Diversity and inclusion workshop

How to Build a More Inclusive Culture in Two Hours

Diversity and Inclusion Workshop

Created by Mateas Darden

1. Materials Needed

a. A facility large enough to comfortably host your staff (some activities we will be

breaking into groups. The more people on a staff means the more groups to host

during activities)

b. Screen for video

c. Popsicle sticks (for a group of 30 about 50)

d. Paper (5 colors, at least 3 sheets each)

e. Tape

f. A few volunteers to run activities (non staff, perhaps family members)

2. Open up the session by introducing yourself to the people gathered in the organization

and explain the goal that you have for the workshop.

a. “The goal for hosting this workshop is to create an inclusive culture in our

workplace so that we can know and be known by our colleagues. A place where

all feel safe and appreciated and free to express themselves. Please keep an open

mind as we start today.”

b. 2 minutes

3. Show video https://youtu.be/zRwt25M5nGw

a. “Today, let’s get out of our boxes and into groups. Please break into two groups

by how I count you off. 1,2. 1, 2. 1,2… Can I have all my one’s on the left side

and my twos on my right.”

i. Depending on the size of your staff you may need more groups. 15 to a

group is a good size.

ii. 5 minute video + 1 minute grouping

4. Ice Cream Civilization

a. Each group should go to a section of the room marked with a large 5x7 square of

tape on the floor. That square should be divided into 5 sections; one section as

half of the square, two sections equal in size, and two significantly smaller

squares that can still hold group members.

b. Once the group makes it to the game site they will receive a color of paper with

an ice cream flavor on it. Their flavor is coordinated to their square section and

tribe. Vanilla ice cream will have the biggest square, strawberry and chocolate the

2nd and 3rd squares, and butter pecan and mint chocolate chip will be the smallest

squares. In a group of 30, vanilla will have 3 people, strawberry will have 5,

chocolate will have 5, butter pecan will have 7, and mint chocolate chip will have

10.

c. Have them go to their “communities” and begin building their towns. They should

build a church, homes, a hospital, and several others. Each building requires a

permit to be constructed, one volunteer will be in charge of signing these.

i. The permit person will secretly sign butter pecan and mint chocolate chip

after repeated attempts, will easily sign vanilla, while giving chocolate and

strawberry a hard time but still signing

ii. Craft supplies will be unequally distributed in the same manner. Vanilla

has the best supplies and mint the worst.

iii. Throughout the activity, “natural disasters” hit significantly harming the

flavors in the small squares and being more supplies to the larger squares.

iv. The idea behind this is to show discrimination against different “flavors”

and parallel that to the discrimination based on diversity.

v. This should take 25-30 minutes until Vanilla has their city built.

vi. Ask the groups to stop and sit together

d. Debrief: Explain how this activity represents the inequalities people experience in

their communities (race, ethnic, religious, etc.) Open the conversation for

dialogue about experiences in and out of the game in regards to this idea.

i. 10-15 minutes

5. Come together as a whole and redivide into new groups

a. Play Human Knot

i. A fun team building and communication exercise

ii. 10 minutes

6. Come together as a whole again for the remaining lecture

7. Explain the purpose of the activities today (10 minutes)

a. Ice Cream Civilization

i. Reveals the hardships groups of people experiencing in trying to obtain

various goals

ii. Illustrates the privileges certain groups have and how to be conscious of

those while working with diverse people

iii. Invites each person in the room to work against these injustices

b. Human Knot

i. Illustrates that despite all the diversity in a team, you can work together to

accomplish a goal.

ii. Stresses the need for clarity in communication

iii. Invites each person in the room to work in groups that are out of the norm

for them and accomplish something amazing

8. In light of these activities, we are asking you to take the walls that you broke down

working with each other today and keep them down. Our hope is that you can

acknowledge that everyone is different from oneself in one way or another so we need to

take down walls in connecting with those people.

9. Discuss the steps that can be taken in order to promote inclusiveness in the workplace (40

minutes)

a. https://www.ceridian.com/blog/six-ways-to-support-diversity-and-inclusion-in-

the-workplace

i. First, “Be aware of unconscious bias”

1. Reflect on the Ice cream game and think about biases you might

hold against various groups of people. Where may you be biased?

What step do you need to take to address it? What is one thing you

can do in the workplace to be aware of your bias?

ii. Second, “Communicate the importance of managing bias”

1. What are potential effects of unmanaged bias? Think of an

example in society where bias has been harmful.

iii. Third, “offer diversity and inclusion training”

1. In what ways has today’s training been helpful to you? In what

ways could training be improved?

iv. Fourth, “Acknowledge holidays of all cultures”

1. How could you better represent all the backgrounds of your staff at

the holiday party? Are there ways to educate and celebrate

different cultures in the workplace throughout the year? For

example, someone of a hispanic background might bring in food to

try from her cultural upbringing while someone from a Jewish

background may talk about the different festivals they celebrate

throughout the year.

v. Fifth, “Make it easy for your employees to participate in employee

resource groups”

1. What are some resources you would like to see made available to

employees?

vi. Sixth, “Mis up your teams”

1. How did you feel working with your first team today? How about

your second team? What is the benefit of working with different

people? Name someone new that you worked with today. What

was that experience like? Who is someone else you would like to

work with?

10. Conclusion (7 minutes)

a. “If you leave today remembering nothing else, try to remember this: diversity is a

good thing and inclusion is a good thing but to have them be good together work

is necessary.”

b. Questions?

Total Time: 120 minutes

References

“Don't Put People in Boxes .” Youtube , 22 May 2017, youtu.be/zRwt25M5nGw .

Ng-See-Quan, Danielle, and Nancy Chetaitis. “Six Ways to Support Diversity and

Inclusion in the Workplace.” Ceridian, www.ceridian.com/blog/six-ways-to-

support-diversity-and-inclusion-in-the-workplace