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DIVERSITY TRAINING GAMES AND EXERCISES

Emotional intelligence, acceptance, empathy, and understanding are hot topics in companies, schools, and homes around the world. Some folks are just gaining awareness of the implicit bias and prejudice surrounding them. Others have grown up with it. Well-crafted diversity games allow groups of all kinds to address diversity, equity, and inclusion topics with sensitivity and appreciation of differences. Following is a synopsis of various fun diversity activities our colleagues have posted online. Before we get into any specifics about these DEI games, we should remember Lee Duffy’s words of wisdom:

“When facilitating any activity to do with diversity, it is so important to be prepared for strong emotional responses from participants, as you dig and get to the bottom of issues such as bias and inequity, which is invariably these activities head. People don’t like having the things that make them human exposed in public forums generally.”

Diversity Thumball

Diversity Thumball by Trainers Warehouse $31.95 BUY NOW

The Diversity Thumball is one of our favorite diversity games that tackles a tough topic with smarts and sensitivity. Thumball™ is a soft 6″ stuffed vinyl ball that looks like a soccer ball and has 32 panels pre-printed with questions suited for adults and teens. Toss it around in a group and ask participants to share their reactions to whatever prompt lies under their thumb. Samples of discussion prompts for this fun diversity activity include:

1. When did you first become aware of racial/ethnic differences?
2. Share a situation when you were in the minority
3. Describe a time you witnessed discrimination
4. Your best experience with a person of a different race/ethnicity
5. What makes you different from others in this game?
6. How do your thoughts about diversity differ from your parents?
7. Describe a time you experienced prejudice
8. Where do you see prejudice?
9. How do you respond to jokes that are demeaning or derogatory?
10. A time you felt like an outsider and how you dealt with it
11. An instance when someone went out of their way to make you feel included?
12. A time you went out of your way to make someone feel included?
13. A time you shared an unpopular idea
14. Describe a time you felt lonely in a big group of people
15. Why do you seek out people similar to you as friends?
16. Do you feel your friends are more similar or dissimilar to you?

If you prefer not to toss a ball in this diversity game, pick a prompt from the UNZiP-IT! Diversity Deck or Remote PowerPoint Diversity Deck.

Community Puzzle

This DEI game is one of the most fun diversity activities to try. With the Community Puzzle, have players illustrate a blank puzzle piece with colors, shapes, patterns, pictures, or designs representing an aspect of themselves. Have them present and explain their puzzle piece illustrations to the rest of the group. Assemble the puzzle for an instant “tapestry” reflecting the diversity of the participants.

A picture’s worth…

Choose a favorite deck of photographic cards for this diversity game and have participants choose a card that uniquely…

• Reflects current emotions or feelings
• Represents an aspect of their personality
• Reminds them of a meaningful or memorable experience

Once participants have chosen a card, you can have them share its meaning with the whole group or conduct a “pair and share,” where they share the card’s meaning with just one other participant. In fact, photographic card decks have endless possibilities as a diversity game!

Face Value

For this non-verbal fun diversity activity, all you need for this one is a deck of cards. Before beginning, explain to the group that you will be handing each participant a card, and they are not to look at their own card. Participants will treat each other based on the card’s value without using verbal cues. For example, if a person has a high-value card, you may want to bow, or if someone has a low-value card, you might want to snub them. Hand each participant of this diversity game a card. Explain that when they are told, participants are to put their card on their forehead (without looking at it). Once everyone has a card, have the group put the cards on their foreheads. Begin this DEI game by letting the group mingle for 3 to 5 minutes (for a large group, you might need to add a few extra minutes).

After a few minutes of mingling, have the participants form groups based on what they think is the value of their card. High cards on one side, low cards on the other, and middle cards in the middle. Once each group is formed, participants may look at their cards.

Debrief questions for the Face Value Diversity Game:

• How did you know if you were a high card? Low card? Middle Card?
• How did you treat high cards? Low cards? Middle cards?
• Who decided which cards are more valuable than others?
• How about Aces? Are they high cards or low cards? How were they treated?
• How does this activity relate to how we communicate in everyday life? How do we treat people that we do not know how to value?

NOTES: Potential challenges to conducting this fun diversity activity: For smaller groups, you may have to choose the cards rather than hand out cards at random. To play this diversity game, ensure a good mix of high, low, and middle cards is available and include at least one ace. Remember, there is no right or wrong way to answer. Participants need to look at how they actually reacted rather than how they think they should have reacted or will react in the future.

Source: Michelle Cummings, M.S. Playing With a Full Deck. United States: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2007. Posted online by Monica Miller

Share a story

Everyone has had times when they felt they didn’t “fit in.” (This is one of the diversity games where you can share a personal story.) Then say, “Think back to a time when you felt different. Everyone has felt different…. no matter who they are, where they lived, or how they grew up.” Then ask, “What happened? How did you feel? What did you do? How did you overcome it?

Encourage sharing in small groups first, then poll the group. Apply/summarize what they say about diversity. Posted online by Chris Corrado

Mr. Potato Head

I use Mr. Potato Heads for this diversity game. We have a collection of over 50 and a bunch of pieces and parts for our DEI games. In the end, they are all Mr. Potato Heads but all very different. The classes generally have fun. Then when you line them all up, you get a nice visual of the diversity too. Posted online by Gary Higgins, Ed.D

Danger of Labels

I have used an exercise as one of our fun diversity activities where you print out labels for everyone. Some say, “I never pay attention,” ”I disagree with everybody,” etc. Put the labels on the person’s forehead without them reading it. Then have interaction to see if they can figure out what their personality is. This diversity game opens discussion on how we perceive different people and how we treat them accordingly. Posted online by Deborah Chandler

The Single Story

After discussing how we form perceptions and how they lead to stereotypes, I use the movie clip by Chimamanda Adichie, a Nigerian novelist who has given a talk on TED.com called ‘The danger of the single story.” It is a beautiful 15-minute talk on stereotypes and the impact of having single stories about people and places.

Then I start our game by asking people to share in small groups:

• How their narrative has been misunderstood by others.
• How they have misunderstood others’ stories.
• To share something of their story that others do not know.
• How they can go about avoiding single stories about others.

I have been amazed at how people open up and share meaningfully. The talk is easily downloaded from www.TED.com. Posted online by Heidi Pasques

MORE DIVERSITY GAMES & ACTIVITIES

We keep adding new ideas for DEI games and fun diversity activities. If you have favorites, please share them with the group!

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