An activity designed to discuss diversity.

OVERVIEW

This activity has been created by ChangeWorks and is being used with permission.

FIND THE Fs - ACTIVITY

• Distribute the following paragraph on a slip of paper to each participant: (use a font that lines up the letters as evenly as possible.)

FAIRNESS IS THE FINAL RESULT OF YEARS OF EFFECTIVE EFFORT COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF DIVERSITY

• Ask participants to read it and make sure they understand it. Then ask them to read it again and to count the total number of the letter Fs they see on their paper, and keep that number to themselves. They should not say it out loud. Only give them one minute to do this. Ask if they are sure, then give them 30 more seconds to double check their total.
• Ask participants to raise their hands when you call out the total number of Fs that they see on their paper. Start with 1 and count up to 10 Fs. (There are really a total of 9 Fs).
• People will raise their hands for 6, 7,8, and 9 Fs. Act confused, ask them to count again. Some people with change their count. Give them one more chance. Finally, tell them there are 9.

PROCESS

• Ask the following of the entire group: What happened? What explains this? Participants will likely say that they missed the small words, like "OF." They will use adjectives like "unimportant," "meaningless," and "trivial" to describe "OF." Some will say they missed "OF" because the "F" in "OF" sounds like a "v" ("Different than the other Fs!"). Others will say that they were taught to not look at "OF." Others say that they were distracted by the content of the paragraph.
• Ask those who saw 6 Fs: Were you sure about the number you found? What did you think when you saw others raise their hands for 7, 8, or 9? How did you explain it to yourself? There tend to be three explanations:
  • I must have missed something. (I’m wrong, they’re right.)
  • I know there are 6 Fs. They miscounted. (I’m right, they’re wrong.)
  • I know I have 6, but maybe they have different papers. (We’re both right.)
• Everyone saw all the Fs, so why were some Fs invisible?
• What does this have to do with diversity? Why would we use this activity in a diversity workshop?
• Are there different groups of people in society that are treated like Fs? Are some people defined as more important than others, and they become disregarded or even invisible?
• Ask the people who saw 7 or 8 what happened for them. Even though they noticed almost all of them, they still made mistakes and didn’t see them all. We all miss things even when we are looking for them. In light of diversity, even when we work hard to expand our awareness, we may still not see the full picture. There is always more to learn.
• Did you continue to look for 10? Why?
• Discuss how certain people were about how many Fs they saw, and how difficult it was to change their views. How do we react when people tell us that there are more Fs than we think there are? Some are open, while others become defensive and disregard the new information. Make the analogy to how the opinions and perceptions of women and people of color are often trivialized and ignored.
• How do you respond when others point out Fs to you that you have missed?
• Did anyone deliberately miss or disregard the Fs? In fact, people were actively looking for them, but the omissions still occur. Use this to discuss the difference between intent and impact. It may have been an accident or an unintentional offense, but we are still responsible for our behavior—especially once new Fs in any situation have been pointed out to us.

WRAP-UP

We need others to validate our reality. Some people who saw 9 Fs began to doubt themselves and even change their count when they saw that the majority of people in the room saw 6. We begin to doubt our own reality and are persuaded by the majority’s perceptions and definitions.

Even when you see all the Fs, how you point them out to others is important. Are you self-righteous, judgmental, and condescending? If so, this shuts people down, making them defensive, and more resistant to change.

We all have blind spots and prejudices. The goal is to acknowledge that they are there, and be open to challenging them. We have to build our skills in both being able to see more of the Fs in any situation, as well as skills in pointing out Fs and having the Fs pointed out to us.

CONCLUSION

This activity (The F statement and the processing in relation to diversity) was developed by ChangeWorks, 28 South Main Street #113, Randolph, MA 02368, 781-986-6150. It is based on a psychology activity designed to look at perception (author unknown). The original version of the F statement reads as follows:

FEATURE FILMS ARE THE RESULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS