do. Remember the BBC presenter we talked about earlier? His team shared their facts about men and women experts within the company. This openness created a natural push to do better. This is why the problem was fixed so fast after they started collecting facts.
You can also make people responsible even if you do not have the power to change things. Share your own facts with your colleagues. When you keep track of who speaks in meetings or who gets chances to grow, show these patterns to your team. Being open starts conversations and builds shared responsibility for action.
Reminders also change how people act at the moment they make decisions. In one test, researchers reminded hiring managers about how important diversity was. They did this right before the managers looked at job candidates. That simple reminder, given at the exact time of making a choice, led to a list of candidates with more different people. The reminder kept fairness in mind when it mattered most.
Culture is often called “how we do things.” This is because it becomes real through actions that happen again and again, and through examples that people can see. When fairness is measured, talked about, and shown by people at all levels, it stops being a special project. It simply becomes “how work gets done.”
Think about one way you can make fairness more visible in your daily work. Could you share facts about your team’s members or how projects are given out? Could you point out examples of fair ways of working in team meetings? Could you create a simple reminder for yourself before making important decisions? Small actions of being open and showing good examples lead to cultural change.
Blink 5 – Fairness makes you better
Often, we talk about fairness at work by saying it’s the right thing to do. We say everyone should have the same chances. These ideas are important. But they are not the only reasons to want fairness. Fair workplaces also work better. They make better choices, get more work done, and perform better. This happens when systems are made to work for everyone.
Think about making decisions. When teams have many different ideas, they make more correct choices. They also find more mistakes. Groups of people who are all similar often fall into groupthink. This means everyone shares the same blind spots and believes the same things. Teams with different people question each other better. They think about more ideas before deciding. The result is smarter choices with fewer expensive mistakes.
You can also get more work done in unexpected ways. The US Patent and Trademark Office let staff work from home four days a week. This meant they did not have to be in the office. This flexibility helped employees who cared for family members, had long journeys to work, or had disabilities. The result was not less work, but more. Patent examiners checked 4.4% more patents after this new rule. When you remove things that stop people from doing their best work, performance gets better.
Money results also show a similar story. Companies that use facts to make business decisions get much more output and are more productive. This is compared to companies that do not have facts or ignore them. This is true in all types of businesses. This includes technology, manufacturing, and services.
Fair processes also build trust. And trust makes things run more smoothly. When employees believe that choices about hiring, promotions, and pay follow clear and fair rules, they spend less energy worrying about office politics or favouritism. That energy then goes into their actual work. Companies with fair practices report that employees are happier and fewer people leave. Both of these help the company’s money.
The idea here is simple. Fairness is not a choice where you give up being fast to be fair. Systems made to work for everyone usually work better for the whole company. When you remove obstacles, bring in more ideas, and make choices based on facts instead of guesses, you build a stronger workplace.
Ask yourself what your company might be losing. Maybe it is not using all its talented people. Or it is making choices with only a few ideas. Then think about one fair change you could make that would bring new possibilities.
Final summary
The main message from this summary of Make Work Fair by Iris Bohnet and Siri Chilazi is that making work fair needs three steps. First, look at what is important. Track the patterns that show unfairness in your own work area. Second, make fairness part of your daily work. Change processes to remove problems, instead of trying to change what people believe. Third, show fairness clearly. Do this through responsibility, role models, and reminders when important choices are made. These ways do not just make things morally right. They build smarter, better companies where everyone can do their best work.
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Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/en/books/make-work-fair-en