I was recently asked if I knew any diversity activities and it got me thinking. Diversity activities, and especially the one I was thinking about, can be very powerful and life changing. But they can also be damaging to the individual and the group. Most of the success or failure rides on the shoulders of the facilitator.

A common activity I facilitate when I do diversity work with student leaders such as Orientation Leaders, RAs or Executive Boards is called “Cross the line.” It’s very well known and widely used. Usually about 10% of the participants have done this activity before with a different group and facilitator. They often come up afterward to tell me about their previous experiences. Some of the stories are more upsetting than others. Sometimes they say how the last time was just interesting but they didn’t learn anything from it. To me, that is such a wasted opportunity. They could have facilitated some powerful growth.

Occasionally I will hear horror stories. Things like, someone crossed the line for something very personal and they got very upset and people started criticizing him- making him more upset, and then other people started coming to his defense and in the end the whole group became polarized and he was so traumatized that he dropped out of school. Whew!

To me, that is facilitation gone horribly wrong. A skillful and wise facilitator could have not only stopped the drama from building but turned the situation into a positive learning experience, and bonded and unified the group, AND helped the student feel supported instead of ridiculed.

I’m telling you all this because I want to impress how important it is to do this activity right. In the wrong hands it can cause emotional damage to an individual and a group. A scary thing is that many people don’t know there is skill involved.

Here’s a common scenario…

You’re at a retreat planning session and you decide that it’s important the training address diversity issues. Some asks, “Does anyone know what we can do?” Possibly an undergrad or grad students says, “Oh, I know a diversity activity. It’s simple. I just read some sentences and they cross a line if it’s true for them.” And then the activity is scheduled in the flow and a committee is formed to come up with some questions and the person who’s idea it was is asked to run it… “Since you know that activity already…”

Does this sound familiar?

Without skill or experience the success or possible catastrophe of the activity is left up to chance. Scary and dangerous!

I know some of you love this activity and really want to do it with your group. I also know that the reality for some of you is – no budget to bring in a professional facilitator and no in-house person who has the knowledge or experience. So what can you do?

“Cross the line” can be done at different intensity levels. It all depends on the questions asked and the amount of build up to it. It can be a nice icebreaker with light questions like: “Cross the line if…you like Pepsi more than Coke…you are involved in a sport…you know what you want to do for a living.” That keeps it light and not too personal.

If you feel ready to go a little deeper with the questions notice the difference between these two very similar examples:

• “Cross the line if you, or someone in your family, or someone that you know has ever been a part of the criminal justice system.”
• “Cross the line if you, or someone in your family has ever been a part of the criminal justice system.”

The second example is much more personal. They are taking a bigger risk by crossing the line, which increases the emotions and the depth to which they are affected.

The other very crucial element that contributes to the intensity has to do with the build-up. This activity will only go as deep as they are ready to go. They go deeper and become more emotionally affected if they feel connected to and supported by the group – if they trust the group and have a bond and common experience. The more work you put into those elements up front, the deeper they can go.

Another variable that supports everything is how you set up the environment.

• One extreme… A brightly lit common area with strangers walking by on their way through the room and the sound of the cafeteria in the background (with maybe a little construction noise too).
• The other extreme… A private room with dim lighting and no windows (or windows overlooking nature with absolutely no chance of others walking by) and soft music like Enya playing in the back ground.

This is a wonderful activity- just use it with care.

I’d be interested to hear from you. Do you have any horror stories/success stories? What tips help to create success? What should we make sure not to say/do? Do you know of any particularly powerful questions, or terrible questions, or controversial questions?

Good facilitating to you,

Troy

p.s. Below is a video of my wife, Karin Malkowski Stende, presenting this program. I hope you find it useful.

Please note that this is just a snap shot of the program and not meant to be a tutorial on how to facilitate the activity.

This video is a version we do with much larger groups in a keynote-type setting as opposed to an intimate workshop. This was filmed at a new student orientation for a college in Florida. We had done a lot of work with this group to get them to a place where they were ready to fully engage in the activity. Without creating a level of safety and trust with this group of strangers the program would have been treated as a joke. Needless to say, the set up was very important.

p.p.s. You can learn more about our philosophy behind the way we do diversity training in this short video.