Synopses & Reviews
Facilitators are being called upon to work in international and cross-cultural arenas more than ever before. Facilitating Multicultural Groups provides a practical approach for facilitators to enhance their skills when working with people from diverse backgrounds. Based on research and facilitator experiences, it takes the facilitator step-by-step through ideas, processes, and frameworks that are designed to assist with workshop preparation, facilitation, and evaluation. It gives advice on how to adapt learning materials to suit specific situations and offers techniques to deal with conflict. Complete with definition of terminology, useful quotations, references, and electronic resources to follow up on areas of interest, this is essential reading for anyone facilitating multicultural groups.
Synopsis
Facilitators are being called upon to work in international and cross-cultural arenas more than ever before to help groups co-ordinate plans for governance, education and community development. There are also increasingly frequent cases of pandemics that require facilitating multicultural groups such as the Tsunami and HIV/Aids disaster relief.
Facilitating Multicultural Groups provides a practical approach for facilitators needing to enhance their skills when working with people from a diverse range of multicultural backgrounds. Based on research and facilitator experiences it takes the facilitator step-by-step through ideas, processes, models and frameworks that are designed to assist with the preparation, facilitation and evaluation of workshops. It advises how to adapt learning materials to suit specific situations and offers techniques to deal with conflict.
Complete with additional resources available on a dedicated website including: Cultural value cards pack; Cultural behaviors card pack; Medical insurance advice; Glossary of key terms; Useful networks; Country by country background information, this is essential reading for anyone facilitating multicultural groups.
Synopsis
Facilitators are being called upon to work in international and cross-cultural arenas more than ever before. "Facilitating Multicultural Groups" provides a practical approach for facilitators to enhance their skills when working with people from diverse backgrounds.
About the Author
Tom Limoncelli is a noted system administrator and network engineer. He speaks at conferences around the world on topics ranging from firewall security to time management. He is the author of "Time Management for System Administrators" from O' Reilly. Tom is currently employed by Google. Strata R. Chalup is president and owner of VirtualNet, a technical project management and ISP/ASP architecture and deployment company. She resides in the San Francisco Bay area. Christine Hogan is a system administrator with ten years of experience. She recently completed her Ph.D. at Imperial College, London and is currently working as an aerodynamicist for the Sauber Petronas Formula 1 Racing Team.
Table of Contents
1 Preparations with clients
Introduction; Preparation research; Generic cultural competencies framework; Cultural intelligence; What to take with you if working overseas; Customizing materials; What to check if going overseas; Arrival strategies; Use of local facilitation techniques and facilitators; Diversity checklist for workshop design; Getting to know and contracting with co-facilitators; Prior preparation by local counterparts; Planning workshop openings; Ending rituals and celebration; Formative evaluation; Long-term evaluation; Facilitator health and well-being
2 Workshop delivery
Introduction; Claiming the workshop space; Being prepared; Introductions; Clarifying individual roles; Contracting participants needs and responsibilities; Cultural attitudes to technology; Creating physical safety; Creating cultural safety; Enhancing respect; Warm-up activities; Energizers; Room maintenance; Strategies to encourage networking; Strategies to provoke thinking; Processes to explore understanding of concepts; Processes to explore multiple realities and perception; Assumptions; Linking the parts of a workshop; Group formation; What if they dont understand?; Transference of learning; Motivating participants to read outside a workshop; Adapting processes to different cultural contexts; Stopstart role play
3 Power and empowerment in groups
Introduction; Power in groups; Modes of facilitation; Ladder of participation; Ladder of empowerment; Ladders of equity; Ladder of political safety, open and safe communication; Values in facilitation and participation; Uses of power and power bases; Empowering processes to harness positive thinking; Appreciative inquiry process
4 Strategies to enable multicultural teams to be more effective
Introduction; Cultural socialization; Characteristics of effective culturally diverse teams; Intercultural leadership; Intercultural sensitivity; Cultural mapping; The MBI model; Different interpretations of the word culture; Purpose/rationale of the cultural values card pack; Explanations of cultural driver cards; Sorting the cultural card pack; Bridge-building processes and strategies; Integrating bridges into the existing system; Comparing cultural ideas and reality; Other processes and strategies to map cultures; Previously mapped cultures; Behaviour cards; Cultural awareness in simulation activities; Mapping the cultures of stakeholders; Facilitative bridging strategies; Some bridge-building ideas
5 Metaphors, stories, music and dance
Introduction; Metaphors; Stories; Inviting participants to tell their stories; Personal story process; Case studies created by outsiders; Case stories created by participants; Role-reversal stories through the eyes of the other; Role-reversal stories to help participants to decentre; Music; Hints for facilitators; Processes involving music and sound; Dance
6 Visual techniques
Introduction; Group media (community-based media); Flows of communication with pictures; Useful visual literacy research for facilitators; Pictures and cartoons as discussion starters; Facilitated discussion framework for picture analysis; Graphic facilitation; Mindscapes and concept drawing; Participants design pictures; Multi-purpose visuals; Picture card packs; Three-dimensional idea generation and development of prototypes; Empowering uses of participatory video; Resources for seeing things from different angles; How to avoid death by PowerPoint; Learning how to draw
7 Facilitating difference
Introduction; Constructive and destructive paths and choices; Ways of talking and listening; Facilitating dialogue in culturally diverse groups; Warm-up activity to identify sources of conflict; Raising awareness of assumptions and stereotypes; Perception and content assumptions and misunderstandings; When dialogue stops, learning stops; Use of superordinate goals to unite disparate groups; Facilitating cultural inclusivity; Holding up a mirror to the others
8 Facilitating reconciliation
Introduction; Reconciliation and healing between cultures within a country: Australia; Reconciliation and healing between cultures within a country: African examples;
9 Language and silence
Introduction; The relationship between language and culture; Concepts do not always translate across cultures; Speech patterns; Different cultural interpretations of concepts; Different meanings and uses of silence; Hints for facilitators to facilitate or hold silence
10 Facilitating with interpreters and translators
Introduction; Types of interpreting; Debriefing experiential learning activities; The mutual misunderstanding zone; Translating documents
Appendix 1: Sample cultural driver cards
Appendix 2: Behaviour cards
References
Index