As outrage over the deaths of George Floyd and others has spilled out into the streets, the issues of unequal treatment and non-inclusivity are on everyone’s mind both personally and professionally. Diversity and inclusion in the workplace has been an important topic at meetings I’ve attended for the past several years, but recent events have brought these issues front and center.

The events of late have compelled many organizations to respond in some way, whether it be reaching out to their employees and customers, making a public statement, and/or taking a public stance to condemn the violence and support people of color.

One thing is clear … doing nothing is inappropriate and sends a message of indifference. A thoughtful response from employers is vital to help bridge the gap between what employees prioritize and what top management acknowledges as important as the events of our world continue to shape and evolve the standards of business.

Think “Cultural Competence” Instead of “Diversity and Inclusivity”

This month, I interviewed Dr. Nicole Cutts, a senior consultant at HR Advisors Group training alliance Zelos, and frequent writer and contributor on diversity and inclusivity issues. She says that instead of talking about diversity and inclusivity, she prefers the term “cultural competence.” Cultural Competence is the ability to relate to and communicate with people from diverse geographic, ethnic, racial, cultural, economic, social, and linguistic backgrounds. According to Dr. Cutts, becoming culturally competent is a dynamic process that requires cultural knowledge and skill development at all levels, including policymaking, administration and practice.

How do you or your organization become culturally competent? Dr. Cutts talked about three steps to cultural competence.

Step 1: Awareness

The Awareness step is becoming self-aware of your assumptions, values and beliefs. Look first inwardly and determine how you feel about the different layers of your identity. Gender, race, sexual orientation, area of the country where you live, political affiliation, etc. are all things which constitute who we are as people. This inward reflection helps us gain self-awareness that puts into perspective how we view the world.

A part of being self-aware is also becoming aware of what biases you may inherently have. The word “bias” may have negative connotations, but not all biases are negative. According to HR Bartender, one of the reasons we might want to embrace our biases is because, as humans, we do not have enough cognitive bandwidth to make every decision from ground zero. So, whether it’s consciously or unconsciously, we use our biases as a starting point, and when used properly, many of our biases can be used for good.

The danger is that if you are not aware of your biases, you could be acting them out in a way that could be harmful to someone else. We all have biases, so consider, given your experiences and your self-identity, what do you value the most? What biases do you have?

This awareness step applies to not only to individuals, but also to organizations through their mission statement, values and actions.

Step 2: Knowledge

The Knowledge stop is looking outward to increase your knowledge about different people, populations, and aspects of their identity that you are not currently familiar with. This step could be watching a movie, having a discussion, traveling, reading a book, or watching videos. It is important to educate yourself to understand not just how different people feel about their layers of identity, but also how their history, experiences, and values have impacted them.

For instance, Dr. Cutts mentioned a call with a client during which many people on the call stated how they were completely unaware of Juneteenth and the Tulsa Massacre and other aspects of American History that they weren’t taught in school.  Becoming familiar and knowledgeable about these events helps you understand the evolution of key issues that still exist today.

Step 3: Skills

The Skills step is determining how to interact with people once self- and bias-awareness has been achieved, and you have armed yourself with knowledge about those who are different from you. This step is applying your self-awareness and knowledge to build the skills to communicate, work, recruit, hire, mentor, collaborate and truly become a colleague to them. Taking the time to find out what is unique to them and of particular interest to them is critical for a positive and constructive working relationship.

Putting It To Work for Your Organization

So where do you start? This is one question a lot of people are asking and there is no one size fits all solution, according to Dr. Cutts. Whether you are seeking cultural competence as an individual or as an organization, it always begins with the awareness step.

According to Dr. Cutts, to build self-awareness for your organization, begin with an examination of where your organization has been, where it is currently, but most importantly, what you are trying to achieve. Ask yourself if your intention is to create a truly diverse and inclusive environment or leverage the diversity that already exists in your organization.

Dr. Cutts outlined various actions that organizations may want to consider:

  • Audit your diversity by breaking down the backgrounds of the people who were hired, promoted, and their associated ratings or reviews. Our attitudes, biases, and values all work their way into our organizational structure.
  • Assess stats and metrics, including how many people you have within different groups, how are they represented and at what levels in your organization.
  • Conduct climate surveys or focus groups. Talk to people about how they feel about the issues and how the organization is doing. This will help inform interventions needed to be taken in your organization.
  • Frequently connect and check in with the people in your organization to see their perceptions on how these issues have been handled and listen to their suggestions or concerns. Evaluate what you have been doing and determine whether that has been sufficient based on employee expectations.
  • Reach out to employee groups within your organization including women’s groups, various racial or ethnic groups, LGBTQ and others – find out their concerns and what feedback they can provide.
  • Encourage leadership to talk to staff; they have the pulse of the organization and can educate each other on what’s valued, important and critical to the success of the firm.
  • Build relationships with those in professional organizations for the diverse groups that you are seeking to build in your organization. Talk to them and ask what you need to do to recruit, hire and mentor members of their group.
  • Develop mentorship programs that are robust and help the people involved in the program without drawing unwanted attention and making them feel like they are being treated differently.
  • Provide training to help your employees become aware of their unconscious biases and become culturally competent.
  • With the support of leadership, create a work group made up of diverse members across the organization to strategize on expanding diversity and inclusivity for the organization; have them put together an action plan.
  • Facilitate discussions between multiple generations and cultures; fostering an open dialogue is key in helping people understand and empathize by listening with curiosity and without judgement to what others are saying.
  • Change your environment to have the discussions needed to work through the cultural competence steps. Eliminate the things that keep people in a rut of thinking the same way.
  • Communicate with your employees about opportunities to become involved.

Imbed Diversity and Inclusion in Your Strategic Plan

Once you are aware of your current organizational culture and climate, determine what you want it to be. According to Dr. Cutts, if diversity and inclusion is a goal for your organization, then you need to include it in your mission, your vision, and your strategic plan and include actions on how you want to achieve these goals. Recognize that the process does not happen overnight and requires a solid long-term commitment from your organization from the top down to make it come to fruition.

When you include diversity and inclusion as part of your strategic plan, it becomes imbedded as part of your long-term solution. If your organization truly prioritizes cultural competence and takes the actionable steps to achieve it, then it will successfully manifest itself into your recruiting, hiring, mentoring, and development, as well as extend to your board, your leadership and your decision-makers.

One thing that became even more clear for me through my conversation with Dr. Cutts is that this is an important issue for us to focus on now. It’s time for us to get out of our comfort zone and do something!