Cambridge Business Association
The Diversity Training Activity Book
Book

The Diversity Training Activity Book

50 Activities for Promoting Communication and Understanding at Work

Jonamay Lambert and Selma Myers
AMACOM, 2009
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Editorial Rating

7

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  • Applicable

Recommendation

The modern workforce is multicultural, multigenerational and more diverse than any previous labor pool. This detailed activity book helps trainers teach employees how to approach diversity issues with empathy, sensitivity and understanding. Its exercises, designed by seasoned diversity trainers Jonamay Lambert and Selma Myers, can help promote awareness, improve communication, break down stereotypes, correct misconceptions and resolve conflicts. The authors, who assume that readers already have some experience as trainers, provide 50 discussions and activities that facilitators can use to help employees and managers deal properly with differences in ethnicity, gender, race and more. Using the provided lectures, questionnaires, handouts, discussions and role-playing exercises, trainers can help participants understand and work with cultural differences. getAbstract recommends this hands-on workbook to human resources directors, coaches, teachers and trainers in all kinds of organizations.

Summary

Cultural Variety

Members of the 21st-century workforce come from a huge variety of cultures and backgrounds. Trainers can help employees adjust to this unprecedented level of diversity by using specific activities designed for that purpose. Begin with exercises that promote employees’ awareness of their own backgrounds and that demonstrate how their cultures influence their behavior. Use such activities to facilitate discussions about diversity, stereotypes and expectations. Empower employees with techniques and strategies they can use to maneuver successfully within a multicultural workplace.

These diversity-training activities share several ultimate goals, including enhancing communication, promoting mutually beneficial relationships, and avoiding or resolving conflicts. These training exercises are based on several tenets:

  • “Culture is not good or bad. It just ‘is’.”
  • “Often what may be considered ‘just the way it is’ is culturally influenced.”
  • “Values, perceptions, assumptions and expectations” shape each person’s worldview.
  • “The more people know about their own culture, and the more they know about others’ cultures, the better ...

About the Authors

Diversity coach and trainer Jonamay Lambert is president of Lambert & Associates. Selma Myers specializes in intercultural training and is president of Intercultural Development. She is a co-author of Conflict Resolution Across Cultures. The authors have co-written 13 trainers’ guides in the Diversity at Work series.

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