Any company’s ability to attract and retain a diverse workforce is essential. There are many different types of people that make up the workforce, and one term encompasses all of them. It goes much beyond the physical appearance of the personnel, including their race, ethnicity, and religious affiliation.
Diversity in the workplace is made possible by bringing together employees from various cultural and racial backgrounds. One of the many benefits of fostering an inclusive and courteous work environment is that it enhances employee communication with teammates and fosters a positive working relationship with management.
The retention of a diversified pool of talent will be necessary to maintain a competitive advantage that is always growing. This is where the idea of inclusion comes into play. In other words, it’s all about making team members feel like they belong in the team, no matter how diverse it is. There are many team building activities that aim to create a workplace where all employees feel valued and respected.
Promoting a diverse team takes more than simply saying “yes” to diversity in the workplace. It entails defending the rights of employees of diverse origins, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and religions. If you want your team to be successful, you need a place where individuals can be themselves without fear of being scrutinised or dismissed.
Diversity is pointless if it is not accompanied by actions that promote inclusiveness. Diversity and inclusion in the workplace must be at the top of your list of objectives when it comes to managing your workforce.
Let Us Look At Ten Different Ways To Improve Diversity And Inclusion In The Workplace With The help of team building activities!
10 Team Activities To Boost Diversity And Inclusion At Work
Inclusion must be present throughout an employee’s lifetime, from the time they first encounter your recruiting brand through the time they leave your organisation. Here are some workplace team building activities to get you started with education, conversation, and celebration.
- Book Clubs
Involving your employees in a book club is one of the most fun team building activities for the workplace to keep them engaged. Book clubs that encourage authors from the African American, Asian American and LGBTQ+ communities may bring your team closer together and open the door for more varied viewpoints.
To go one step further, make an annual DEI reading list that allows members to sign up, read in their own time, and contribute their opinions. If you have a remote or hybrid workforce, you may use Zoom to organise regular monthly meetings for them.
- Discover What Inspires Your Team Members
Initiate a conversation in which you may ask open-ended questions about your employees’ upbringing and the factors that have shaped their perspectives. Doing such workplace team building activities helps coworkers uncover hidden aspects of their personalities and strengthens friendships while fostering empathy and building better working relationships between the team members involved.
● Give each person a post-it note and encourage them to jot down three of their most significant life experiences (virtual teams can try digital whiteboards).
● Do this with each employee, and let them tell their stories to the extent they feel at ease.
● Thank everybody for their contributions and urge the group to discuss their key takeaways from the activity.
- Flower Petal D&I Game
If you are looking for Team Building Activities & Game Ideas For Work, A great approach to get to know one another better is to indulge in this fun game with a group of four to ten people. Every team member should be able to express their thoughts and ideas freely. Here’s how to go about it:
● Get a big piece of paper and some coloured markers for each group.
● Each group is required to make a big flower. It must have a circular centre and as many petals as the team members.
● All of the petals should be filled with something that makes each of the members different from the rest. Physical traits should be avoided.
● Each person should fill the centre of the flower with their ‘shared’ attribute. This way, they can talk about how their flowers are different and the same.
Playing such team building games will challenge your mind and allow you to engage with others in a variety of ways.
- Cocktail Hours
Having a party at your workplace is more than just setting out a few drinks. It is a great way to meet new people at work. When it comes to office happy hours, there needs to be a strategy and a goal.
It can turn out to be a wonderful get-together that allows people to get to know one another better. In addition to food and drink, people should have the opportunity to partake in team-building activities that pique their interest and sparks conversation much beyond the confines of happy hour.
- Put Yourself In Someone Else’s Shoes
HBR advocates “reflective thinking” to help you put yourself in the shoes of somebody else. Follow these instructions to guide your group through the office group activity.
● Ask your team to describe the many ethnic and racial backgrounds that make up their group.
● Assign each team member to a partner with a unique set of skills and experiences.
● Instruct everyone to pen a few sentences describing the unique difficulties they expect their minority group to confront.
● Share your thoughts and ideas with your colleagues.
This process of introspection will result in more compassionate teams, as well as more favourable attitudes and actions toward racial minorities. It will also lead to more support for minorities and lesser mistreatment.
- Bring Prejudice To Light
Everyone has prejudice, even if they don’t realise it. Confronting prejudice and decreasing the use of exclusionary language can be accomplished in part by calling it out and encouraging others to do so. The best way to spread this message is to create a prejudice jar for your team.
● Ensure that your employees can freely express their biases and shortcomings.
● Those who are called out are required to submit a dollar.
● However, don’t stop there. Make sure your staff understands what prejudice is and how to avoid it.
Bringing one’s prejudice to the surface will assist everyone in reducing their bias a little more each day. Use the collected money for fun team building games!
- Pass-The-Plate Potluck
What could possibly be better than a celebration of cuisine and culture? Make a potluck meal where everyone brings a meal from or is influenced by their own culture and history.
It begins with appetisers and continues through entrées and desserts. A potluck is a great way to sample food from a variety of different households. However, there is a lot more to it than that. It’s because eating is a great way to get people talking. It’s a great opportunity to interact and connect with others.
- Create A Sense Of Belonging
We all must work together to make the workplace more diversified, inclusive, and impartial.
● During this exercise, encourage your employees to talk about a moment when they felt uncomfortable and a time when they were made to feel at home by someone or something.
● What made the biggest impact for them? Simple acts of kindness like praising a teammate’s efforts or clarifying pronouns speak volumes for everyone.
● Online and in-office groups must be encouraged to engage in such workplace team building activities and communicate via virtual platforms, where they may type out their comments.
By compiling these anecdotes, employers can foster a culture of mutual understanding and respect among their staff.
- Get A Photo Board
Using pictures as conversation starters is a terrific way to get people talking. A wall of recollections including memories of individuals’ personal and significant life events can catalyse effective communication.
Incorporating such personal keepsakes into a professional setting might communicate a great deal about the many facets of an individual’s life. Such fun team building activities for the workplace encourage employees to see the world through the eyes of others, which ultimately leads to kindness and respect.
- Defy Stereotypes
Finally, this is one of the greatest team building games out there. The purpose of this exercise is to break down biases and get everyone involved.
Each member should take a sheet of paper and divide it into two columns, with the headings “I am…” and “I am not…,” and the word “but” in between each column.
Sharing these kinds of personal details might be awkward at times. However, it will dispel many prejudices.
Conclusion
Team building activities promoting inclusiveness and a diverse workforce should be a priority for every organisation. You must establish an atmosphere in which your people feel comfortable being themselves—one in which they are heard, acknowledged, and respected.
Building diversified, collaborative teams isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy. Some of the most forward-thinking businesses are still working out the kinks in their methodologies, even today. This also reveals a larger truth: the work of promoting inclusiveness will never be complete; there is always more to be done and more to be discovered.
