DEI Bonding Activities to do with your Team in 2022
Intention is key when centering diversity, equity and inclusion in your team. Instead of starting with the intent to “have an activity about DEI,” thoughtful leaders and diversity champions should begin with the end in mind. Set the goal of activities to be both increased interpersonal understanding and increased awareness of invisible things like privilege, not either/or, in order to get the most from your time with the fewest possible side effects.
Here are some engaging DEI activities to try that will bring your team together.
Activities for increasing interpersonal understanding and inclusion
Interpersonal understanding is the foundation for an inclusive workplace where any employee can do their best work. These are some great ways to make meaningful connections and get to know others on your team at a deeper level.
My Fullest Name
The goal of this activity is to share histories, cultural stories, and cultivate interpersonal understanding. It’s a non-confrontational way to show difference that requires no “us vs them” dynamics.
How to do it:
Get this activity started by getting a group together - no more than 5 or 6 people. In the group, go around and share the story of your name. Answer the following questions and tell the story behind it:
Who gave you your name? Why that name?
Do you know the ethnic origin of your name?
Do you have any nicknames? If so, how did you get them?
What is your preferred name?
You can also give people the opportunity to ask each other questions and make conversation after everyone in the group has had a chance to talk about their Fullest Name.
I Am... But I Am Not
Another group DEI activity, the I Am... But I Am Not activity is an opportunity for individuals to own their identities and confront stereotypes they face. Similar to the My Fullest Name activity, this one is empowering to the individual without creating in-out group dynamics.
How to do it:
Each person in a group (5-6 people), gets a piece of paper with two columns on it. On the left side, “I Am...”. On the right side, “...But I Am Not”.
The purpose is to fill out anything you identify with on the left side, but acknowledge and dispel any insults, stereotypes, or untrue perceptions people face or are impacted by on the right side. Each person should then present who they are and explain who they are not to the group.
📝 Note: This activity requires a lot of trust and patience in the group. There will be many people who bring up tense stereotypes, perhaps views held towards them by someone else in the group. The key here is to present the information purely as an individual owning their identity. Don’t pick fights. Don’t name names. As a moderator, remind people this is a listening exercise, not a conversational exercise.
Activities to increase awareness of privilege and discrimination
Many activities, such as the Privilege Walk, aim to increase awareness of privilege by having groups most often associated with privilege experience what it’s like to lose their privilege. Such activities can be impactful but draw controversy because they put participants in a position where they are either forced to experience trauma for the sake of education or they see legitimate issues in their lives used as educational bait.
To overcome these issues, look to activities that give participants a chance to come to their own realizations without being made to feel less than.
Privilege For Sale
The vast majority of people balance privileges and problems because of who they are. Context makes this different as well for each person, so there may be situations where you have privilege and others where you don’t. Privilege For Sale brings those issues to light.
📝 Note: Some teams aren’t ready to confront privilege without doing independent or guided learning first. Need help priming your team to talk about privilege? Book a free consultation with our DEI Advisors.
How to do it:
Break up participants into groups of 3 or 4. Each person is then given a list of “privileges” to buy - each one costs $100. There are 30 privilege statements (see the last page of this PDF for the full list from the Social Justice Toolbox).
After introducing the exercise, give out “money” to each group in increments of $100. Be sure to give one group only $100 and don’t give more than $800 to any one group. Giving too much money to one group makes the exercise overly long as people make choices. Make sure all groups have differing amounts of money. If you have more than 8 groups, you can double up on some values.
Give everyone 5 minutes to “buy” the privileges they want most. Then talk about which ones people chose and why - being sure to pay attention to the folks who had the least money to see how they coped with choosing only one or two privileges.
This activity is helpful because it doesn’t matter what privileges the participants have in real life, which is the anchor of the Privilege Walk. Instead, education is made to feel very real but not personal, reducing anxiety for people with limited privilege and fighting off resentment for people with privilege.
The Paper Basket Exercise
While this is a simple activity to do, you can use it to spark real discussion on how systemic issues affect individuals and how inclusive principles help more people win. This works best with 5-10 people and has three parts.
How to do it:
Part 1 of this activity shows how privilege works. Some people simply don’t have the same resources as others, and that affects their workplace performance.
Start with a basket in the middle of the room or against a wall
Give everyone a scrunched up paper ball
Spread people out randomly, regardless of physicality or potential skillset, having some very close to the basket and some far away (keep everyone within 10 feet of the basket but at all different angles)
Explain that getting all the paper balls in the basket is the goal of the game. It’s not an individual game, but a team sport. The only problem - no one is allowed to help anyone else
Everyone has one shot to throw the paper ball in the basket without moving from their spot
Count how many balls get in the basket, noting who succeeded and who didn’t
People can move out of the way after they take their shot if they are standing right in front of the basket so they don’t block others. Or, choose to play where people aren’t allowed to move in order to show how privilege for one can manifest itself as a negative thing for others.
Part 2 shows how a team of individual contributors can still support and help each other. There’s a common team goal, so everyone succeeds when everyone is more able to complete their task.
After the activity, ask people how they felt. See if some people felt fine or if some people felt they needed more tries or wanted to be closer to the basket. See if anyone thought they were too close and wanted to move farther away for a better challenge.
Remind people - the goal is to get all the balls in the basket. This is a team of individual contributors working towards a common goal.
Then give everyone 2 minutes to “coach” anyone who failed the first time with ideas, tips, and tricks for them to get the ball in the basket from where they stand - no moving yet!
Keep everyone in the same positions, but let them try again after talking through their issues and getting coaching from the team. Then re-count how many balls get in, noting who succeeded and who didn’t.
Part 3 shows how inclusive actions help the team do more. When someone needed an accommodation, they were (hopefully) more successful. Note that this didn’t take away from anyone else’s ability to be successful - and the team overall got more done with simple tweaks for individuals who needed them.
Ask again how people felt - did the coaching help?
Take anyone who failed both times and offer them the chance to move closer to the basket. If they accept, move them no more than half-way closer from where they were (e.g. if they were 10 feet away, move them to 5 feet away).
Let everyone try again. Hopefully, you got most or all of the balls in the basket.
With any DEI activity you do with your team, remember to focus on humanity, not facts in a vacuum.
Our brains are wired to make shortcuts for easy understanding and many cultures teach individuals to take sole credit for their successes. Making the invisible notion of privilege visible is not about making people feel bad but about giving them ways to see different perspectives.
Diversity, equity and inclusion follow the same principles. There’s no use in making people feel bad about their privileges in life - that usually ends poorly. Instead, offer opportunities to showcase how team efforts make outcomes better for everyone.
. . .
Cultivate excellence in your organization with Crescendo's DEI Learning Suite. Deliver exceptional L&D experiences in Slack, Microsoft Teams, Email, and SMS with AI-powered microlearning, world-class content, and intelligent analytics. See Crescendo’s DEI Learning Suite in action today!
