Practicing Inclusive Collaboration in Diverse Groups
Collaborating across cultures and experiences requires intentional reflection, humility, and action. These practices are grounded in values such as integrity, grace and love. They are not checklists—they are ongoing commitments to relational awareness. Each behavior includes an invitation to share real stories, deepening collective understanding and opening pathways for healing and transformation.
Mercedes Guerrero-Tune
ConAmor Building Bridges
1. Acknowledge the Dismissal, Support the Person
Why it matters
Microaggressions are often subtle, yet deeply painful. Friends and collaborators may unintentionally downplay their impact. Acknowledging someone’s experience—especially when it is dismissed in front of others—can validate their humanity and shift the group dynamic toward empathy and repair.
Practice
- Speak up when you witness someone being invalidated.
- Avoid minimizing or reinterpreting their experience.
- Validate their feelings in private and/or public, depending on the context.
Reflective Prompt
Share a moment when someone’s experience was dismissed. How did you or others respond? What shifted afterward?
2. Speak Up for Integrity—even when it is uncomfortable
Why it matters
If you hold privilege or belong to a dominant group, choosing to speak up might feel risky. But your silence can perpetuate harm. Speaking out, especially when others stay quiet, is an act of solidarity and moral courage.
Practice
- Center the integrity and dignity of those whose voices are at risk.
- Name behavior that dehumanizes or excludes, even when others remain silent.
- Accept that you might be criticized but prioritize justice and relational trust.
Reflective Prompt
Recall a moment when you chose to speak up, or wished you had. What did it cost you? What did it protect in the community?
3. Receive Accountability with Humility
Why it matters
Being challenged is never easy. But if you are part of a dominant group, it is vital to pause your defenses and listen deeply. Resistance often comes from privilege; transformation begins with curiosity.
Practice
- Welcome feedback without defensiveness.
- Pause before responding; notice if ego is speaking.
- Reframe being called out as an opportunity for growth.
Reflective Prompt
Describe a time when you were challenged. What helped you move from reaction to reflection? What did you learn?
4. Educate Yourself
Why it matters
The burden of teaching others often falls on marginalized communities. Doing your own research shows care, curiosity, and responsibility. It is not about guilt; it is about growth.
Practice
- Read books, articles, and essays authored by marginalized voices.
- Explore history through an equity lens.
- Stay open to new perspectives, even when they challenge your worldview.
Reflective Prompt
What is something you have learned recently that changed how you understand inclusion or equity? Who did you learn it from?
5. Share the Spotlight, Build the Table
Why it matters
Dominance can show up subtly—in who speaks, who leads, and who gets credit. When collaboration feels like competition, we lose the richness of co-creation. Making space for others is both an act of equity and a celebration of abundance.
Practice
- Step back intentionally to amplify marginalized voices.
- Give credit publicly and joyfully.
- Co-create spaces where leadership is shared.
Reflective Prompt
Reflect on a moment when you chose to step aside or elevate someone else’s voice. What did it reveal about power, trust, and collaboration?
Printable Resource: Practicing Inclusive Collaboration in Diverse Groups
Walking Together: Five Commitments to Inclusive Collaboration
A values-based reflection tool for community members navigating intercultural and intergroup collaboration.
Introduction
In diverse groups, collaboration is not just what we do, it is how we show up. These five practices are grounded in love, integrity, and abundance. They support a deeper awareness of how dominant cultural patterns can affect group dynamics and offer alternative ways to cultivate belonging and relational trust.
1. Support When Dismissal Occurs
- Validate someone’s experience when it is minimized or questioned.
- Recognize microaggressions, even when subtle or normalized.
- Acknowledge the moment to model empathy and accountability.
Why it matters
Creates ripple effects of repair and signals that exclusion is not tolerated.
2. Speak Up for Integrity
- Use your voice to interrupt injustice, even among peers or friends.
- Do not wait for the perfect words; your care matters more.
- Accept that discomfort may arise in naming truth.
Why it matters
Builds trust, models courage, and shifts group culture.
3. Receive Accountability with Humility
- Resist defensiveness; listen with openness.
- Explore feedback before reacting.
- Assume that those with lived experience see what you may not.
Why it matters
Transform conflict into growth and honors shared humanity.
4. Educate Yourself
- Seek knowledge proactively, do not rely on others to explain everything.
- Center marginalized voices in your reading, viewing, and listening.
- Stay curious and expansive in how you learn.
Why it matters
Reduces emotional burden on marginalized communities and deepens your worldview.
5. Share the Spotlight
- Notice how dominance shows up in space-taking.
- Step back to amplify others’ leadership and insight.
- Attribute ideas, invite input, and co-create outcomes.
Why it matters
Reshapes collaboration into equity-driven partnership.
Each commitment can be enriched through storytelling.
Use the accompanying Facilitator Guide to explore these in community settings.
Facilitator Discussion Guide: Brave Conversations Around Power and Inclusion
Purpose
To support facilitators in leading inclusive conversations using the five collaboration commitments as anchors for reflection and growth.
Opening Reflection
Invite participants to reflect in pairs or small groups:
- What does “inclusive collaboration” mean to you?
- When have you felt truly seen or heard in a group setting?
1. Support When Dismissal Occurs
- Describe a time you witnessed someone’s experience being dismissed.
- How did people respond—was it acknowledged or brushed aside?
- What could have helped restore connection?
2. Speak Up for Integrity
- Have you ever spoken up when others stayed silent? What happened?
- What made it difficult or possible to act?
- How can groups support people who take this risk?
3. Receive Accountability with Humility
- Share a moment when you were challenged about bias or behavior.
- How did you feel, and how did you respond?
- What does humility look like in action?
4. Educate Yourself
- What is something you have learned that shifted your view of equity?
- Who do you trust to guide your learning?
- How can personal growth strengthen group dynamics?
5. Share the Spotlight
- When have you witnessed someone taking too much space unintentionally?
- How can we lovingly name those patterns?
- What does collaboration look like when power is shared?
Integration Activity – Create a Story Circle or Commitment Mural. Invite participants to share stories, phrases, or lessons they are taking forward. Capture these on a large mural, bulletin board, or digital canvas to honor collective wisdom.