Identifying Your Communities

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Examine common traits of communities alongside practical mechanisms that foster belonging or create exclusion.

Use it when: Use during civic learning, team onboarding, or cohort kickoffs when groups need to define what makes a healthy community and examine unspoken social boundaries.

Skip it when: Skip when the group lacks psychological safety to discuss exclusion or when a short tactical work session leaves no time for personal reflection.

Group arrangement: Solo work followed by small groups of 3 or 4 (groups of 5 permitted when total headcount requires it), ending in full-room discussion.

Timing: 50 minutes matches the original Collaborative Discussion Project timing (10m individual, 20m small group, 20m full group debrief).

Materials and tools

• Reflection Prompts Handout (1 per person)
• Blank unlined paper (2 to 3 sheets per person)
• Drawing pens, pencils, and colored markers (1 set per table)
• Sticky notes (1 pad per small group)
• Whiteboard or flip chart and markers for room display
• Countdown timer visible to the room

Before participants arrive

1. Arrange seating into clusters of 3 to 4 seats, allowing for groups of 5 if headcount arithmetic leaves remainders.
2. Place Reflection Prompts Handouts, blank paper, and drawing tools at each seat.
3. Prepare a flip chart or clear a whiteboard section titled 'Characteristics of Community'.

Say this to open

Today we are exploring what makes up a community and how boundaries form. To start, take ten minutes alone with your paper. You can write words, draw diagrams, or sketch scenes to answer two prompts: What does community mean to you, and what communities do you feel part of? Your notes stay yours; you choose what to share.

How to run it

1. Introduce and reflect solo 10 minutes

   State the purpose and speak the opening script. Participants reflect silently and note or sketch responses to: 'What does community mean to you?' and 'What communities do you feel a part of?' Participants work individually until the 10-minute timer sounds.

2. Compare in small groups 12 minutes

   Form groups of 3 or 4 (or 5 if needed for clean division). Each person takes up to 2 minutes to share one or two aspects of their drawing or notes. Group members identify recurring elements and differences across their experiences.

3. Synthesize community traits 8 minutes

   Each small group writes their consensus characteristics of community on sticky notes or a flip chart. Instruct groups to identify at least one trait that builds belonging and one mechanism that unintentionally excludes outsiders. Post notes on the main board.

4. Debrief and analyze inclusion 20 minutes

   Gather the full room around the shared board. Review themes across the lists. Facilitate a discussion using the structured debrief questions, taking 3 to 4 volunteer responses per question.

Debrief questions

• Looking across these lists, where do you see tensions between maintaining a group identity and keeping doors open to newcomers?
• In what local or professional spaces do you feel strong belonging, and what specific practices create that feeling?
• What intentional or unintentional habits in our own workplace or campus cause people to feel excluded?

Finished output: A posted thematic list of community characteristics, along with identified belonging and exclusion practices generated by small groups.

Remote

Run solo work with cameras optional. Distribute breakout rooms of 3 to 4 participants (5 if numbers require) with a shared digital board (e.g., Miro, Google Jamboard, or Mural). Groups record characteristics on digital sticky notes. Convene in the main room and call on designated group spokespeople to highlight patterns.

Hybrid

Keep in-person attendees at physical tables and place remote attendees into their own online breakout rooms. Have all groups post their final characteristics to a single shared digital whiteboard projected in the physical room. Alternate spoken contributions between room mics and online hands during debrief.

Access and participation choices

• Participants can choose between writing bullet points, writing narrative, or sketching visual diagrams.
• Sharing private community memberships is optional; participants may speak about abstract community types or historical groups without disclosing personal affiliations.

If the session gets stuck

Participants get stuck trying to produce artistic drawings.

Remind the room that visual notes can be simple stick figures, text bubbles, or standard mind maps; art quality does not matter.

Conversations stay surface level, viewing community only as positive and warm.

Ask explicitly: 'Every boundary defines an inside and an outside. What rules decide who is not in that community?'

Terms used here

• Boundary mechanism: The formal or informal criteria (such as jargon, shared history, or credentials) that determine who is recognized as an insider versus an outsider.