Participants in this activity will consider an "elephant experience" and how to promote diversity in the workplace.

This simulation has participants practice their verbal and nonverbal communication, decision-making, and suspending their judgment to work with others to figure out a solution with limited information. 

This in-depth activity teaches participants the value of different perspectives and practices their communication skills as they work with different perspectives.  Our staff had originally used Meteorite as part of a teamwork certificate series with STEM students; however, the lack of scientific accuracy in the details of the exercise caused the students to spend more time decrying its inaccuracies than learning from its larger meaning. With these difficulties in mind, CILMAR's intercultural learning specialist, Dr. Dan Jones, re-wrote Meteorite and named the new exercise Ice Sculpture. 

This informative lecture, with accompanying PowerPoint, explains the intercultural metaphors of culture as an onion, an iceberg, a fish in water, lenses, and several others.

This activity teaches the common intercultural concept of the iceberg and visible/invisible culture. 

This discussion starter challenges participants to reflect upon how we (often unknowingly) put new people into categories. These categories can determine how we form relationships. 

This activity focuses on teaching participants how to develop self-care guides that are inclusive of individuals from a variety of backgrounds. 

Stringer and Cassiday's exercise challenges participants to examine the relationship between values and behavior.

Complete instructions for this Thiagi exercise can be found here.

This lesson offers learners the opportunity to think about how values are reflected in the proverbs which are commonly used in English.

The survey included in this exercise gives participants the opportunity to choose a best possible solution for themselves and then to guess how their peers would answer the same questions.

Given a list of values, participants are asked to choose the five which are most important to them.

The accompanying worksheet for this lesson challenges participants to investigate their beliefs about basic human nature, human relationships to nature, how they think about time, the balance between being and doing, and appropriate human relationships.

"What Is the Message?" is another version of this type of activity, published in Stringer and Cassiday's 52 Activities for exploring values differences (pp. 91-94).

Stringer and Cassiday have published another version of this type of cultural simulation, this time called "Toothpicks," in their book 52 Activities for improving cross-cultural communication (pp. 47-49).

Stringer and Cassiday's version of this type of simulation, which they call "Rockets and Sparklers," can be found in their book 52 Activities for exploring values differences (pp. 161-165).

This Thiagi "Jolt" can be found a in his book Jolts! Brief activities to explore diversity and inclusion (pp. 72-75) and is not the same as the Thiagi "Jolt" called "Mingle" which can be found at http://thiagi.net/PAC/pacGameBooklet.pdf

In this activity, participants are assigned to different groups and asked to enact various nonverbal communicative behaviors while engaging in a cocktail party simulation. Participants then debrief the experience and what they noticed. 

Participants are given one of five colors of paper with cultural rules to follow while trying to find out the favorite color, movie, and food of participants with a different color of paper.

Purdue used this version of the I Am Poem in training for Residential Advisors in Spring 2013.  It was created by Amanda R. Goodenough.  

The source for the exercise is a long forgotten Interpersonal Communications Workbook called, Nothing Never Happens by Johnson, K., Senator, J, Leiby, M. and Milor, G. published by Glencove Press, 1974, Beverly Hills, CA. 

Portrait poems with templates and examples

"Objectives

1. Cognitive: Students will be able to identify and communicate their personal traits and characteristics.
2. Affective: Students will develop a positive self-concept about unique traits, recognizing and accepting the diversity of peers."

A template created in conjunction with the International Literacy Association/National Council of Teachers of English (ILA/NCTE)

Source gives directions for creating an "I Am Poem," as well as an example of an "I Am Poem."

Participants take turns trying to discern one another's values by listening to one another tell a story.

Through the use of this formative assessment, learner will begin to be able to see how values are expressed through behavior. If used with an instructor debrief or group discussion, learner may also begin to understand that other individuals or cultures have similar or different values.

In this experiential activity, participants are asked to place themselves on an imaginary line which spans the learning space, depending on their agreement with dichotomous statements. Interest is added when participants are asked to change their placement within different contexts--home, business--and how their own views are different than their children or grandparents.

"From an applied standpoint, the BEVI [Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory] helps individuals, groups, organizations, and institutions: 1. Understand better what they believe and value about themselves, others, and the world at large. 2. Reflect upon how such beliefs and values may - or may not - be conducive to learning, personal growth, relationships, and the pursuit of life goals" (thebevi.com).

"From the perspective of evaluation and research, the BEVI: 1. Helps answer questions such as 'who learns what and why, and under what circumstances.' 2. Allows for the examination of complex processes that are associated with belief/value acquisition, maintenance, and transformation. 3. Analyzes the impact of specific experiences that are implicitly or explicitly designed to facilitate growth, learning, or change" (thebevi.com).

In this activity, participants engage with and treat all others based on the face value of the card on that person's forehead.

Using a template, participants write about their own life experiences and then share their reflections with others.

According to Thiagarajan and van den Bergh (2017), in this 'jolt' "team members anonymously vote out a colleague to reduce the size of the team.  The debriefing discussion deals with the emotional consequences."

This simulation provides participants the opportunity to develop techniques for verbal and nonverbal communication with characters with backgrounds and motives different than their own, articulate how different decision-making models within the simulation result in different experiences and end results for the simulation, practice and assess their own ability to suspend judgment and value interactions with characters with different backgrounds and motives than their own, and to explore their relationship to ambiguous contexts based on missing or unreliable information presented by their own character or other characters in the simulation.

Based on the work of Polish anthropologist Alicja Iwanska , Jones (2017) has written an interesting blog called "Scenery, Machinery, People--Rethinking our view of humans." After reading the blog, participants are asked to enter into a discussion concerning the people in their lives who fall into various categories, as well as the various categories participants fall into when looked at by other people.

Redundancia: A Foreign Language Simulation invites participants to experience the difficulty of choosing parts of speech, thinking of syntax, working through vocabulary in an unfamiliar verbal context.  Although Redundancia must be purchased, Talk-Speak--a Thiagi 'Jolt'--and Piglish provide the same experience at no cost. Both are linked above. 

According to Maureen Ryan (n.d.), "Migration: An Empathy Exercise is a multi-step reflective exercise designed to build empathy and personal insight into processes of loss, change, and reconnection associated with the disruption of personal and cultural connections to landscape. In the first step, students reflect individually on their experiences in unfamiliar landscapes and how they might feel were they to move away from a home landscape. Second, they envision personal means of building connection with new or unfamiliar landscapes. Having considered these questions at a personal level, students read or are presented with case studies of human movement and their consequences (historical or current). Finally, students reflect on new questions that arose as they considered case studies after thinking about migration or displacement at a personal level."

In this activity, participants listen to one another's stories with the purpose of discovering one another's values.

This activity asks participants how their lives would change if they belonged to a people group different their own--a different country of origin, a different sexual orientation, a different gender, a different ability/disability, etc.

"Dividing the Spoils" is a simulation which asks groups of participants to divide a certain amount of fictional money, depending on the amount of time and effort assorted characters put into a project.  Individualist and collectivist mindsets become apparent.  A more complicated version called "Alpha-Beta Partnerships" is also available.

According to the TED Talk description on YouTube, "Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding."  

According to Susewind (2012), "DIE is a shortcut for 'description, interpretation and evaluation.' The original exercise was developed as a pedagogic tool to train observation skills, help establish the difference between description and analysis, and foster reflection on the politics of fieldwork. It usually involves exposing students to an intercultural experience, and then interactively sort out description, interpretation, and evaluation of this experience."

According to Erasmus+, which provides free on-line instructions for "Building a Tower," the aims of this activity are to:

• Develop creativity
• Develop leadership qualities
• Deal with success / failure
• Develop communication
• Develop team work

Tara Harvey (2017) has written a helpful blog on the connection between mindfulness and intercultural learning.  These meditation exercises in particular are recommended by Michael Vande Berg for people seeking to develop emotional resilience.

The BEVI is an accessible, adaptable, and powerful analytic tool that may be used in a wide range of settings – from education and research to leadership and mental health – to understand and facilitate processes and outcomes of learning, growth, and transformation.

"BARNGA is a simulation game that encourages participants to critically consider normative assumptions and cross-cultural communication. It was created by Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan in 1980, while working for USAID in Gbarnga, Liberia. He and his colleagues were trying to play Euchre but all came away from the instructions with different interpretations. He had an ‘A-ha’ moment that conflict arises not (only) from major or obvious cultural differences but often from subtle, minor cues. He created the game to tease out these subtleties. In this activity, students play a card game silently, each operating with a different set of rules, unbeknownst to them."

"American Textures, a 78 minute documentary by Crossing Borders Films, follows six young Americans of Black, White and Latino origin on a road trip through the southern United States to confront race through dialogue. Their journey moves them to push through the wall of silence/fear/discomfort that surrounds race in Today’s America and face the presence of segregation, bias, and blindness, not only in US society, but also inside themselves. Their courage, vulnerability and honest interactions become emotional examples of ways to follow in their footsteps."

"Albatross," as described by Gochenour (1993), is a simulation facilitated in two parts: "The first part consists of performing a ceremonial greeting between members of an imaginary culture (Albatross) and foreigners (those participants being trained or oriented)... The second part consists of an extended discussion. Albatross is an experiential learning device of some power, but it is relatively useless unless the discussion is treated with particular thoughtfulness and attention." If you've never experienced Albatross, the introductory video gives an idea of what goes on in the first part.

The Intentional Workplace (2014) blog includes the pointed reminder:  "To Have Empathy for You, I Have to be Able to SEE You."

The Psychology Today (Segal, 2019) article was written in response to the government shutdown, but her comments about power and empathy are important for any time. She says, 

"First, those at the top do not need to attend to the behaviors of those below them, especially in the ways that those below have to attend to the behaviors of their superiors. Bosses come in, tell people what to do, and then their orders are followed.  Those below must be aware of the mood, needs, opinions of their bosses.  And the lower you are on the work or social order, the more moods, needs and opinions of people you must attend to who are above you.  So, lower hierarchy folks are better at reading others than are those at the top.  Second, getting to the top may be easier for those without empathy.  They can be laser-focused on advancement and doing what they need to do to gain power without being distracted or emotionally touched by the needs and circumstances of others.  Brain science backs this up.  Neurologically, people in power attend less to surroundings, to the behaviors of others, and have deeper brain activity for self-focus.  They don’t readily attend to others in ways that we expect to show empathy.  People in power can be empathic, but they need to work at it, to want to feel for others...."

"Rebekah Fitzsimmons, a 34-year-old English professor at Georgia Tech, is a millennial.

"So are some of her students.

"But despite being members of the same generation, there are some pretty big differences between them."  See the article for more...

Nadine Dolby's recollections of a case study called "Toys for Haiti" is an anecdote with which many of us charged with teaching empathy can relate.

The results of Twenge, Freeman, and Campbell "genearally support the 'Generation Me' view of generational differences rather than the 'generation We' or no change views."

Chris Grabau offers practical strategies for adding empathy skill-building into the university classroom

Richard Kahlenberg argues that "until we actually diversify institutions by economic status, so that peers and classmates can explain the challenges faced by working-class people, teaching empathy through role-playing may be the next best thing."

This journal article by Konrath, O-Brien, and Hsing lays out in detail the changes in dispositional empathy across the generations.  

This resource, adapted from an AFS resource, with graphics by Julien Peyre from AFS France, demonstrates the benefits and risks of each stage, as well as what is required of the study abroad student to move to the next stage in their intercultural development.

The PowerPoint accompanied a workshop facilitated by Mick Vande Berg at Purdue University on April 23-24, 2015, which enlarged Purdue's vision for providing intercultural learning to all undergraduates, especially those who choose to study abroad.

“Replace the word 'millennial' with any individual race, religion or gender and you’d rightly spark mass outrage. Somehow, though, it is okay to make sweeping generalizations about the largest and most diverse generation in American history, at 81.1 million of the population, born between 1981 and 2000."

"Millennials are more accepting of differences, not just among gays, women and minorities but in everyone. ‘There are many, many subcultures, and you can dip into them and search around. I prefer that to you're either supermainstream or a riot grrrl,’ says Tavi Gevinson, a 17-year-old who runs Rookie, an online fashion magazine, from her bedroom when she's not at school. It's hard, in other words, to join the counterculture when there's no culture. ‘There's not this us-vs.-them thing now. Maybe that's why millennials don't rebel,’ she says.”

“The lack of empathy between Baby Boomers and Millennials isn’t the result of an inability to understand the attitudes and motivations of people born into a different generation. I think it’s caused by a deep-rooted conviction that a whole generation has a lesser capacity for empathy than your own.

“So before you judge another, judge yourself. Is your colleague apathetic to the needs of the business, incapable of understanding others, obsolete or inexperienced, and has a lot to learn…or is it you?”

Two articles which take opposing views of research on Millennials as Generation Nice

“It’s well-researched that there’s a correlation between reading and empathy. Reading strengthens your empathy muscles by requiring the reader to put himself into the characters’ shoes and see the world from an alternate perspective for a while.

“Knowing this, it’s no surprise to us that a strong percentage of the people that said books don’t play an important role in their lives are less likely to be able to see both sides of an argument. They are also less inclined to associate with people with differing opinions from their own.

“Likewise, people who profess a passion for books are more likely to see both sides of an argument and even more likely to enjoy interacting with people with differing opinions from their own."

Of interest to the preparation of the presentation on "Teaching the skills of intercultural communication and empathy across the generations" was the following:  

“Dr. Sara Konrath, Assistant Professor at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University and one of the authors of the 2009 study, spoke with BTR to discuss its findings.

“’What’s interesting is that [our study] didn’t look at the attitudes of previous generations toward college students, but actually surveyed the beliefs of college students themselves,’ Konrath explains. ‘When asked about some core empathy traits, we tended to see responses such as, “I don’t think about others when they’re in need, when someone is suffering it doesn’t move me,” and so on.’"

The "Teaching the skills of intercultural communication and empathy across the generations" presentation in this collection references this article; specifically, "Whatever the reason, GenMe seems to lack much of the basic empathy that previous generations thought was human nature. Whether it is a true lack of empathy or simply that they are misunderstood depends on your point of view. It has even been said that those who accuse them of being less empathetic are in fact showing a lack of empathy themselves.”

The handout includes a worksheet for working through layers and legacies and a self-test created by Mark A. Williams for determining participants' strong and weak lenses.

When Wilfrido Cruz and I were considering using The 10 Lenses for training in the Housing and Food Services division at Purdue University, we had the opportunity to see Mark A. Williams present the concepts of the book at a SHRM diversity conference in Philadelphia.  I think you'll see why we fell in love with Williams' work.

If you enjoyed Mark A Williams' The 10 Lenses training by Wilfrido Cruz and Annette Benson, check out The 10 Lenses theme song!

My colleague Wilfrido "Willie" Cruz and I began using Mark Williams' Ten Lenses: Your Guide to Living and Working in a Multicultural World for staff development in 2006.  We have prepared many different versions of the training over the years, which has sometimes included monologues, skits, video clips...The various versions have taken anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours to present.  This particular version was created to give an overview of Williams' theory at the NAFSA Region VI conference, held during the first week of November 2019 in Columbus, OH.

Dr. Barbara Kappler and Dr. Yuliya Kartoshkina from the University of Minnesota, along with Annette Benson from Purdue, team up to:

1.Identify key findings from educational and cultural neuroscience that can provide insights into how the functions of our brains impact intercultural learning.

2.Discover the complexity of intercultural facilitation and explore how effective facilitation techniques can benefit students’ intercultural learning.

3.Review several examples and scenarios involving intercultural facilitation techniques and analyze how you might apply these in your own practice.

4.Become familiar with several models and teaching tools to enhance intercultural empathy. 

This presentation was first given at the NAFSA Region V conference in Schaumburg, IL, on October 19, 2018, 8:30am, and repeated at the Region VI conference in Columbus, OH, on November 6, 2018, 11:30am.

As each new generation comes into the public eye as college students and then as new employees, the past generations do not necessarily describe the upcoming generation as empathetic, and current generations do not necessarily look back on their ancestors as being empathetic either, so how do teacher and learner enter into a productive dialogue about how to grow in empathy?  The attached presentation offers tools for facilitating conversations about how to grow in intercultural empathy.