Diversity Icebreaker

Browsing the web for summer schools in the field of social work, I hit upon a new and valuable tool. That is to say: new (and valuable) to me. In fact the concept has been in development since 1998, the tool was validated a number of years later and at the end of 2008 a prize was subsequently awarded for its international breakthrough.
So what am I talking about?
For starters, Diversity Icebreaker is a 42 item questionnaire with 3 dimensions (Red, Blue and Green) that you can score in around 15 minutes and can be used in team development, kick-off seminars, project training, management development programs, change management processes, communication and diversity training.
The website claims: "The test is easy to use and a more positive alternative to Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), TMP and Belbin Team Roles."
And the bonus is, the instrument is available in 19 languages and free of charge ;)
Up to now, within our school of social work we have worked with the concept of Belbin and his team role theory which is often an eye opener for our students when working together.
The difference with Diversity Icebreaker seems to be that the instrument was developed in a more socially constructed way, reflecting interaction patterns more than just personality and self knowledge issues. The real focus appears to be more on social construction processes that take place in and between groups, identifying both actor-observer attributions and prejudices as a natural part of this.
Filling out the questionnaire is only the starting point of it all. The actual focus is on learning about how such concepts are created and how participants’ perceptions of the other are shaped. The value lies in the collective reflection on these perceptions and the group’s ability to choose, revise and develop concepts of the other.
Reviewing the tool like this (based only on the information displayed on the website), I'm convinced that this is definitely a tool to be tried out and applied in our course programmes where much emphasis is on team work, and in year 2 in particular on multidisciplinary team work.
Another idea would be to introduce this tool in the EDDILI project where the RMA approach takes centre stage. It's especially the potential of opening up a dialogue on diversity and diversity processes that makes it worthwhile to apply in one of the RMA training sessions. After all, it makes participants reflect, listen, talk and act.