Diversity
Training Exercises and Resources

As we deal with a complex world, we make assumptions. This is an inbuilt function of our brain that helps us quickly make sense of the world around us. The problem with this is that sometimes these assumptions turn out to be wrong and misleading to the point that they can actually hinder our judgment.

An area where this is most prevalent is stereotyping. For example, you may see a homeless person. The straight forward assumption is that this person is poor and is poor as a result of making bad decisions in life. In reality, it could just be that he has experienced misfortune—a simple back luck that can happen to anyone at any time. Holding him responsible for this misfortune can be unfair.

The purpose of this exercise is to get the delegates share information with each other on counter-examples and to see stereotyping with a new perspective.

This exercise increases self-awareness of making assumptions about other people. Making assumptions is part of everyday life as we aim to simplify the complex world around us. However, it is important to be aware of making such snap judgements and don’t get carried away and suffer from the negative consequences of this behaviour.

Use this icebreaker to help delegates get to know each other better. You can also use the training exercises as a test to see who knows most about others. It is fairly easy to run. You can customise the exercise by changing the questions provided in the “About Me Form”. For example, you can increase the number of work-related or project-related questions to bias the exercise towards a specific direction.

If you run this exercise for people who don’t know each other at all, it would work like a test on stereotyping and first impressions. In other words, the person who identifies most people’s qualities correctly, when he has never met them before, must have a sharp eye in paying attention to detail and a good judgment in placing people in society with respect to their interests. This can be a fascinating training topic to explore at the end of the exercise.

In this entertaining activity, delegates get to evaluate each other based on predispositions and assumptions. You can use the exercise for training on diversity and political correctness. It is run in a form of a competition to make it both more exciting and also to examine people’s decision making under pressure.

In this exercise, delegates examine stereotypes and understand the implications of stereotyping. It helps them to discover on their own that stereotyping is highly subjective.

This activity helps delegate to recognise and understand the equality between sexes better and overcome some possible misconceptions about opposite sex. This exercise works best with larger groups of delegates with an equal number of men and women participants.

This fun activity encourages participants to get to know each other better and interact more with their team mates especially those they don’t usually work or socialise with. This exercise is most suitable in the beginning of the training session or after lunch.

This is a quick and fun exercise that demonstrates diversity at a very basic level. It also encourages creativity and helps the delegates to understand a bit more about each other.