Here’s a perfect exercise that will get individuals or teams realize how easy and automatic stereotyping can be. All you’ll need are pencils and paper for each participant, and a ready lesson on diversity and inclusiveness right after the activity.

Ask everyone to draw a hand on a paper within 45 seconds. Pause while participants complete this task.

After 45 seconds, begin debriefing. Instead of conducting a discussion, present the major learning point this way –

How many of you looked at your hand or your neighbor's hand to draw the picture? Most of you did not. That is because we prefer to work with a mental picture even while the real world is staring in our face. We think with these mental pictures and we frequently base our performance on these mental pictures. Psychologists call the act of creating mental pictures generalization, abstraction, or concept acquisition. We can also call it stereotyping.

It does not matter if you draw a picture of a hand based on your mental picture. However, it does matter if you come up with a company policy based on your mental picture of a female employee, or how employees behave, or any other orientation. This is because your mental picture could be stereotypical and distorted and, therefore, your policy may not produce the intended effect on the wide range of people it is supposed to affect.

End with this prompt for discussion: When was the last time you ignored reality and worked with a mental picture? Was your mental picture distorted?