Emotional Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence and Diversity Workshop

This workshop is designed to address the cultural diversity in the workplace. It includes activities like ice-breaking, interactive group discussion, danger of labels, and discussion on racial and religious prejudice. The workshop aims to convey the context of cultural diversity, increase understanding among group members, and increase communication between members.

Running head: EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND
DIVERSITY
Emotional Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence and Diversity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors note

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
Part 1
Layout of Workshop designed to address the Cultural Diversity in
Workplace
The workshop has the purpose to identify and assess various aspects of Cultural
diversity in the organisational set up. The workshop would be finished in one day. There are
four modules in the whole workshop. The schedule of today’s workshop is described in the
table below-
Activity time Details Purpose
1. 9.30-10.30 am Icebreaker: Introduction of
the participants. After the
primary introduction they
would be divided into
groups of 5 people each. The
participants would be asked
to pick a paper containing
their group numbers and
from a team.
Familiarising session. The
participants would get the
scope to know each other in
a basic level.
2. 10.30-12.00 pm Interactive group
discussion: each group
would be provided with a
bowl full of topic related to
cultural diversity. Each
member would select a
paper from the bowl and
Participants would be
enlightened of the new
information on various
cultures across the world
through their team members.

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
discuss of that topic in the
basis of his or her cultural
background.
3. 12.00- 1.00pm Lunch
4. 12.30 – 1.30 pm Danger of Labels:
In this activity, there would
be various print outs that
have labels like “I am
inattentive” or “I am know-
it-all”. Each of the
participants would be called
one by one and one label
would be placed on their
forehead by another team
member. Now the person
have to figure out what label
he had earned in his
forehead.
This is fun activity that
would reveal how the
individual persons are
perceived in the eyes of their
co-workers. The interaction
would be show if the person
could figure out what his or
her personality is.
5. 1.30-2.30pm Discussion on racial and
religious Prejudice: this
would be the session where
one of the group members
would state a racial or
religious prejudice he has
faced and discuss how he is
This is the most crucial part
of the workshop. In this
session, the team or group
members would know about
cultural divergence and
convergence.

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
different
6. Closure
Descriptions of these activities and their impact
Ice-breaking session
Icebreaking session is the introductory part of the workshop. In this session the
participants enter the room and pick a number card from a bowl without looking at it. This
cards have numbers one to five as the organisers wants to divide the participants in five
groups. In this way the participants are assigned their groups in random selection process.
This would be done within first fifteen minutes. The next 45 minutes of the ice-breaking
session would include the individual introduction and stating a special word that he thinks
describes his culture appropriately. This sessions would be led by the team leaders and after
this the second session would start.
Interactive group discussion
The second session is the interactive group discussion. In this activity, each group would be
provided with a bowl full of topic related to cultural diversity. This might include,
architecture, religions, reputed authors, popular movies and so on. Each member would select
a paper from the bowl and discuss of the topic he gets. Each of the member would be assign
ten minutes for this discussions. Each of the topics need to be different from each other. This
discussions would give the team members candid ideas of individual members. The last ten
minutes would be an interactive discussion session, where the group members would discuss
how their cultures are different form each other and where these cultures are same. This
extensive discussion session would bring the team members close to each other as they would
know better of the cultures others belong. The group communication would also increase
through this session.

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
Danger of Labels:
The next activity is designed to achieve the goal of self-awareness in a culturally
diverse work place. Team works are crucial and how the co-workers perceive an individual is
important to some extent. This activity is designed in the basis of this context. In this activity,
there would be various print outs that have labels like “I am inattentive” or “I am know-it-
all”. Each of the participants would be called one by one and one label would be placed on
their forehead by another team member. Now the person have to figure out what label his
team members have placed in his forehead. This activity would be fun as well as self-
revealing. As the individual have to work in a culturally diverse workplace, the connection
between groups is built according to the individual personality and behaviour. If the person is
successful in perceiving what his team members think of his personality, he could be able to
correct himself or enhance his working skills. Each of the members would have 5 minutes to
guess what is written in the paper on his forehead. The other members would try to describe
the member through words related to it. This would build a prospect of team discussion and
communication. In a diverse work cultural space, sometimes, the team members might have
to convey their messages through gestures or other means. This exercise is a good example
for such situations.
Discussion on racial and religious Prejudice:
Most of the time people are classified according to their race or ethnicity and
not through their individual personality. The next and last activity is based on such prejudices
and their outcomes. In this session the members would be asked what they know about the
work or cultural habits of one of their team members. This could be done in group of two
members as well. For example, Mr. A of the group would be asked what he thinks of Mr B’s
nature as he belongs to a certain cultural group. The answers need to be precise and related to
cultural convergence. The other person would verify if it is true of his nature or not. It is the

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EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE AND DIVERSITY
fact that cultural convergence ideas impact the workplace behaviours to some extent. But
there are the concept of divergence too. It is not that each and every person who belongs to
certain cultural background have same sort of nature or personality. Other than that there are
some prejudices as well related to certain races. Therefore, the motto of this part of workshop
is to debar all these prejudices and give a fresh perspective of individualism. The worker need
to understand that diversity in an integral part of present workforces. The main person of the
team could also keep 15 minutes time for the discussion of how these idea of cultural
divergence influences our judgements. The end would be to keep aside all the racial
prejudices and ideas. The organisation behaviour of a person do not only depends on the
cultural aspect but also at the individual personalities. The discussion must disclose how the
cultural diversity could actually help in organisational performance enhancement if conceived
in a positive and constructive way.
The active participation of the participants are the key of success for this workshop.
The results might vary depending on the attitude and personality of the participants.
Part 2
The workshop has been designed to meet a number of aims and purposes. The first is
to convey the context of cultural diversity in the organisational set up. Globalisation has
influenced each and every section of human life, business is not an exception in it.
Organisations have the workforce that includes people from various cultural background.
Cultural diversity has become an integral part of the work culture. Therefore, the
understanding of various aspects of cultural diversity is important for the employees as well
as for the leaders. This workshop would help to gain that purpose. The second aim of this
workshop is increasing the understanding among the group members. The activities are
designed in a way so that the members could know the culture and personality of each other.

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They might have certain connection while working in the company and through this
workshop, they get the scope to know more of individual thoughts, personalities and cultures.
Working in team where the members are aware of this contexts is much more effective and
productive. The third and most important aim is increasing the communication between the
members. Cultural diversity sometimes becomes the reason of communication gaps and
misinterpretation. Thorough these activities, the organisational leaders could bring the
members closer and their communication would be refined. The information they collect
from this workshop would help them to build new and clear ideas of their team member’s
nature. They could feel freer to communicate with each other after this sessions. It is said that
communication is one of the prime keys in an organisational performance. It is expected that
the bond between the workers would be tightened after this workshop and they would
connect to each other even after their cultural diversities. The prejudices would be ended and
organisation could make a positive outcome of their culturally diverse workforces. I strongly
believe that all the goals of this workshops would be met and organisation would be befitted
from this initiative.