The D.I.V.E.

Model
Have you ever found yourself in a new cultural setting thinking “this feels awkward” or “I’m not sure how to
read what’s going on right now”? D.I.V.E is a practical tool we can use when we are confronted with this
kind of intercultural situations, when we find unclear or ambiguous circumstances. This model enables us
to shift our frame of reference, to foster curiosity and to respond effectively and appropriately during an
intercultural interaction. Within AFS, this tool is especially useful to support our exchange students and
host families to overcome intercultural interactions that involve a misunderstanding and/or confusion.

Origins
The "Description, Interpretation and Evaluation" exercise, known colloquially as D.I.E. was inspired by
theories in the field of general semantics which indicated that making immediate judgments inhibits our
analytical process. Janet Bennett and Milton Bennett designed D.I.E. in the 1970s while working in a
group of intercultural workshop facilitators at the University of the Minnesota. The goal was to teach
participants how to cultivate curiosity, cognitive flexibility and non judgmentalness while interacting across
cultures.

In AFS, we added a fourth step into this model: “V” of “Verification”. In the context of intercultural
exchanges, many times our students need to verify with someone who knows better the culture or
situation in which they’re immersed. This allows us to better ensure that what we are interpreting is
accurate or not before evaluating.

The four steps of D.I.V.E.

To exercise the use of this model we start by selecting an image, video or object containing ambiguous
elements to be used in a guided reflection or discussion following the fours steps of D.I.V.E. One central
aspect of D.I.V.E. is asking key questions in each step and it is particularly useful to gain culture-specific
insights.

Step 1 - Description: at this first stage, the goal is to describe the image,video or object through
observable elements, focusing on the behavior of people involved and the material environment
in which their behavior takes place. In the Description step you should answer the questions:
What do I see? Or what are the elements that I can observe in this situation? Describe the
object/situation/content in concrete terms and try to be as objective as possible, sticking to facts
only.

Step 2 - Interpretation: here, the goal is to focus on what the situation might mean. The key
questions are: how do you make sense of what you see? What are your assumptions about what
you described? How would you characterize it? In the Interpretation phase you should think of all
possible explanations for what you observed or experienced. What do the words spoken and
actions mean to you? What adjectives would you use to explain the experience or situation? Try
to find at least three interpretations for the experience.

Step 3 - Verification. Now it is moment for you to verify which one of the interpretations you
collected is accurate and which isn’t. In order to do that you should gather deeper insights others
can provide. You can share your interpretations with a cultural informant, someone that belongs
 or is very familiar with the specific cultural group which this image, video or object originally
belongs to. A cultural informant will be able to provide you trustable information or context. As an
AFS volunteer or staff, especially if you work with support – as a contact person, for instance -
you can be the cultural informant for a host student, for instance.

Step 4 - Evaluation: The fourth and last step of this process is to evaluate it. What value
judgments you give to this image, video or object? How would you qualify and judge what you
see? The key question here is: What do I feel about what I think (positive or negative)? In this
stage, you should also take into account the cultural and personal reasons that may have an
effect on how you make an evaluation and you should try to make transparent your standard of
comparison.

Using D.I.V.E.
With all the cultural (and personal) differences that we encounter daily, it is necessary to have practical
strategies for when we are confronted with them. D.I.V.E. is one of the tools that can help us in these
situations. Often when encountering new cultures, we tend to be quick to judge and do not take the time
to mindfully observe. In the AFS context, we use D.I.V.E. as a way to encourage our exchange students
to observe, without judgment, describing what they are seeing. One way of doing so, is by inviting them to
think about an unusual situation they have observed in their new cultural setting and use the D.I.V.E.
model to analyze it. One key aspect is encouraging them to come up with as many interpretations as
possible and to have a cultural informant available for verification.

By using D.I.V.E. as a strategy to approach situations we are confronted with cultural differences, it allows
us to distinguish between descriptions, interpretations and evaluations; produce neutral descriptions of
situations; evaluate own and others’ cultural interpretations; validate interpretations; and respond
effectively and appropriately within an intercultural interaction.

An additional/alternative exercise: the O-D-I-S method

Another variation of the D.I.E. exercise is described by Stella Ting-Toomey as part of a set of mindful
inquiring skills that are critical during intercultural conflict situations. The O-D-I-S method suggests that we
start by observing (O) the verbal and nonverbal aspects that are being communicated during an
intercultural conflict interaction; next, we should describe (D) mentally specific terms of what is going on
and then generate multiple interpretations (I) to make sense of the behavior we are observing and
describing. This would allow us to suspend (S) hasty ethnocentric evaluations of the situation. This
method is also called mindful observation or intercultural reality check, since it allows us to reflect before
reacting when confronted with different patterns of behaviour and helps us shift our cultural value lenses.