Search term

D&I Education and Social Safety

Moving Conversations Toolkit

What does diversity & inclusivity (D&I) actually have to do with us? 

To address this question together with your team, below you can find a short (10-15 minutes), accessible and low-threshold conversation starter to use during a (team) meeting or special workshop.

What to do?

Reserve 10-15 minutes (longer is of course also fine) of your department or team meeting for this conversation. Prepare the discussion by reading the instructions in the starter-kit below and print out the exercise.

The Moving Conversation Starter-Kit has four sections and below you can find instructions and further relevant details for each section.

Visual Moving Conversations

 Conversation Starter-kit (pdf)

 Exercise Poster to print (English)

 Oefening poster to print (Dutch)

Instructions

Instructions Medium

  • Getting started

    Getting started Section 1: Diversity & inclusivity, what does it have to do with ME? On

    This first section is about reflecting on and talking about the individual, diverse experiences that make up your team.

    Setting the tone:
    It is important to discuss with the team that this exercise raises sensitive topics. That means that the meeting requires an open, engaging and respectful atmosphere if team members are to voluntarily share their experiences based on these topics. By setting these boundaries beforehand, the meeting can become a space for community building and reflection.

    Exercise:
    You can download the exercise poster here and/or print a piece for each team member.

    Every team member takes some time to read the statements and notes down how many they can identify with.

    To get a team overview (optional):
    if you and your team would like to visualize the existence of diverse experiences in your team, you can use an online polling tool to collect information on how many statements were identified with.

    Important: please do not push team members to indicate which statements they identified with. It is up to the individual to choose what and how much they feel comfortable sharing.

    Questions to guide the conversation: 

    1. How did it feel to do this exercise, for you?
    2. How was it to do this while being together with the rest of your team?
    3. How do these experiences impact your daily life/ work?
    D&I M C exercise graphic

  • Moving conversations

    Moving conversations Section 2: Diversity & inclusivity, what does it have to do with US? Off

    This second section is supposed to bring the discussion from the individual level to the team level. After all, the many experiences impact our work and how we think about work. They might impact how we work in a team and how included we feel in this team.

    Watch the video together

    Questions to guide your conversation after watching the video:

    1. What does "everyone has a role to play" mean?
    2. How do you feel about "everyone at their own pace"?
    3. Diverse views are important in science: how do we deal with different perspectives in our working environment?
    4. What support would you need from, or could you give to your colleagues?
    D&I video still cloud

  • Moving forward

    Moving forward Section 3: Looking ahead with your team Off

    This final section is about identifying topics you might want to discuss or continue discussing in your team.

    • What elements of the discussion did you find interesting?
    • Are there topics that have been overlooked?
    • You could also name a top 3 of interesting issues that were brought up.

    Support wanted / needed?

    Some of the topics you discussed might be triggering or uncomfortable for you or your team members.
    Please refer people to the relevant resources.

  • Contact us!

    Contact us! Section 4: Continuing conversations and giving feedback Off

    How did you and your team experience this activity and the conversation starter-kit?
    We would love to hear from you! Write us your feedback by email.

    If you want to continue these conversations and/or would like to collaborate with the D&I Office, please contact us by email: diversity@maastrichtuniversity.nl