This article shares the perceived impact of the Ubuntu Diversity Icebreaker (Ubuntu DI) on leadership and followership dynamics among co-workers in the large public sector of the Norwegian municipality. The Diversity Icebreaker is a team-building tool developed in Norway by Human Factors AS. It employs the colours red, blue and green to emphasize participant communication styles and assist participants in understanding their and others’ communication preferences. The process includes self-assessment, group discussions and sharing insights to foster collaboration and mutual respect. Since its introduction in 2005, it has been utilized in over 1,000 seminars annually, engaging more than half a million participants. The tool is recognized for its reliability and validity. It has been applied in various contexts, including large-scale organizational change and multicultural settings, promoting a positive and inclusive work environment.
This phenomenological study aimed to understand the perceived impact of the Ubuntu DI on leadership and followership (co-workership) dynamics in the municipality in Norway through a series of focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Participants included the municipality’s leadership and followership (co-workership) team members. After completing the transcriptions of the interviews and semi-structured discussions, open and axial coding were performed using Dedoose.
Several themes emerged from the coding. Some themes were significant due to their numerical density, while others, though not numerically significant, were thematically striking as they pertained to Ubuntu and the concepts of diversity and inclusion. For instance, participants, particularly leaders, indicated that after the Ubuntu DI, they “see” those they lead. This notion of “seeing” is deeply connected to the Ubuntu-related term “Sawubona”, which means “hello – I see you, and I acknowledge you” in Zulu. Additionally, we observed an enhanced awareness of the value of diversity, the worth of each individual within that diversity framework and heightened levels of inclusion expressed through humour and “fun”. Leaders conveyed greater levels of care and leadership towards those they lead. Both leaders and followers articulated a heightened awareness of the significance of followership and the importance of embedding diversity within the leadership–followership dynamic for sound decision-making by leveraging the strengths of a diverse team. The Ubuntu DI also improved team communication by fostering a common language and increasing psychological safety around that language.
In an increasingly polarized world, the Ubuntu DI offers leadership and followership a paradigmatic framework for meaningful and intentional inclusion. This framework is conveyed using simple everyday language that stems from a shared understanding of how interconnected everyone is within the organization and recognizes that differences bring strength. Ubuntu serves as the unifying concept that allows the Diversity Icebreaker to thrive, highlighting the existence and importance of diverse preferences (red, green and blue) in engaging with the world. It is suggested that, on a global scale, this framework could enhance diversity, inclusive leadership and followership in public organizations like the municipality we studied.
Our research provides empirical evidence for the perceived efficacy of combining a psychometric tool such as the Diversity Icebreaker with the African communal concept of “Ubuntu” to enhance leadership and followership inclusion, communication and psychological safety, expressed through greater engagement, communication and humour.
