This document outlines a training session for supervisors on incorporating multicultural teambuilding into supervision. The session aims to highlight the importance of multicultural dialogue between supervisors and staff and encourage supervisors to develop healthy multicultural connections. Supervisors will be exposed to simple resources and techniques through simulations and discussions. These include questions to ask staff, creating a shared book where each staff member contributes a page, scheduling mock appointments to discuss identity-related topics, and an exercise where staff map the identities most important to them. The goal is for supervisors to understand their responsibility in creating an inclusive environment and feel comfortable addressing diversity with their teams.

1. Walking the Talk: Incorporating
Multicultural Teambuilders Into Supervision
Presented by
Tosh Patterson & Genevieve Conway
University of Maryland, College Park

2. Why are YOU here today?
 New teambuilders/ ideas
 Because having multicultural
issues/concerns on staff
 Because you want to introduce
diversity conversation to homogenous
staff

3. Session Outcomes
 To highlight the importance of multicultural dialogue between
supervisor-supervisee and supervisor-staff team
 To encourage supervisors to develop healthy multicultural
connections between supervisor- supervisee and supervisor-
staff
 To establish the responsibility of supervisors to create a rightful
place for each staff member
 To expose supervisors to simple resources and techniques
through first hand experiences

4. Multicultural
Awareness,
Knowledge and
Skills
Helping and
Advising
Assessment
and Research
Teaching and
Training
Ethics and
Professional
Standards
Theory and
Translation
Administration
and
Management
Theoritical Framework
“Multicultural Competence in Student
Affairs”(Pope, Reynolds, and Mueller, 2004)

5. What are your responsibilities as
a supervisor?
 Invest in understanding the impact of your
actions
 Invest in the opportunities here to learn from
your diverse peers and community
 Abstain from acts of abuse, harassment,
threats, intimidation, or assault towards
others that threaten their rightful place in the
community

6. Who are today’s College
Students?
 Millenials
 Close relationship with Parents
 High achieving
 Non-confrontational
 Build community online

7. What are challenges?
 Staff THINK they already know
 Diversity only means race
 Staff may have never had
conversation about their identities
 How can you fit it all in
 Past negative experiences (guilt)

8. A multicultural staff/community
recognizes
 Our staff identities are: multiple and interactive
 Our staff team/community:
 Celebrates common bonds
 Explores differences in identity
 Balances rights and responsibilities
 Is guided by shared principles

9. Simulations
 One: “Questions”
 Two: “Book”
 Three: “Circles of My Identity”
 Four: “Appointments”

10. Questions
 These can be asked at the beginning
of a staff meeting, a weekly report, or
individual supervision meetings.
 You should be prepared to share with
your staff as well.
 Share something with each other about your name
(origin, meaning, how you got it).
 Think about where you lived growing up, how does
that influence you now?
 What was your favorite childhood food and why?
 What do you remember most about your favorite
holiday or tradition as you were growing up?

11. The Book
 This book is created by your staff. Each
staff member will receive the book and
should create a page to be shared at the
next staff meeting.
 You could have a no limitations approach—
they can create a page about what ever is
on their mind.
 Another approach is to have a theme, start
out with where did you grow up, who are
your heroes, favorite college memory.

12. Appointments
 Participants have 3 minutes to create their
personal schedule of appointments. Only schedule
appointments do not answer the corresponding
question at that time.
 Once schedules are completed participants will
then be prompted to start their appointments.
 They then have several minutes at each
appointment to talk with each other in “1on1”
about the question listed next to that appointment.

13. Appointments
Appointment 1 ( )
 Talk about something from your own background that is unique.
Appointment 2 ( )
 Share something with each other about your name (origin, meaning, how you got it).
Appointment 3 ( )
 Talk about a group that you are proud to belong to.
Appointment 4 ( )
 Share a time when you had a challenging experience related to an aspect of your identity.
Appointment 5 ( )
 What was the most difficult thing you had to compromise on when you first moved into the residence halls or the first time you
lived in a group living situation?
Appointment 6 ( )
 New Staff – Share one thing you want to do with your residents to help create a sense of rightful place for your community.
 Returning Staff – Talk about one thing you did last year as an RA to foster rightful place that you plan to do again this year OR
what you plan to do differently.

14. Circles of My Identity
Name
Aspect
of
Identity
Aspect
of
Identity
Aspect
of
Identity
Aspect
of
Identity
 Dimensions include race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, national
origin, religion, age, physical ability, mental ability, class, cultural history,
and life experience.
 It is very important for a supervisor to role model this exercise first
before he/she asks staff members to engage
 The following are suggested processing questions
 The identity(ies) that impact me the most are…
 What this means for me is …
 How I see these identities impacting my relationship with others on
my staff…

15. Example
Genevieve
female
Middle-
class
Able
bodied--
runner
Caucasian

16. In closing, don’t forget…
 Be willing to share as a supervisor
 Tools for now OR later
 Introductory/ conversation starters
 Student Affairs personnel (student-
staff and professional alike) need to
be comfortable approaching everyone

17. Resources and Contact
 “The Diversity Toolkit: How
You can Build and Benefit from
a Diverse Workforce”
Sonneneschein, William.
Contemporary Books:Chicago,
IL. 1997.
 “Multicultural Competence in
Student Affairs” Pope, R.,
Reynolds, J.,and Mueller, J.
Jossey-Bass: San Francisco,
CA. 2004.
 University of Maryland,
Community Directors
 Tosh Patterson
tpatter1@umd.edu
301-314-7484
 Genevieve Conway
gconway@umd.edu
301-314-7484