How do you teach an organisation to not just engage with the theory of Cultural Intelligence and Diversity but also demonstrate how it works in practice? Well Playback Theatre Sydney believes it’s by incorporating personal story-telling and theatre into theory education as done recently with Sydney’s Liverpool Council.
The Council had been developing their teams’ Cultural Intelligence and Diversity with PRISMA, learning to acknowledge, navigate and embrace the dynamics of cultural diversity for better collaboration and teamwork. PRISMA invited Playback Theatre Sydney to be part of their training to explore issues through the prism of personal story. Delving into people’s lived experience evoked some fascinating stories and insights. Stories such as:
– a woman’s reflections on the difficulties her father faced, and still faces in Australia, due to minimal English. While a funny, smart and capable man, many of his colleagues have never gone beyond his poor English to see the man beneath
– a community worker’s challenges when working with a refugee community. The dilemma of seeing the real struggles of the refugee community, and speaking up honestly about what really needs to be healed and changed, whilst protecting the community from the critical eyes that don’t understand the complexities
– a staff member’s questioning about their own cultural background. How it might influence or affect decisions they make personally in the workplace – for good and for not so good.
The stories showed the many frames of reference, subtle cultural expectations and different ways of behaving. By bringing these stories into the open, and retelling them onstage with drama and music, Playback Theatre Sydney raised the group’s awareness with humour and action. This helped reveal the subtle or deep assumptions that accompany interpersonal relationships. This broadened the group’s outlook yet brought them closer together. The emotional impact on the participants, in telling their stories, brought home to everyone (the Playback team included) the complex feelings entwined in this topic. The insights, connections and learnings were extraordinary.
The day’s combination of theory and practice (theory through PRISMA and personal stories through Playback) enabled the group to engage broadly and personally with eachother. This helped develop a greater awareness and appreciation of our culturally diverse reality – ‘it’s not just happening to them but us, all of us, me as well!’ Through this process, the group moved from the theoretical implications – thinking – to the personal and lived experience – feeling – and were able to engage and own the issues for future change – action.
It was eye-opening, moving and humbling to see the strength and courage of the Liverpool Council team in sharing their stories and collaborating for learning, connection, understanding and positive change.