Cultural Diversity Group Leaders

The cultural diversity group leaders faced some unique challenges because of the age of the students. While the students were mature enough to have difficult conversations, the more emotional aspects of the group presented some problems. Additionally, while the students’ ages contributed to their energy and eagerness to participate, it also made them restless. These characteristics created a lively atmosphere with many opportunities for the leaders to implement facilitator skills. Among the most valuable skills they showed was the ability to keep the focus of the group, guide group interactions, and reach for feelings. The skill of keeping focus was used in every group session and was essential to the success of the group. The facilitators

If there was a lull in the conversation, if someone was dominating the conversation, or if the leaders simply wanted to delve deeper into a question, they would guide the conversation in a manner that gave everyone an opportunity to speak. However, if it was evident that the students did not wish to discuss certain topics, the leaders were respectful and moved on to a different question. In doing this, the group leaders kept the conversations productive and open to all members, while still allowing the students to explore the topics they found the most interesting or

There were moments during the group that were especially emotional, like when they discussed the ways others had hurt them. During these moments, it became evident that the students were uncomfortable with the conversation and that they were trying to stifle negative emotions. Rather than let the students bottle up their emotions, the leaders took the opportunity to reach for their clients’ feelings and to help them process and learn from the negative experience. At the last meeting, most of the members described the difficult emotional moments as some of the most impactful, despite their initial hesitancy to engage the subject. It is likely that the students viewed the experience in a positive light because of the way the leaders facilitated the discussion and reached for feelings.
Apart from the skills that were already implemented in the sessions, it would have been helpful for the leaders to spend more time clarifying the purpose of the group and to then set group goals with that purpose in mind. In doing this, the group as a whole would have benefitted from creating mutually agreed upon roles. By making sure that there was agreement about the purpose and goals of the group were, they could have had more accountability about their progress as time went