The Group Diversity Activity

Group Diversity is a team-building strategy controlled by your group to encourage integration and interaction, and focus on critical thinking.

Assemble your group and ask your group to form a specified number of teams (you determine) that achieves a prescribed balance of factors or elements. This criterion can be as varied or purposeful as you choose, perhaps informed by your program goals or the focus you require in the next experience.

Explain that each team must have the same number of members roughly, and achieve a balance of the following criteria:

• Gender – fair mix of male, female and otherwise identified.
• Age – fair balance of young and older people.
• Experience/Qualifications – fair spread of skills and abilities.
• Culture/Ethnicity – diverse mix of backgrounds, cultures and perspectives.
• Other attributes as useful to your purposes

Once announced, allow several minutes for your group to achieve the task.

You’re still the final arbiter in determining how diverse the teams are, which suggests that if you’re not convinced the result is fair and just, you’ll request that they regroup.

Moment of Reflection

• Did your group achieve the stated objectives of balanced teams? In how many tries?
• How did you make decisions? Was this effective?
• What was the most challenging task or decision? Why?

The topics of this publication: integration, diversity, reflection, critical thinking, interactions