DEI in the Workplace: Cultural Competence for Leaders

1. Introduction: As the world continues to become more diverse, the workplace would mirror this, will have more people from different backgrounds, different cultures, different generations, different perspectives, different mindsets all coming together in the workplace. And so the better we are at inclusive practice, the more positive the experience is for everybody. Hello, I advocate on the floor. Can I work as a diversity and inclusion specialist helping individuals and organizations like yourself to create amazing positive workplaces for everyone. It is very important that as we promote inclusion in the workplace, we recognize that people are unique in that we who have different cultural contexts. And so knowing how to navigate this, knowing how to manage this is a very powerful way to bring a sense of belonging. So today we're going to be talking about cultural competence, a very important aspect of diversity and inclusion. Woman looking at some of the common barriers that can stand in our way of being effective or cultural competence. We'll be talking about waste, adopt cultural competence and also through the actual learning exercise, gives you the room to really reflect on your own practices and ways to achieve more effective cultural competence. The major takeaway from today's class would be an understanding of what cultural competencies. Some tools that can help you to show up to build more meaningful and deeper relationships with people who may not share cautious with you. And also just the awareness of some of the stumbling blocks and the barriers that you should be mindful of learning is a journey, not a destination. And so some of my top tips for navigating this limb experiences first, be kind to yourself. You may know everything and you may be reflecting on some things thinking, Oh, I made a mistake in the past, I should have done things differently. That's okay. Now that you know, it's about being able to apply going forward, so be kind and gentle with yourself. Secondly, Eastern new things down. It's really great practice to keep noting down the things that are resonating with you. Some of the things that you may be finding challenging that a wrestling you're wrestling with as well. Note those down and as you close each module of the class, think about the ways that you might apply, some of the things that I'm talking about in your own real life scenarios. So be kind to yourself. Note it down, and think about ways that you can turn learning into practice immediately. Now, let's get started. 2. Understanding Cultural Competence: Cultural competence is the ability to form and navigate and manage effectively relationships with people who are from cultures that are different to yours. And so therefore, cultural inefficiency or in competence is the inability to navigate to form and manage relationships with people who are from different cultures to you. As the world becomes increasingly more diverse, as I said earlier on, we have flexible working to organizations expanding businesses into different regions. It is inevitable that we will have to relate with people who are from different cultures to us. Being culturally competent allows us to do this effectively, to achieve our objectives from deeper relationships and have meaningful interactions with people. Cultural competence is very important because we know that research shows us that there is a direct correlation between diversity and inclusion and performance, well-being, mental health, and progress in the workplace generally been furnished with the tools and the skills and out actually make this relationships positive to really bring people together and galvanize and from deeper relationships is a pathway to inclusion. Culturally competent leaders are naturally more inclusive leaders who are not culturally competent. And when I say leaders, I don't mean someone with a huge job title. I mean, anyone who has the ability to influence people to make a difference. And I think we're all leaders. And so as we move around, as we continue in our professional journeys, cultural competence allows us to be more inclusive and more effective when it comes to relationships and connections. So culturally competent leaders, as I said, are more naturally inclusive than leaders who are not culturally competent. So take e.g. we've just finished the month of Ramadan and lots of art museum colleagues were fasting. And a leader who is very culturally competent would understand the implications of this. We have learned a little bit about the culture, the religious implications, and the kind of support and respectfully kind of interact with people who are observing Ramadan using some of these learnings and knowledge that he has. So cultural competence really ease about intention is about learning, is about being mindful that people are different. And because they are different, they have different needs. A leader who is not culturally competent might find themselves potentially being really clumsy around cultural differences. So if we go back to that Ramadan example again, a person who doesn't really know a lot about the religion, the culture, may struggle to provide support to say the right things and to deal with people who are observing Ramadan respectfully. Now let's do a little exercise together. Think about the time where you were the only in the room, the only woman and the man who only trans person. I'll maybe when you were traveling and on holiday or business tree and you found yourself in another geographical location where nobody understands your language and you don't understand the language being spoken. Aldi, that make you feel. Now when I ask people there's questions, I get glutes and responses. Some people would say it made them feel vulnerable. It made him feel a little bit on shore. It made them feel lonely, isolated, psychologically unsafe. Think about what this might look like for you if you were the only interim. Now being culturally competent can empower us to really reach out and build relationships with people who may be feeling like they're the only in the room so that it's a positive, empowering and inclusive experience for them. Turning isolation into community and connection and building psychological safety to manage vulnerability. Now let's think of what a culturally competent leader might do. I gave you the example around the Ramadan season and Iran. So culturally competent leader would add and recognize that there might be colleagues who will be observing Ramadan. Learn about it, you know, do their own research, read about religion, read about culture, read about how the Ramadan season impacts people in the workplace. If they're very effective, they might even ask a couple of people who are observing Ramadan for their thoughts on wastes. They need support and they can show up to really support them and give them an inclusive experience. They will then turn all of this learning, all this research into ways of being and practicing that sort of changing and modulating their behaviors based on what they've learned. Ensuring that they are really being mindful, respectful, and intentional in their interactions. Now, over to you, Can you think of ways that in urine way, you can do a bit more research about the people that you work with. And note down the different cultural categories and cultural groups within your teams, ecosystems, and your organization. Thinking about some cultural groups that perhaps you need to learn a little bit more about. In the next lesson, I'll be talking to you about the common pitfalls and barriers to avoid on your journey to being culturally competent. I will also be introducing you to the cultural competence continuum, which will help you figure out where you are in the journey and what you need to be doing next. 3. Avoiding Common Pitfalls: In this lesson, we'll be looking at some of the common pitfalls and barriers that you should be aware of in your journey to cultural competence. Often leaders have good intentions and want to be inclusive, but some of these common pitfalls can trip you and stop you from achieving your objectives. It is important to know about this pitfalls as you go on in your journey so that you can navigate them effectively and they don't stand between you and your cultural competence objectives. There are numerous likely barriers and pitfalls that you should be aware of. Some of it will depend on your personal circumstance. But in this lesson, I'll share with you three common pitfalls that can impact your ability to connect with people across different cultures effectively. The first is bias. I'm sure you've heard a lot about bias, unconscious bias, conscious bias. And biases are mental shortcuts that we take that may stop us from seeing a person for who they really are. There are different types of biases and most of them are subconscious in nature. We don't even know when we are being biased, whether that's like me bias, where we have an affinity towards people that have a lot of similarity to us. Or some sort of a no effect bias where we tend to put a load on a particular group of people as you mean that everything they do is good and everybody else who doesn't fit those groups are not as good. Biases can come in different ways. But essentially what it does in this cultural competence contexts is that it stops us from really seen a person in a way that allows us to really see them without judgment, to really connect with them. So the second example is limited exposure to culture. A difference if you're someone who has only been exposed to people who are from your culture, people will have a lot of cultural similarities with you. You may experience what we call cultural shock every time you move out of your inner circle. And this means that you find it really alarming when you see people doing things differently, behaving differently because you've not had enough exposure to difference. As I said, there are potentially loads of different pitfalls that can impact your depending on your personal circumstances. But the final one that I will talk about in today's lesson is a fixed mindset, which is this belief that I can't learn. It's too difficult. I'm too old. I've been in this industry for too long. I've lived here all my life. I've only spoken this language since I was born in somebody's mental blockers, that can lead to an ineffective learning mindset that allows you to embrace the new. So I have enough fixed mindset, not embracing the power of learning, the power of yet. Instead of real estate stock in this mindset that I cannot learn, I cannot change, I cannot. So think about this pitfalls. It could be biased, just your stereotypical beliefs about people. It could be the limited exposure you have, but it could also just be your mindset and the way that you feeling and thinking about the prospect of learning. Some of these common pitfalls can be managed through intentional steps. Take biases, e.g. you can adopt Daniel Kennedy HMS modelling. Think fast things though, which encourages us to slow down and seek evidence when we're making decisions, when we're forming opinions about people. So e.g. you're just meeting somebody who's from a different cultural group to you. It is important that you pace yourself before your brain starts automatically feeding you some stereotypical thoughts about them. So slowing down and seeking evidence. Why do I feel this way? Is there any threat to my emotional response to this person? What might be driving this emotional response? So slowing down and seeking evidence in terms of limited exposure to culture difference, which means that you haven't had enough exposure to people who are from different cultural groups to you. A really effective way to do this would be to seek out new relationships with people from different cultural groups. You can also use social media, expanding the people you follow on your LinkedIn, your Twitter. I'm in Diverse Voices watching movies from different backgrounds, reading books, but also maybe events and activities that bring these communities together. You can attend those as well. So in terms of overcoming a fixed mindset and developing a more positive learning mindset, will encourage you to really see yourself as a student of life. Open to learning, open to new discoveries and open to curiosity in positive affirmations towards learning. Saying to yourself even things like, I can learn this, I can do this. This is not too difficult for me. I have what it takes. Limiting to Carol Dweck's believes that the power of yet is very influential in the way that we conduct ourselves around learning. I believe that I can achieve this, that I can build relationships with new people, that I can learn a new language, that I can do new things. So developing the confidence and the courage to learn effectively. For this lesson, the student action is to really reflect on some of these barriers. And can I just write down how you think they show up in your own context? So if you think about maybe some of the cultural groups you identified in the previous lesson. Do you have any biases towards these groups? Had limited exposure to these groups? Do you have an open mindset or fixed mindset in regards to learning more about some of these cultural groups. So think about some of these pitfalls and now they could show up in urine specific context. In the next lesson, we will be looking at ways to develop cultural competence, sharing tips and tools that can help you to really step up and build meaningful relationships across different cultures. 4. Developing Cultural Competence: In this lesson, we'll be talking about developing cultural competence. I'll be sharing. We choose some steps that you can adopt to really bring your aspirations to live to be a culturally competent leader. It is really important, as I said, sometimes leaders have good intentions, but without the skills and an eligibility, they may fall short of the aspirations. I will also be sharing with you the cultural competence continuum, which will encourage and allow you to figure out where you are in your journey and what you need to do next. I will share with you four steps today. And through those four steps, we'll look at ways that you can adopt them To bring more cultural competence in your interactions with people. The first is awareness. Before we start to learn about other people, It's important that we learn first about ourselves. Do you understand your own cultural context? Do you understand who you are culturally, how you behave, what your preferences are, what your style is based on your culture. E.g. different cultures have different ways of showing respect. Do you know perhaps in your own culture or you might show respect. How do you communicate to a person urine culture that you respect them? For me personally in my culture. One of the ways that we show disrespect is true listening, intentional listening, and a little bit of difference to when we are dealing and interacting with people who maybe slightly older than us. So what is your own cultural understanding of yourself and knowledgeable? Are you about who you are, how you show up, and how other people perceive you culturally. The second step is then to really start to learn about other cultures based on some of the things we've talked about in the previous sessions. To identify the cultural groups that you really want to learn about and start to learn about those cultures as well through one, managing your bias, expanding your exposure to different cultural groups, and also having an open mindset using different resources online offline to really gain connection and understanding of different cultural groups. Start to see how they might be slightly different, maybe from your own cultural group and from your own culture understanding. So we go back to that respect example, Dino across different cultures, our respect is communicated to, you know, what, what, what might be seen to be disrespectful in a particular culture, may not be seen as being disrespectful in another culture. Across some communities and cultural groups, they might be quite direct in the way that communicates. They might see what the, you know, what their feelings, they see how the minute for somebody might come across as being a bit too direct. If culturally they're more aligned to being a bit more restrained, be a more conservative. So just thinking about your own cultural groups, but also different cultural groups and what differences might exist across cultures. In addition to awareness, knowledge about yourself, awareness and knowledge about others. Another step is to start to develop sensitivity. So not just be aware of the cultural differences, but also sensitive to the implications of cultural difference. Understanding that there is a reason and an impact of cultural difference. Using what you know to start to really shape the way you behave, the way you communicate. So e.g. if you know that in a particular culture they are quite conservative in the way that they talk. You might start to adopt your communication style to be a bit more conservative when you're dealing with them. Understanding that being too direct, being too forthright may actually be seen to be a little bit offensive. So sensitivity to the things that you're learning. Finally, to start to actually develop the competence, to start to go out of your comfort zone, to build relationships and connection with different people. Managing your relationships by knowing who you are, knowing their own cultural contexts, being sensitive to it. I'm practicing some of those steps that we've talked about that can really help you to navigate this relationships and avoid those pitfalls. So in terms of taking all of these and putting it together. So the first step, as I said, is, who am I? What's my own culture? How do I show up? I'll do people understand me, how do I understand myself? Secondly, what else is out there? How the different cultural groups behave? I'll do they communicate outwardly, manage the activities and out-of-date exist? Then thirdly, how can I use all of this learning to build better relationships? I can I practice sensitivity by being intentionally respectful, intentional in my interactions with different groups? And how can I navigate the common barriers and be actually really competent managing bias, managing my limited exposure, and actually really working on my open mindset to learning and Bruce and embracing new communities. So e.g. you have a new team member who's just joined, whose Hindu. You might take some time to learn a little bit more about the religion of endemism and how people practice. It shows up in their day-to-day life choices, some of the cultural implications of their religion to them. You could also build a relationship with this person asking questions where you think you would like to gain a bit more insight. Let me think about your own religious position as well. What might the difference is B, think about ways where you might have misunderstandings and miss connections if they're not aligned. And then challenge yourself to think about how you might be more sensitive to some of the peculiarities of their religion and their culture. And I could show all day in there, it'd be more competent and a bit more resilient when you're interacting with them. For this lesson, your student action is to use your action plan template to really go through the steps that I've shared today. Self-awareness and knowledge of self, knowledge of other cultures, sensitivity and competence. And for each of the steps to really think about, are you going to use it? E.g. you could say, in the next six months, I'm going to really learn about my own culture and how we show up in our perceived by other cultures. Or you could say, oh, I'm going to learn in next couple of weeks about different colleagues who come from different cultural groups so that I can expand my knowledge about other cultures and then sensitivity. You want to talk about ways that you will start to apply this knowledge to your behaviors. It might be being a bit more cautious, been a bit more respectful, being a bit more restrained or whatever that looks like in your situation. And finally, just a summary of how you would manage some of the challenges that can arise when navigating cultural interactions. And lastly, it will be competence, which is where you start to anticipate challenges and these barriers. And think of how you use some of your learning to navigate this common pitfalls so that you can form deeper relationships when you're interacting across different cultural groups. In the next lesson, we will be talking about reflecting on yourself, taking a step back and think about what cultural competence means to you and how you want to improve and take your journey forward. 5. Reflecting on Yourself: In this final module, we'll be reflecting as leaders, thinking about what cultural competence means for our own contexts and how we can show up to progress our journey of learning in this area. It is very important to step back and think about what everything we've talked about in this lesson means for you. And are you want to progress and continue in this journey? I will share with you, are you can start, stop, and create as an approach to really help you clarify what you want to do next. So years ago I had to do some work with colleagues in the Middle East. And I knew that I had to really develop my cultural competence so that I could be confident, but also makes sure that I was being respectful. So the cultural differences and given an inclusive experience through the people that I was going to be working with and interacting with. So similar to the things that we talked about today, I learned a little bit more about my own culture, but also the cultures in these themes that I was going to be working with and where the differences could exist. I then started to think about how I could use my learning to be a bit more sensitive, to build more relationships and to be a bit more respectful. I anticipated some of the barriers around bias, some of the barriers around limited exposure, and some of the biases around a fixed mindset and found ways to preempt this so that I could navigate it effectively. So really what I'm encouraging you to do through this lesson is to think about yourself and where you think, Oh, I need to make a difference. Sometimes I think I might have a fixed mindset and sometimes I think I might have a bit of bias and it's just been a really honest reflection of who you are and what you think the gaps may look like. The tactic then you can use to really bring out this reflection is to think about what you think you want to stop doing. What do I want to stop doing as a result of what I've heard in this lesson. As a result of what I've learned today, I wanted to stop actively talking about my biases. I want to stop actively acting out my biases. I want to stop actively behaving based on my biases. That can be what you want to stop. It could also be that you want to stop being isolated. And it really move out and learn and create new relationships with people from different cultural groups. Once you've talked about what you want to stop, I want you to then think about what you want to start doing. It could also be, I want to start reading a bit more about unconscious bias and learn in ways that I can navigate this. I'm, I read Daniel hams thinking fast, thinking slow, good, watch the TED X talks about bias and how to effectively navigated some podcasts. So that might be what you want to start doing. And then finally, what you want to create out of this personal commitment that you're really making. As a result of this, you can say, I want to create an inclusive experience for everybody that contacts me. That's one of my own personal principles that I've wanted to create an inclusive experience for everyone that comes in contact with me. So what are you trying to stop? What are you trying to start? And what are you trying to create and be very honest with yourself, because being able to articulate all of these, as I said, will position you to navigate them so that you can succeed. You're still in action for this lesson is to do exactly that. To find the time, to really think about your context. What is it that you're trying to learn? What are the challenges and where do you want to go from here? In the action planning workbook, you will have some questions that will prompt you to think about what you want to stop, what you want to start on, what you want to create. So it may be that you want to be more intentional about the way that you think about unconscious bias, making sure that you are intentional to seek evidence before you make decisions. So that might be something you want to start. It could be that you want to stop being in a cycle of stereotyping where you might be having conversations with people based on biases that you didn't think are helpful to your learning mindsets. That might be what you want to stop, and it might be that you want to create something for me personally, one of the things that I aspire to create an inclusive experience, Everybody that comes in contact with me. So think about where your ambition is, your personal ambition. As a culturally competent person, I would like to stop X. I would like to start x and I like to create x. Having all of these can really help you to be committed and stay really grounded on this concept of cultural competence. 6. Final Thoughts: Thank you so much for taking my class on cultural competence. I hope it has been a really enlightening experience for you. We started by talking about what cultural competence itself means and what not when cultural competence means as well. We talked about some of the common pitfalls. You want to be aware of, bias, limited exposure, and a fixed mindset. And then I shared with you four steps that can help you to really step up and be culturally competent. Knowledge of self, knowledge of others, sensitivity, anticipating challenges and developing competence. As the world continues to be increasingly diverse and as we're all navigating some of this global and local challenges, it'll be more and more important that we come together, support each other, lift each other up, and provide that psychological safety, belonging and inclusion that underpins our abilities to collectively recover. My hope is that through your learnings and insights that you'd have generated through this class, you can really step up and do intentionally with people from different groups with respect, sensitivity, awareness, and knowledge. Please share your work in the gallery, engage in discussions in the discussion board. I would love to hear from you. Your reflections was resonating, which are wrestling with what is working what she needs to continue to work on. Thank you so much. It has been an absolute pleasure. Keep working. Remember, learning is not a destination, is a journey. Be kind to yourself and would intention, resilience. We can all be culturally competent in the workplace.