Since 2022, the Teaching Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Professional Development Workshop at the Academy of Management Conference has explored innovative approaches to DEIB instruction while offering educators support and community. The most recent workshop, held on August 10 last year, continued that tradition and was standing-room-only.

“We’ve realized we need each other,” said Modupe Akinola, the Barbara and David Zalaznick Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, during her opening remarks. “Because not only are we trying to figure out how to teach [DEIB] to a class of students, but also how to make change happen in our schools.”

“It truly has become a source of social support,” added Michael Norton, the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. “We’re not just asking, ‘This is how I run this exercise in class,’ but also asking, ‘Is anyone struggling—for whatever reason—in the classroom when they try to teach this?’”

Organized and co-hosted by faculty from Columbia Business School, Harvard Business School, Ivey Business School, Tuck School of Business, Kenan-Flagler Business School, and Darden School of Business, the 2024 workshop featured candid conversations about the challenges educators face, along with novel approaches for addressing those issues. Of note, both of the 2024 workshop’s teaching demos featured in-person exercises as learning tools. Here, highlights from the demos and Q&A panel.

The Quiz Game: “There are a lot of interesting directions you can take this”

In the first teaching demo, Rebecca Ponce de Leon, Assistant Professor of Business at Columbia Business School, led participants through an in-person gamified learning exercise called the “The Quiz Game.” Designed to demonstrate the dynamics of privilege and disadvantage, the exercise is used by both Ponce de Leon and Akinola, and other colleagues in their MBA core leadership courses.

To start, participants were separated into three groups—Squares, Circles, and Diamonds—and handed two, four, or six pennies, respectively. Ponce de Leon explained that players could collect more pennies by correctly answering course review questions (of easy, medium, or hard difficulty). But they also had to bet on their answers, with different rules for each group. Squares had to bet before they knew the difficulty of their question. Circles could bet after they saw the difficulty of their question but before they saw the question itself. And Diamonds could bet after they saw both the difficulty of the question and the question itself.

Players are quick to notice the Diamonds’ advantage and Squares’ disadvantage in the game, Ponce de Leon said. But after playing a few rounds, some also get the sense “the game was rigged,” she said. In the classroom, this experience helps students reflect on the dynamics of inequality from different vantage points.

“When we talk about this in class, it’s typically the Squares that notice it, or at least mention it,” Ponce de Leon said. “And the Diamonds don’t say anything about it. So, we can directly observe these effects on different groups, but our position might impact how we feel about the inequities.” She also asks students to think about how the shapes might represent different ways in which they and people in the world experience marginalization or privilege in their lives.

Depending on where you want students to go, Ponce de Leon noted there are a lot of interesting directions you can take this game. For example, because only select members of each group are allowed to answer the questions, you can have conversations about who gets opportunities. And since the Squares sometimes band together and try to give each other answers, you can talk about shared marginalization or collectivism.

Family Face-Off: “It gives good energy in the classroom”

In her course “Bias in the Workplace,” Erika V. Hall, Associate Professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, has students play a game called “Family Face-Off.” Like Family Feud—the TV game show it was inspired by—Family Face-Off has two teams guess the answers to survey questions posed to 100 individuals.

During a demo of the game, Hall asked workshop participants to guess how survey respondents answered the question, “What is the number-one defining trait of instructors of diversity training in schools and/or the workplace?” While most participants guessed positive traits such as “open-minded” and “empathetic,” a few guessed negative traits such as “judgmental” and “sensitive.”

This response differed from what Hall typically sees in the classroom. That is, when students are asked to guess what survey respondents think about their defining traits, “they have negative perceptions of what other people think of them,” she said. These “metastereotypes” have consequences; they can negatively impact a person’s self and identity, school and workplace performance, and interpersonal relationships.

“We talk through those dimensions, especially for women managers,” Hall said. For example, “if women feel more negatively stereotyped by society, they have lower self-esteem and lower employability beliefs—which means they are less likely to try to apply for that male-type job because they think it’s futile.” Hall then encourages her students to talk through solutions or simulations to make them feel more comfortable and less susceptible to metastereotypes.

Playing Family Face-Off helps ease students into these difficult conversations, Hall said. “One thing we all know is teaching DEI right now is not for the faint of heart,” she said. “[This game] is very lighthearted. It gives good energy in the classroom and makes students more receptive and open to some of the concepts we’re trying to tell them about.”

Teaching Panel Q&A: “We may not agree, but speaking up is a thing to be commended for”

Ahead of the workshop, participants submitted questions for two panelists: Hall and Adam Waytz, the Morris and Alice Kaplan Chair in Ethics and Decision Management at Northwestern University.

The panelists were first asked how they approach controversial topics in the classroom and whether they share their own opinions. “I’ve just generally learned that if something is happening in the world that is divisive, it’s always a plus to bring it up . . . because it demonstrates nimbleness,” Waytz said. “You’re not teaching on script and you’re not a robot; you’re a person. And I have had to give my opinions at times.”

When asked about managing disagreements between students, Hall emphasized the importance of laying ground rules in the classroom. “At the beginning of the course, we talk about our core values and how we’re going to treat each of our classmates—and how anything beyond that will not be tolerated in the class,” she said. “So, they know there is a line they cannot pass.”

By comparison, Waytz noted “it is not the norm that people speak up [in my classroom]. So, I say: ‘We may not agree, but speaking up is a thing to be commended for.’”

What if, after resolving a debate, some students are still struggling to understand the other side’s position? “I would bring it back to the curriculum,” Hall said. “Say, ‘Remember on Module 4 when we talked about intersectionality? Well, this is a good place to talk about that.’ … I try to make everything based on study, so they know this is not my opinion. I think they respect it a bit more when they think it’s data-backed.”

Finally, the faculty members were asked to share their tips for teaching heavy topics or facilitating difficult conversations. Waytz cautioned against catering to critics in the room. “I have a working theory about preparing that has to do with the Muppets,” he said. “The Muppets are this diverse group of people, but there are always those two old guys up in the box who hate everything. And I worry when I’m preparing to diffuse the situation . . . I’m totally catering to those guys who are not going to like anything. In the past, I have watered down my DEI content . . . and then I end up not really telling them anything, and it doesn’t get through.”

Hall pointed out that professors aren’t the only ones who can inspire learning; students can, too. “In the fall, I will have 90 students in this class,” she said. “So, there is quite a bit of diversity in the class that I can draw on, and people who are willing to talk about their own experiences. I like to amplify [those] voices.”