In this activity, participants share information about their interests and activities, and discover similarities and diversity within the group.

Seeking similarities and discovering diversity
 

Issues addressed

• Personal identity
• Celebrating diversity: all different all equal

Aims

• To stimulate curiosity and interest in other people’s lives and interests
• To develop communication skills
• To foster trust within the group

Preparation / Materials

• Copies of the question sheet below and pencils, one per participant
• Flip chart and marker pen

Instructions

1. Hand out the Bingo sheet and pencils. Explain that the aim is to talk to 10 people, to share something about yourself, and to try to get a different name in each box.
2. Give participants a few minutes to look at the sheet and decide how they want to respond to each “I statement”. They should also think of one additional thing about themselves to offer for a blank box. Remind everyone that no-one should say more than they feel comfortable with.
3. Ask participants to form pairs, and for each person first of all to make their bonus offer, for instance, “You can write my name down as an activist”. Pairs may offer their names for the same or different boxes.
4. One partner explains their “offer” and the other partner responds to say whether, or to what degree, the “I statement” also applies to them. They should take 3 or 4 minutes to discuss this. Swap over.
5. When they feel ready, the pairs split up and move on to partner up with someone else. Repeat this stage until everyone has talked to 10 people.
6. As soon as someone has a different name in each of the 10 boxes, they should shout out “Bingo!” loudly.
7. When everyone has finished, ask participants to say what their bonus offers were. Write these up on the flip chart.

Debriefing and evaluation

Start by making a quick round to summarise the similarities and diversity within the group: call out the statements in turn and ask participants to stand up if they can answer “Yes”.

• Did you enjoy the game? Why? Why not?
• Did you feel comfortable talking about the “I statements” that were on the sheet? Why? Why not?
• Were there any “I statements” that no-one felt applied to them? Did any apply to everyone?
• How did you choose your optional “offer”?
• Does anyone have any comments about the optional “offers”?
• When partners initially disagreed on an “I statement” and then discussed it, did you find that in fact there were some aspects you could agree on?
• When partners initially agreed on an “I statement” and then discussed it, did you find that in fact you differed on the detail?
• Reflect on how we started the debriefing when participants were asked to stand up if they could answer “Yes”. Did it give you an impression about how similar and different the members of the group are? Why? Why not?
• Is the diversity in the group going to make working together easier or more difficult? What will you need to do to ensure a good working environment?

Tips for the facilitators

This activity is good as an icebreaker at an event where people don’t know each other. If you are using it as an icebreaker, you will not want to have a long discussion, but you might like to use the last question as a lead-in to discussing expectations and “rules”. The activity also works well as a way to stimulate curiosity, and as a lead-in to exploring issues.

The suggested “I statements” reflect aspects of the discrimination, intercultural competency and taking action to be found in this Education Pack. You should feel free to choose other statements if you wish to explore a specific topic.

Suggestions for follow-up

Take action: Volunteer to help with a local event that brings everyone in the community together. Think about what special skills you have in the group that you can offer, and ask the organisers what they need help with.

Move on to another activity: If participants are interested in the diversity of skills, experiences and interests in the group, you may like to go on to the activity ‘One = One’, which will enable them to explore the similarities and differences within the group. Alternatively, participants may like to explore signs of diversity in their neighbourhood: try ‘Trailing diversity’.