Dear collaborative discussion friends,
This week we are highlighting an activity that helps participants examine their own biases and views about different groups of people and the many sources that inform these views, like the media, racial and ethnic identities, religion, class, family, etc. This activity supports complex thinking and encourages participants to work together as a group to negotiate and work through their different views and perspectives to reach consensus.
This activity is contributed by Janice McMillan, Associate Professor based in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and Shannon Wheatley Hartman, President of the Interactivity Foundation. It is one of the many activities in the Culturally Responsive Collaboration Module.
If you missed the previous activity plan newsletter, Mapping Complexity, you can access it and our other weekly newsletters by subscribing below.
This week's activity:
Activity 4.4 – Identities & Issues Intersections
Examining prejudices & stereotypes and practicing complex thinking
This activity presents participants with the challenge of developing the criteria for forming a task team to address a particular issue. Participants are invited to work in small groups to first draft a broad list of the ideal characteristics that team members of that task team should have. They are then asked to individually rank these characteristics, picking their top 10. Participants are then encouraged to compare their top 10 characteristics with those of others in their small group. Participants are invited to discuss the rationale behind their ranking of the characteristics for an ideal team, as well as which criteria they see as important for the whole team and which are meant to include specific types of people to improve the composition of the team. Participants are then asked to work together as a group to decide on the group’s top criteria for a task team and draft a call for volunteers. Each group is then invited to share the description they drafted with the full group.
Prepare for the Activity
Share the challenge shown below on a board, flipchart or shared document. Substitute the issue mentioned with a topic or issue that is important to your group.
Organize participants into pairs or small groups (3-4 ppl). Begin by introducing the learning goal of this activity:
Examine how our views are shaped by many factors including the media, family, religion, class, racial and ethnic identities, etc.
Review Challenge
Read out loud the following challenge, or the version you created, that you shared with participants:
You have been asked to pull together a task team to communicate about Affordable Housing in your community. The task team needs to come up with ideas about how to build community cohesion and community interest around the topic of Affordable Housing.
Your group needs to select 8 people to join this team. As a group generate a list of characteristics that you would like team members to have (collectively or individually).
Break into Small Groups and Generate a List of Characteristics
Invite participants to break into small groups (3-4 ppl) and create a list of characteristics for ideal team members. Use the following prompts:
What characteristics are we looking for in team members? You might want to frame this list as, “Someone who can….”
Generate a broad list. Don’t analyze or discuss the list, yet. Generate as many characteristics of ideal team members as you can.
Individually Rank Characteristics and Discuss
Ask participants to individually review the list and select their top 10 characteristics for ideal team members of the task team.
Next, have participants compare their individual rankings and discuss with their group the criteria they each used in deciding which characteristics were their top 10. Encourage participants to explore what values or views influenced their decision and reflect on the sources that inform these views, such as the class, family, religion, racial and ethnic identities, the media, etc. Ask them to also discuss which characteristics are important for all team members and which ones are unique to specific team members and are selected to improve the composition of the group as whole.
Create a Call for Volunteers
As a group, ask participants to decide on the top criteria for their team and draft a call for volunteers. Remind them to be specific about what they are looking for in team members.
Share Descriptions with the Full Group
Invite one person from each small group to read their call for volunteers. While they are reading the description, ask the full group to listen for specific criteria.
Ask two participants to record the criteria shared on a board, flip chart or shared document.
Debrief as a Full Group
Discuss the following questions:
Where is there consistent overlap? Why?
Are there any outliers? Why were these criteria chosen?
How important are diverse perspectives when dealing with complex issues? When might it be a hindrance? When might it be a benefit?
How would this description be different if it were a paid position? Nominated position?
As we look at our criteria, what sort of people do we think would be selected to the team? Who might be included? Excluded? Who is missing now that we are looking at this together and collectively?
In addition to these debriefing questions, the full description of Activity 4.4 Identities & Issues Intersections includes reflection questions, a practice journal prompt, and additional resources to help participants dive deeper.
Dive Deeper by Clustering Activities Together
Activity 4.4 can be clustered together with Activity 3.5 Seeking Divergent Thinking and Activity 5.2 Developing an Awareness of Stakeholders to help both discussion groups or facilitators explore a complex topic. Start with Activity 3.5 Seeking Divergent Thinking and use the Surround the Topic diagram as a brainstorming tool to generate multiple dimensions and facets of a particular topic or issue and craft questions (using this Crafting Questions worksheet) related to these dimensions. Encourage participants to refer to the dimensions generated in Activity 3.5 when developing the ideal characteristics of team members for a task team in Activity 4.4. The dimensions and questions from Activity 3.5 and the characteristics of ideal team members from Activity 4.4 can then be used in Activity 5.2 Developing an Awareness of Stakeholders to guide a facilitator or group’s thinking and expand the list of stakeholders affected by or involved with the chosen issue.
If you try out this activity, please share with us what you think:
We hope this toolkit activity helps participants practice complex thinking, by examining the various factors influencing their decisions, including prejudices and stereotypes and their sources, as well as collaboration, by working together with members of their group who have different views to reach a common decision.
Upcoming Events
Congratulations to our Collaborative Discussion Coaches who concluded a certificate program at the end of the fall semester! Please remember to email Shannon Wheatley Hartman at esw@interactivityfoundation.org to receive the link for the Retrospective Participant Survey and to have your participants complete this survey at the conclusion of your program. The results of these surveys will provide valuable feedback to help us better understand the impact of Collaborative Discussion Certificate Programs.
Looking forward to collaborating,
Ritu Thomas & the Collaborative Discussion Team