Ok folks— some of you may judge me for this, but my unofficial Facebook survey says I’m in the majority on this one. Netflix’s “The Floor is Lava” is officially my new escape.

It is totally ridiculous, contestants hamming it up trying to cross an obstacle course until they eventually successfully get to the end, or sadly, meet their demise in said lava.

Teams compete against each other to see how many of their team members can successfully get across and how long it takes them.

Sometimes they all make it across, sometimes none — and the teams are made of of 2-3 friends, usually linked by some common element. (college buddies, workout pals, co-workers, siblings, etc.)

By now you are wondering why I’m giving you a run down of the show. I’m an HR professional, not an entertainment reporter. Truth. Stay with me!

So Q (my 8 year old) and I were bingeing our 4th episode of the night, watching three teams trying to traverse the lava in the Planetarium. (BTW- all of the rooms have themes)

Team #1 - Three Beantown buddies (“the Bostonians”)— a young, trash talking bunch and invoking Tom Brady’s greatness to propel them through. I thought they had a shot.

Team #2 - A trio of middle-aged siblings (“the Siblings”) who looked fairly suburban (I’m sorry suburban friends!)— and their fun fact was that in their family- they had 36 grandkids. 36. That is a lot of epidurals.

Two of them had 12 in kids between them total (6 each), with the youngest brother with none. Pretty sure he’ll get them to the big 4-0 once he starts to procreate. I thought:

They are never going to make it. I mean— they don’t look athletic, and that woman has had 6 kids, I’m sure her core muscles are shot. Not gonna happen.

Team #3 - Dubbed the Tri Force Heroes — they were a group of 3 black women gamers, lovers of Zelda— super fit, lanky— with long limbs that I was sure would come in handy for the course.

I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I kind of have to so I can get to the end game.

Guess who won?

(dramatic pause)

Of course, the Siblings— the ones I thought would bite the dust earliest — prevailed and captured the lava lamp trophy.

Their adversaries took the course and tried to brute force their way through. They relied primarily on physical strength and agility to help them maneuver through the course independently.

The Siblings, however, stayed pretty close to one another on the course. They tested the stability of objects before they jumped. The used each other as backstops so they wouldn’t go flying off the end of moon rock. They steadied the sputnik-satellite thingy so another could walk on it safely. They spoke words of encouragement (“I love you”) — and I was literally like, is this the time to get sentimental??? You’re gonna drop in the lava!

Ultimately, their brains, strategy and teamwork guided the two brothers across. While the sister came up just short— there was no doubt her brothers would have made it across without her. #teamworkmakesthedreamwork

Which brings me to the moral of the this week’s blog: Unconscious Bias

A good friend last week thought I should write about unconscious bias— and I hesitated— I didn’t feel like I could author something compelling enough. But after watching this episode and I realized that I could make the concept more accessible to those who don’t quite understand it or are afraid of it.

Accessibility is an important part of the education process, because not everyone has the benefit of learning or observing what it is. Sometimes, you need the examples and analogies, for concepts to make sense.

I checked my bias and it was ALL OVER THE PLACE. See below.

"They look more fit”

“They are middle aged suburbanites”

“They are young and limber and are probably better athletes”

“She’s a mom to 6 kids, there is no way she can leap those rocks”

Unconscious bias is bias that permeates the way you think, judge certain people and situations. They are stereotypes we employ all day, every day.

I have it.

You have it.

We all do.

And while this is a benign example— it is a reminder to me (and hopefully for you)— that you need to check your bias, because if it creeps in while you’re watching a TV show— then what do you think it’s doing when you go to work?

At the end— I should’ve known better than to second guess a mom of 6. If she can do that— she can do ANYTHING.

Including conquering the lava.

Would love to hear how you’re checking your bias… let me know!

Be Well, Stay well.

Jean

PS - apparently the creators went through 50 iterations of the lava formula to get it just the right lava-ness.