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Leading with Care

Leading with Care: Digital Binder

A Trauma-Informed and Equity-Centered Inclusive Leadership Course

Binder Activities

Cultural Responsiveness Check · When Something Familiar Means Something Different

About These Activities

Choose one real or realistic prompt, activity, norm, discussion, example, or participation practice you would like to examine.

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Cultural Responsiveness Check

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Work through the seven parts. Whenever possible, complete the check before the activity. If you notice pressure or exclusion in the moment, you can still pause and adjust—briefly name the change without asking an affected participant to explain why the original design didn’t work.

See a completed example: Personal Storytelling in a Leadership Workshop

A leadership workshop includes this instruction: “Think of a painful experience involving your family. Everyone will take a turn sharing what happened and how it shaped you.” The goal—building empathy and connection—is reasonable. The route creates several risks.

1. Find the Default
The activity assumes participants have a family experience they are willing and able to discuss publicly.
2. Look for Pressure Points
Participation requires personal disclosure. Someone who does not want to share has no way to complete the activity.
3. Open the Door Wider
Keep the theme of challenge and support, but allow participants to use their own experience, an experience they have observed, or a provided scenario.
4. Build in Choice
Participants may speak, write, or pass on personal disclosure while still completing the learning task.
5. Bring in Perspective
Review whether the activity’s approach to vulnerability and connection reflects only one idea of how trust is built.
6. Say What You Mean
Tell participants explicitly: “Personal sharing is optional. You may use your own experience, an observed example, or the scenario provided.”
7. Watch What Happens
Notice whether participants use the options comfortably and whether all response formats are taken seriously during the discussion.
Conclusion
The purpose stays the same. The route becomes more inclusive.

  1. Part 1Find the Default

    Identify the experiences or participation methods that the design assumes as standard or expected.

  2. Part 2Look for Pressure Points

    Identify areas where individuals may feel compelled to disclose, explain, or justify aspects of their identity or experiences.

  3. Part 3Open the Door Wider

    Explore alternative approaches to achieve the same objectives, accommodating diverse starting points.

  4. Part 4Build in Choice

    Identify elements that can be flexible while maintaining the intended outcomes.

  5. Part 5Bring in Perspective

    Seek insights from diverse sources to uncover potential blind spots in the design.

  6. Part 6Say What You Mean

    Use precise language that clearly conveys inclusivity and respect for individual choices.

  7. Part 7Watch What Happens

    Monitor and evaluate the impact of changes to determine their effectiveness in enhancing inclusivity and participation.

Make Responsiveness Visible

Return to this tool when you are:

  • designing or revising an activity,
  • writing discussion prompts,
  • setting group expectations,
  • choosing examples,
  • planning participation, or
  • reviewing something that didn’t land the way you expected.

Use it whenever you want to ask: What does this design assume—and who has to adapt because of it?

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Pause & Check Reflection

When Something Familiar Means Something Different

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Think about a moment when you realized that a behavior, phrase, expectation, or group norm that felt familiar to you carried a different meaning for someone else.

  1. Step 1Notice

    Ask:

    • What happened?
    • What behavior, response, or difference first caught your attention?
    • What was your immediate reaction to it?

  2. Step 2Name

    Ask:

    • What meaning did you initially give the behavior or difference?
    • What did you assume was normal, respectful, appropriate, engaged, supportive, or expected in the context?

  3. Step 3Check

    Ask:

    • What else could have been true?
    • How might culture, identity, communication style, relationships, context, or lived experience have influenced the understanding of the situation?

  4. Step 4Choose

    What could you do differently next time?

    Consider actions such as:

    • asking a question instead of making a conclusion,
    • changing the wording of a prompt,
    • widening participation options,
    • avoiding a public label,
    • seeking another perspective, or
    • allowing someone to choose what they disclose.

Complete the Reflection

My Cultural Humility Commitment

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Bring to Live Practice

Bring to Next Class: A Prompt or Norm to Review

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Bring a de-identified prompt, group norm, activity, or scenario. Choose something you would like help reviewing for hidden assumptions, inclusive language, meaningful choice, tokenizing or spotlighting risk, or participation options. You do not need to bring the private reflection itself.

In the next session, you will use peer discussion to audit the practice, revise the wording, and practice introducing the change.

Before you share: remove names and identifying details, leave out private or confidential information, focus on the situation rather than a person as the problem, and share only what you are comfortable and authorized to discuss.

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Your Notes

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