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Your role:
to listen to others, discuss and enjoy
to give your opinion in the most helpful way
to understand more than you do now about the people around the table and their world views
to reflect honestly on the session and give your feedback
Guidelines/Groundrules
Introductions
Helping people be seen as individuals and not just members of a group
The first opportunity to speak
Breaking the ice is about vulnerability
An extended debrief...
Are science and religion opposed to each other?
Should we aim to prevent extremism and radical thinking through government intervention?
Is a cohesive society a valuable ambition?
Thoughts and reflections on your own experiences?
very different groups of people
Should the UK offer a home to refugees?
Intercultural dialogue is a process that comprises an open and respectful exchange or interaction between individuals, groups and organisations with different cultural backgrounds or world views.
Among its aims are: to develop a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives and practices; to increase participation and the freedom and ability to make choices; to foster equality; and to enhance creative processes.
having challenging or difficult conversations
Equality through positive discrimination. Discuss.
How did that session relate to what you've learned this week?
What are your thoughts on facilitating dialogue following that session?
Dialogue
Jobs should be given to British people before foreigners
without the need for consensus or convergence
with impact and without making things worse
A case study
Bringing people of difference together to interact with each other
Aims: People are more aware, comfortable and included
Tools for Dialogue
for sharing knowledge, perceptions and opinions you could use the following dialogue formats...
for exploring perceptions in groups you could use the following dialogue formats...
for sharing information in small groups, you can hold seminars or
training sessions
Focus group toolkit
download the document at www.britishcouncil.org
for small groups of people, focus groups are the most effective for exploring perceptions and gathering opinions
for groups of over 70, exploration of perceptions is more difficult, and although attempting exploration in larger groups is tempting, it is often unsuccessful and sessions can become focussed around a core group of people
for larger groups, it is most effective to use either lectures or symposia, although it is often harder to accurately quantify the impact on the perceptions of large groups of people
Engagement session toolkit
for solving problems and creating solutions through dialogue, the following formats are most effective...
it is best to split larger groups up to create a more effective environment for exploring each other's opinions
for groups of between 12 and 70, interactive engagement sessions are effective, although with larger groups, the right tools and environment is required, to ensure interactivity and exploration and not just the sharing of information
creating a shift in perception or opinion takes time and can be achieved best through a combination of dialogue activities...
open innovation formats are an excellent way to generate new ideas and solutions based on people's exisiting knowledge and opinions
For example...
World Cafe
A hosted conversation engaging cross-pollination of thinking as people mix and match with new conversation partners while they explore a series of thoughtful, evocative questions. These conversations are not facilitated – the participants themselves engage each other in these discussions as the facilitator takes them through this series of questions.
Timing
The sessions can last from 1.5 or 2 hours to several days, depending on purpose and design. For a two-hour meeting, 15 minutes for framing and explaining the process, then three sessions of 20 to 30 minutes for discussing three or four questions. End with some time to invite participants to reflect upon and name what patterns and linkages they noticed.
Materials
For each table: Flip-chart or other paper to cover each café table, markers, World Café etiquette cards*.
If it is not possible to have café tables, a tray can be on the ground in the middle of 4 or 5 chairs to hold these materials. If possible, the theme/task and the questions can be presented in PowerPoint on a screen in the room – or on flipcharts.
*Café Etiquette: Focus on what matters. Contribute your thinking and experience. List to understand. Connect ideas. Listen together for patterns, insights and deeper questions. Play! Doodle! Draw!
Pre-Work
Take the important time required to create powerful questions. Questions should evoke energy, engagement, imagination and new thinking (rather than reflect on past problems), provide possibility, and be relevant. Play with different wordings until you finalise your questions so you are inviting and asking something in a way that is useful to the group.
Room Layout
Café tables with 4 or 5 chairs at each table. If no tables are possible, then set up a circle of 4 chairs around a tray holding each group’s materials.
Instructions
The group will be seated four or five to a table or circle of chairs. Introduce the theme/task for the meeting and explain the process. Ask the first question. Wait a moment and repeat the question so that everyone will have had a chance to hear it. Participants will discuss this in their groups. After a 20- to 30- minute conversation session, invite the participants to change tables to sit with new conversation partners, leaving one ‘host’ at each table who will remain there to share key thinking or images from the previous conversation. Ask the group the second question for discussion.
After 20-30 minutes, invite participants to change tables again, with the host remaining to share key thinking from the previous group.
Ask the group the third question. After 20-30 minutes, reconvene the full group to invite reflection and a sharing of what people noted as patterns, threads and linkages.
A few key principles...
Create a 'safe space' for people to share
See the group as individuals and not representatives of communities or cultures
Don't shy away from complex or difficult ideas
Try to create an equal status between people and a common purpose
Establish yourself as benevolent facilitator representing a trusted authority or body
Open Space for Communication
A large venue is set out with no speakers, no tables, and all of the chairs are arranged in a large circle. The facilitator’s role is to explain the nature of the day, topics or areas for the participants to focus on and then asks the group to consider what they want to hold discussions on.
The guidelines for the event are extremely important.
1. Regardless of what position they have outside of the group or what people’s perceptions of their beliefs are, the people around you are the right people for the discussion.
2. There are no time limits or schedules – when you need a break, take a break
3. The end of each session or discussion will be decided by the conversation
4. Do not carry your own agenda and be prepared to be surprised
One rule – If you are not learning or contributing to a session, leave and join a different one.
To start with the facilitator invites participants to come to the centre of the circle to announce what they would like to discuss and work on regarding this theme. Whatever they want to talk about –whatever has heart and meaning for them around this theme– and for which they are willing to convene a 75-minute discussion group.
Then after a long moment someone walks into the centre, writes down their topic, announces it to the group and posts it on a long empty wall. Then two more people. Then six. Then the centre of the circle is full of people scribbling and holding up their topics and announcing them and posting them and the agenda wall fills up with 60, 80, 100 topics.
And so the day unfolds, as people pull their chairs together into groups of 2 or 20 and begin to talk and get more animated and trade ideas and learn from one another. Then it is time for them to move on to their next group, and their next group, and so on – to whatever topic inspires them.
Who facilitates the groups? The individuals in that group. What if someone is talking too much? Anyone bothered by that will not choose to be around that person for their next discussion. They can always leave the group to go where they will feel they can contribute. Notes are taken in each discussion -- what if you do not like the way someone took notes? Then you will probably choose to be the note-taker in your next group.
The event ends with all participants gathering in a closing circle for reflections, observation and insights on their time together.
by interacting with the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours through multiple dialogue activities, you are more able to build trust-based relationships and shift perceptions...
Resolving
Exploring
Informing
Shifting
...its main aim is to identify and explore the existing perceptions of individuals and groups towards different themes or questions...
explorative dialogue is concerned with dialogue as a means in itself...
...explorative dialogue, therefore, indirectly leads to increased understanding and opportunities to reflect on, confirm or adjust your own opinions either towards people or around themes...
...people's perceptions and opinions are likely to be influenced and perhaps gradually shifted by the process of identifying and exploring the opinions of others...
Questions
is cultural sensitivity important?
Identifying and exploring existing perceptions and opinions
Working to create a change or shift in perceptions and opinions
Sharing and transfering existing knowledge to inform current perceptions and opinions
Using existing knowledge, perception and opinion to create solutions and solve specific problems
diversity and difference don't matter
Some people believe that cultural diversity is an asset and we just need to find a way of making the most of that asset
People 'of difference', talking and listening
Some people believe that cultural diversity is a liability and that mass migration poses a threat to national identities and risks the dilution of national cultures
Contextual difference
the youth are to blame for the world's problems
should women work?
is there a common denominator for the concepts of politeness and respect in different cultures?
An archetypal setting
Many, many different forms, purposes and leaders
Sometimes identified as 'intercultural dialogue', more often not
Structured or unstructured
A magic room...
A tool to address and explore many different issues
EDIB interventions
Difficult conversations
No tension
No need to change your opinion
More comfortable
Better understanding
A look behind the magic...
Online abuse
Ability
Equal status
Benevolence
Mayer 1995
Common goal
Allport 1954
Integrity
Intergroup cooperation
Conflict and revolution
Support of authorities
Personal interaction
Historical injustices
Show people as individuals, not as representatives
Migration
Structural Disadvantage
Don't shy away from controversial or difficult topics
Don't make people feel that they need to change their views
Clear, enforced expectations
Inclusive leadership often fails because:
Leaders try to master knowledge of cultures and cultural issues and fail
Leaders try to ensure that all are treated the same in all aspects
Leaders try to have conversations about culture, exclusion, etc. but often make things worse
Leaders get bogged down in the arguments and complexity and lose their role as mediators
Migrant integration programmes
Food poverty
Faith-Based Social Action
Equality and Diversity Training
Peacebuilding
Intercultural Dialogue
Inclusive leadership is often about understanding your biases
It should be more than that
Equity
Equity, power and complexity in leadership
=
Inclusion exists because of the mistakes of the past and inequity of the present
It is recognising the complexity below the surface of your cultural interactions
Refugee protection
Inclusive Leadership
Cultural Competence
Humility over competence everytime
Humility
Cultural Humility
Evaluation and research on...
'a framework that encourages personal responsibility in addressing institutional barriers that impact marginalised communities' (Fisher-Borne et al. 2014)
'a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique' (NIH)
The magic room
Interesting and meaningful interaction
Dialogue done in the right way
Dialogue
De-Radicalisation and Violent Extremism
Do not avoid difficult conversations, plan for them - dialogue only works if it's interesting
Leading Inclusion
Community cohesion programmes
Post-conflict reconstruction
Credibility
Leading inclusion is a contest for credibility
Apathetic
Anti
Pragmatic
Staunch/Uncompromising
Intra-Islamic dialogue
We need gradual and radical change, but mostly we need to maintain the credibility of both
Homelessness interventions
Counter-terrorism missions
Facilitator of ICD
Three hats
Student
Someone in a dialogue session
Some key thoughts
Being an inclusive leader is about understanding that the environment you lead in is part of a much bigger picture
My first experience of Inclusive Leadership
Inclusive leadership often fails because:
Leaders don't know what to do and end up trying to master knowledge of cultures and cultural issues
Leaders try to ensure that all are treated the same in all aspects and miss that people's needs are different
Leaders try to have conversations about culture, exclusion, etc. but often make things worse
Leaders get bogged down in the arguments and complexity and lose their role as mediators
Rather than being overwhelmed, recognising what you don't know and accepting there are things you can't understand is a good starting point
Become comfortable with treating people differently in the right circumstance based on their needs
Getting people talking is the best tool we have but it needs to be interesting and credible
There will always be people who object and people who want you to do more - maintaining credibility is critical in achieving change
What's stopping inclusive leadership from working?
Power, humility and dialogue
A quick overview...
40 minutes (ish)
+ questions
1. My route into working on inclusion
2. An evaluator's perspective
3. 4 factors that help or hinder
4. Some key ideas