ICD Exercise #7: Anti-Bias Advocacy

The next ICD Exercise is now available. Ifeoma Onyebuchi, Stellina Ibrahim, and Favour Ilolo have designed an exercise for anti-bias advocacy.

This exercise engages participants in recognising how biases shape interactions and contribute to exclusion or discrimination. Using Bias Jenga, an interactive activity, participants will visually experience how biases accumulate and destabilise social and professional structures. The exercise introduces practical advocacy techniques such as active listening, challenging stereotypes, and promoting inclusive language. Through reflection and discussion, participants will learn how to effectively address biases and advocate for more equitable and welcoming environments.

The heart of the exercise uses Jenga blocks, labeled with the names of multiple types of potential bias, as a prompt for group discussion. Once the Jenga tower has been constructed, participants take turns pulling out a Jenga block. If they pull a labelled block, they read the bias aloud and discuss:

• How does this bias affect individuals in real life?

• How does it impact workplace culture or social interactions?

• How can this bias be addressed or challenged?

As with prior publications, ICD Exercises are available as free PDFs; just click on the thumbnail to download the Jenga labels, and on the link in the citation to download the exercise itself.

Onyebuchi, I., Ibrahim, S., & Ilolo, F. (2025). Anti-bias advocacy. Intercultural Dialogue Exercises, 7. Available from: https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/icd-ex-7-anti-bias-advocacy.pdf

If you have an exercise you’ve used that works, and you would like to share it, please submit it. All authors will be asked to answer the same set of questions, and to make the exercises available for others to use, thus these are being published with a Creative Commons license (as is the case for all CID publications). If you are new to CID, please provide a brief resume. This opportunity is open to masters students and above, on the assumption that some familiarity with academic conventions generally, and discussion of intercultural dialogue specifically, are useful.