Facilitating transformation and diversity processes

This is a post that has been wanting to be written for a while now. I have been exceptionally busy facilitating back to back transformation and diversity workshops, and have not had time to write, but feel compelled to pause and share some reflections.

These are conversations that South Africa has been needing to have since 1994 but we have not made the space and time to focus on the real issues of diversity and transformation. As a society we have been deeply divided and there has been oppression which has spanned generations - after 1994, we experienced change at many levels, but we did not deal with the deeper issues and the psycho social impact of apartheid which has permeated all the spaces in our society. Now we find them popping up in racial incidents and social media posts and in many spaces where we are finding ourselves confronted more and more with the shadow reality of the rainbow nation dream.

 In most of these workshops I find on the one side there is so much unconsciousness and denial and then on the other side there are people who have been doing the work on themselves and processing it in various ways - there are also many people who are highly aware and want to see change and a society that treats everyone fairly and equally. The unconsciousness and denialism that exists are not split along race - I find generally all races are represented in this group. There is an amazing spirit of forgiveness from the side of black people. There is also a lot of repressed pain and unprocessed hurt and woundedness for both black and white people.

Most of the concepts and practices contained in this piece have been learnt whilst co-facilitating with colleagues and fellow practitioners and experts in this field Rejane Williams and Ilze Olckers.

Being comfortable with the emotional work we need to do
In these diversity processes, we find the emotions run high the minute the issues are opened and people are made aware - particularly when we talk about the history of apartheid and many people feel that it is in the past and we should move on - as the conversation progresses we realize these are not problems of the past, they are very much problems of the present - the legacy of apartheid lives on but so many people are either not conscious or blind to the realities - the reality emerging is that most white people may not know because they don't experience prejudice or racism and most black people are very aware because they are on the receiving end of various acts or racism both subtle and overt, biased behavior and attitudes, being marginalized or held back because they are black.

How we learn about the past and how we heal through the telling of our histories and experiences
There is also a feeling that we should move on quite quickly and we should not hold onto talking about what happened. Some people feel uncomfortable with sharing emotions.Yet there is so much pain and hurt and unprocessed stuff and then we share stories and as people start appreciating each others stories, the process begins to touch hearts more deeply.

The comments that emerge range from deep appreciation to defensiveness. There is also disbelief as people ask questions about the colonisers or even some of the laws and acts from the apartheid time. I am also realizing in these workshops that often it is about sharing information and the real history, not the ones we were taught during the apartheid era which was written by the colonisers and oppressors themselves.

What we need to do in these processes
Ensure that at the start you develop group agreements and principles for creating a safe container where confidentiality is adhered to and people are respected and everyone is given an equal opportunity to be heard without judgment.

Education
What I am learning as a facilitator of these processes is that one has to do a lot of education around the real history and how people experienced it - here it is useful when people share stories about their parents or grandparents lives. Facilitators should also be able to share facts and statistics that help people understand the enormity and depth of pain in what happened in our country.

Critical Diversity Literacy
It is very important to give participants a language to work with that is useful for them to fully express and articulate their issues. Here facilitators may need to educate themselves and understand the terms, concepts and frameworks they want to use and why they wish to use particular ones. There is a lot of material out there and facilitators will need to read widely and build up their own set of favourite readings and articles that could inform them and help their process. The terms and descriptions help in giving people a language to express what they are feeling and experiencing and may have been unable to articulate for a long time. This opens up many aha moments and deep catharsis for people when they are able to find the words to express their experience. It is also brings understanding at deeper levels for everyone and allows for people to see what they need to do to work through these issues.

The Wits Centre for Diversity Studies at Wits University runs short courses on Race, Transformation and Diversity which I have attended and would highly recommend for any facilitator wanting to deepen their practice to engage with these issues. This extract from their website https://www.wits.ac.za/wicds/  explains where this concept comes from: Melissa Steyn’s (2007) notion of Critical Diversity Literacy which is “a sharply focussed critical lens which examines those operations of power which implicate social identities to create systems of privilege, advantage, disadvantage and oppression. The US academic, France Winddance Twine, has described what she calls ‘racial literacy’. (Ethnic and Racial Studies, November, 2004). Adapting the concept to embrace other forms of systemic social oppression, such as gender, sexuality, dis/ability etc. we can describe the field of diversity studies as that which develops ‘diversity literacy’ in scholars and researchers.

Conscientising and Awareness raising
We have to do a huge amount of experiential work whether it is through exercises and activities that give people an embodied experience of issues of privilege, prejudice, racism - there are many movies that can also be shown that highlight this very well eg. The Colour of Fear, A class divided (Brown eyes, Blue eyes). Showing movies are good because they highlight the issues in a way that participants can connect to them without having to reveal their own stories which they might not be comfortable sharing in certain spaces.
An alternative to showing a movie or video clip (but needs more time) is to take participants on an outing to a museum or heritage site which highlights and showcases the history of a particular place - In South Africa there are many such sites such as The District Six Museum in Cape Town showing the forced removals and impact on society. These outings followed by a reflection session are very powerful because they connect to the history and stories of people and their suffering as well as the impact on the current generation.

Getting people to listen to each others stories and see beyond stereotypes
Apart from working in a large group circle we also allow people to meet in pairs and threes where they can share their stories - the facilitator can choose any topic related to diversity. The secret is to set up the process so that deep quality listening occurs. The Active Listening Methodology is very powerful here. Also getting people to appreciate each other by sharing something they have observed and appreciated about the other person helps the process of seeing each other anew beyond initial perceptions. Chimamanda Adichie's 'Danger of a single story' is a great TEDTALK available on youtube that stimulates good discussion of seeing beyond a single story we may have of each other.

Courageous conversation
When groups need to talk about issues that affect them and confront the elephant in the room it is useful to use the courageous conversation methodology which has very good principles of engagement which can help participants engage more honestly and be present.
Glen Singleton has written extensively about the principles for having a courageous conversation:
http://www.uvm.edu/rsenr/nr6/Readings/SingletonHaysConversations%20About%20Race.pdf

We use this principles in workshops and find them useful as a guide for creating an environment which is conducive for transformation.

Building the muscle to facilitate these processes
As a facilitator one needs to build up your own courage, do your own work around these issues as it is not possible to be neutral and the more authentic one is about where you stand, the more the group can find their own courage. Facilitation skills are important here and the ability to hold a process and contain it when things get rough is vital - I have learnt a lot from process work methodology and from various sources and courses which have strengthened my capacity to facilitate processes in a way that a group is able to address and work through the issues as they emerge.

These processes are very intense and at times one may need to bring some humour into the process to bring some comic relief. Using cartoons to highlight certain issues or stimulate conversation on various topics or just allowing space for some joking and lightness is good as long as it is not disrespectful to each other. Trevor Noah has done some great social commentary on race and some of his youtube clips could also be used as a conversation starter.

There are many ways to do diversity work but the real power lies in creating a space for honest conversation and deep listening whether it is in a large group, in smaller groups, pairs or triads. The more we can connect as a society and create spaces to talk the less we will find the need to spew out our hatred on social media!