CTC Diversity & Inclusive Practices 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A team member from a collectivist culture avoids speaking up in brainstorming sessions dominated by individualistic voices. What is the most inclusive coaching intervention?
- Excuse the quiet member from brainstorming sessions
- Introduce structured turn-taking so every voice gets equal airtime (Correct answer)
- Ask the quiet member to prepare more before meetings
- Encourage the team to ignore cultural differences
Correct answer: Introduce structured turn-taking so every voice gets equal airtime
Structured turn-taking removes the social pressure that disadvantages collectivist communicators and ensures equitable participation.
Question 2: Which term describes the phenomenon where team members from marginalized groups feel pressure to represent their entire identity group?
- Code-switching
- Tokenism (Correct answer)
- Stereotype threat
- Cultural tax
Correct answer: Tokenism
Tokenism occurs when a person is included in a group primarily to give the appearance of diversity, creating pressure to speak for their whole group.
Question 3: A CTC notices that retrospective action items consistently go to the same two team members. What diversity-aware coaching move addresses this?
- Reduce the number of action items created
- Audit task distribution by role and seniority, then discuss equitable allocation (Correct answer)
- Ask the two members if they mind taking on more work
- Let the team self-organize without intervention
Correct answer: Audit task distribution by role and seniority, then discuss equitable allocation
Auditing and making visible the pattern of task distribution enables the team to consciously correct inequitable workload sharing.
Question 4: What does psychological safety specifically enable team members from underrepresented groups to do?
- Work longer hours without stress
- Share ideas and concerns without fear of humiliation or retaliation (Correct answer)
- Avoid difficult conversations with leadership
- Delegate tasks to majority-group colleagues
Correct answer: Share ideas and concerns without fear of humiliation or retaliation
Psychological safety allows all team members, especially those from underrepresented groups, to contribute authentically without fear of negative consequences.
Question 5: A Scrum Master observes that sprint planning discussions frequently reference sports metaphors that alienate non-sports fans and some cultural groups. The best coaching response is to:
- Tell the team to stop using metaphors entirely
- Facilitate a team agreement on shared, universally relatable language (Correct answer)
- Ask non-sports fans to research common sports terms
- Ignore it as a minor cultural nuance
Correct answer: Facilitate a team agreement on shared, universally relatable language
Co-creating a team language agreement respects diverse backgrounds while preserving the team's ability to communicate efficiently.
Question 6: Which coaching approach best addresses affinity bias during team decision-making?
- Limit decision-making to senior team members
- Use structured criteria and anonymous idea submission before group discussion (Correct answer)
- Ask team members to identify who they trust most
- Schedule decisions after team social events
Correct answer: Use structured criteria and anonymous idea submission before group discussion
Anonymous idea submission and pre-defined criteria reduce the tendency to favor ideas from people who are similar to ourselves.
Question 7: An agile team is forming a new subgroup to tackle a critical spike. A diversity-conscious coach would recommend selecting members by:
- Seniority and tenure on the team
- Volunteer interest combined with intentional skill and perspective diversity (Correct answer)
- Whoever finished their current tasks first
- Rotating alphabetically through the roster
Correct answer: Volunteer interest combined with intentional skill and perspective diversity
Combining volunteer interest with deliberate diversity of skill and perspective produces subgroups that are both motivated and cognitively diverse.
CTC Diversity & Inclusive Practices 2
A team member from a collectivist culture avoids speaking up in brainstorming sessions dominated by individualistic voices.
What is the most inclusive coaching intervention?