workshop
Beyond Sight: Constructive Vision
We will start with a shorter version of the Seeing is not always Believing workshop, focused on encouraging professionals to let themselves be guided by a blind person, learning to rely on another and forced to surrender trust.
When setting the structure base of this workshop, we considered starting as equals – everyone is blindfolded, and we simply learn to engage and play. When the eyes are not busy anymore, we are more inclined to introspection and that is for some, a premiere. We chose the word “play” intentionally, we feel we lost our ability to make fun of ourselves, and this is something my sister and I call our superpower – turning a disability into an ability.
So, after getting comfortable being blindfolded we can draw and write without any fear of being judged or doing something wrong. Another thing we include in many of our workshops is playing a video with audio description, a very stimulating exercise for memory and intuition development, and then we discuss the differences and make comparisons.
Other exercises may be Heard, Seen, Respected, where every participant is invited to think of a situation when they felt not heard, seen or respected or I Am, But I Am Not, whose sole purpose is to acknowledge and confront common stereotypes.
Then we kindly advise the participants to take this simple test on bias: the Harvard Implicit Bias Test
The test will help them recognize unconscious bias as enemy of belonging and teamwork and a more inclusive workplace. We chose this because we are confident that recognizing unconscious biases is more about observing what makes us uncomfortable, instead of seeing. The thing with unconscious bias is that our brains learned to take shortcuts to quickly process threats. We are naturally drawn to certain people or things, an automatic preference called ‘biases’, that later interfere with our interactions.
We thought it will be suitable to introduce in this workshop a short debating exercise. The goal of this is dividing the participants into two or more teams and invite them to a discussion on a particular topic: for example, why people with disability are perceived as less productive or if volunteering should be rewarded or not. First, we need to establish the needs of the team and weather everyone is comfortable with strong affirmations. With this exercise we hope to observe inclination and the way participants react to their own biases, by dividing them into debating teams that will argue separately through a team representative. We will take some time after the debate session to draw conclusions and learnings.
Duration: 4 hours, 20 – 30 minute pause
Contact us for a customized workshop delivered in a tandem session. This includes Q&A, networking and follow-up, and tailored session on specific needs.