Diversity: The Online Game

Diversity comprises both visible and invisible characteristics that shape individual views, perspectives, attitudes and thus people’s actions. When looking for differences and commonalities among people, six core dimensions can be recognised:

Age

Physical and mental ability

Ethnic origin and nationality

Religion & worldview

Gender and gender identity

Sexual orientation

Social background

These core dimensions are closely linked with an individual’s personality and can hardly be influenced by one’s personality – or not at all. There are questions on all seven diversity dimensions in the online game. 

Source: “4 Layers of Diversity” based on Gardenswartz and Rowe, Diverse Teams at Work (2nd Edition, SHRM, 2003)

Depending how much you’ve already looked into the topic of diversity in the past, you may have found the questions easier or more difficult. Consider: Which questions could you answer because you are affected yourself by the relevant diversity dimension? With which question could someone from the company’s staff have perhaps helped you? And which answers surprised you?

Which diversity dimensions are visible for others, which are invisible? Are there reasons why people in groups would prefer not to sharetheir  personal information with others? You can find an approach to discussions using the “Iceberg of Diversity” (Kimmel 2014) with visible and invisible diversity characteristics.
This makes it apparent: dimensions like age, gender, culture and language are factors that are usually easily identifiable when encountering other people. In contrast, dimensions like disability and religion can also remain invisible.
Sexual orientation, nationality or political orientation are also among the dimensions that are not immediately apparent. Professional experience, life situation, length of company service or current activity, style of dealing with others and personal hobbies are invisible dimensions that contribute to individual diversity.

Source: Kimmel, M: “Weshalb Unconscious Bias auch Männern schaden – und den Unternehmen, für die sie arbeiten”, in: Vielfalt erkennen – Strategien für einen sensiblen Umgang mit unbewussten Vorurteilen, 2014.

Unconscious biases result in us approaching certain groups of people or individuals differently, even though we are sure that we treat everyone equally, free of bias. The challenge consists in recognising these unconscious biases, approaching people openly and in this way enabling diversity. While unconscious biases in everyday life seem inevitable and harmful, they cause problems in the professional context, e.g., in recruiting or in dealing with people with disabilities. Valuable skills can be overlooked because, next to supposedly striking characteristics of a person, they recede into the background and simply escape perception.

Source: Kimmel, M: “Weshalb Unconscious Bias auch Männern schaden – und den Unternehmen, für die sie arbeiten”, in: Vielfalt erkennen – Strategien für einen sensiblen Umgang mit unbewussten Vorurteilen, 2014.