This activity provides an opportunity for participants to share who they are as cultural beings in terms of race, class, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, ability, etc. It allows the group to recognize the diversity that is present and to become more connected and aware of implicit biases and assumptions.

The guidelines provide an agreed-upon set of principles/behaviors designed to create effective cross-cultural interactions and lead to more effective collaboration. They provide space to hold full participation across the many levels and constituents of the organization. They are also a diagnostic tool to gauge how an organization is integrating the models and tools of multiculturalism

A clear agreement on the meaning of specific language and concepts is key to having meaningful discussions and identifying priorities. This is a diagnostic tool for individuals and organizations to assess where they are on the continuum of monoculturalism, diversity, and inclusion/equity. This tool provides a framework for understanding historical and current forms of oppression.

Drawing from current research, we share critical data about how implicit bias negatively impacts communication across differences. We teach skills for individuals and organizations to interrupt unconscious habits and enhance their capacity to build authentic relationships and increase inclusion. We support participants in identifying options for interventions and change strategies.

The four levels (Personal, Interpersonal, Institutional, and Cultural) are a framework to examine the ways identity differences impact relationships, cultural, and organizational patterns. The levels are used as a tool to understand different ways that oppression surfaces and allows us to identify change strategies to interrupt oppression and invite pluralism and inclusion.

This is an appreciation of the reality that we all share multiple group membership based on our age, race, gender and other cultural locations that form the basis of privilege and/or oppression. In addition, we will examine the impact that these memberships have on each of us.

This tool explains the cognitive, behavioral and affective dimensions and how the affective (feeling) component has too often been ignored in institutional settings. There are many cultural differences in the allowance or inhibition of feelings. This can be a serious barrier to communicating across difference. There is a tendency to confuse feelings and thought. Presentation of concept will be followed by an experiential activity that helps people identify the feelings they feel at work. Emotional literacy is key to an inclusive environment and allows for more productive communication across difference. 

This tool provides participants with a model for emotional literacy in which the importance of an accurate awareness of our feelings is stressed. An exploration of how early messages can set us up to unwittingly support oppression and limit our range of responses that in many cases results in our getting outcomes opposite to what we might actually desire. It also offers options for resolving difficult feelings that fuel resistance to change.

This unit explores how old fashioned or overt forms of racism and oppression have been partially eclipsed over time by newer, more subtle forms of oppression. These are often invisible to us from our "privilege" vantage points. Internalized oppression has also taken "new" forms, which are less visible to us from our historically excluded or “target” position. In this unit we list and discuss specific behaviors that comprise "modern oppression," and "internalized oppression". Alternative behaviors are identified and opportunities are provided to identify options for how to apply this model.

This tool offers an explanation of alternative behaviors to modern oppression and internalized oppression behaviors. It highlights options for engaging in more functional behaviors across differences and opportunity for self-exploration regarding these behaviors.

The role that validation (a culture of acknowledgement/appreciation) has in addressing oppression by creating a foundation of appreciation that serves as an anchor to the inherent tension that can exist in work relationships where there is a need to give and receive feedback, particularly across difference, including difference in levels in the organization (staff, managers, leadership) -- a small group activity will be used to practice this.