Trish's Blog

What is the difference between a filter and a bias?

Here is a simple way to think about it:

A filter is how you take in the world.
A bias is how you judge the world.

Filters

These are shaped by your experiences, upbringing, culture, personality, and the things you pay attention to.
A filter colours what you notice, what you miss, and how you interpret information.
Filters aren’t good or bad, they’re just part of being human.

Biases

Bias kicks in when those filters turn into assumptions.
It’s when your brain fills in the gaps, decides what something means, or makes a call before you’ve checked the facts.
Bias can be helpful (quick decisions) or unhelpful (unfair judgments).

Quick example

• A filter might be “I value direct communication, so I pay more attention to people who get to the point.”
• A bias might be “People who aren’t direct must be avoiding something.”
  One is a lens. The other is a leap.

:

Filters shape what we notice

Everyone walks into a meeting with their own lens. Some people notice risks first. Others notice opportunities. Some tune into tone, others tune into data. None of these are “wrong”; they’re just filters. But when a team doesn’t realise this, they misread each other’s focus as a problem rather than a perspective.

Bias shapes how we judge people

This is where trouble starts. Bias is when a filter becomes a conclusion.
Examples you see all the time:

• “She’s quiet; she must not have leadership potential.”
• “He challenges ideas; he must be difficult to work with.”
• “They’re young; they won’t handle complexity.”
  

These shortcuts lead to missed talent, unfair workloads, and poor decisions.

Filters affect collaboration

When people assume their filter is “the normal way,” they can’t understand why others don’t think or work like they do.
This is often where tension, miscommunication, and those low-level resentments come from.

Bias affects opportunity

Bias shapes who gets the interesting projects, who’s seen as “ready,” and who gets overlooked, even when no one intends harm. It’s also why similar resumes get very different reactions.

Filters can be valuable; bias can block that value

A team with diverse filters has more angles, more ideas, and better decision-making.
But if bias takes over, those differences don’t get used, they get shut down.

Filters are often where someone’s Weird Wisdom® lives

People see the world differently because of their background, skills, quirks, strengths, and lived experience. Those filters are the raw material of Diversity of Thought; the very thing workplaces keep saying they want. When leaders recognise this, they stop trying to make everyone think the same way and start asking, “What do you see that I don’t?”

Bias is what stops that value from coming through

Bias shuts down Weird Wisdom®. It labels differences as problems instead of possibilities.
It turns unconventional thinking into “too hard,” “too slow,” or “too much.” The moment bias kicks in, the team loses the benefit of those diverse filters.

This is where Weird Wisdom® becomes practical

The principles help teams work with differences instead of around them:

• Comfort with uncertainty:
  Leaders don’t rush to snap judgments. They pause before bias takes over.
• Failure as growth:
  When people aren’t scared of being judged, they share ideas they’d normally hide.
• Harmony in contradiction:
  Teams learn that two opposite perspectives can both be useful. That’s Diversity of Thought in action.
• Exploring the unconventional:
  Instead of dismissing ideas that don’t match their own filter, leaders lean in.
• Questioning norms:
  Bias shows up as “this is how we’ve always done it.” Weird Wisdom® challenges that, gently but firmly.

The simple takeaway

Filters give you difference.
Bias blocks you from using it.
Weird Wisdom® teaches everyone how to spot both and then turn those differences into better decisions, better relationships, and a workplace people actually want to stay in.