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Beyond Awareness to Cultural Competence:
Understanding and Bridging Differences to
Drive Organizational Impact
Mary-Frances Winters | The Winters Group, Inc.
April 29 - May 1, 2015
By The End Of This Session You Should Be Able To…
• Articulate why cultural
competence is important to your
work at The United Way
• Explain basic definitions and
how they relate to United Way’s
mission
• Apply a model for cross-cultural
competence to a workplace
scenario
• Share strategies to become
more culturally competent
©The Winters Group, Inc.
Table Discussion
What are the key
challenges that you
face in working with
different cultures?
What are the key
challenges different
cultures face in
working with The
United Way?
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Organizational
Imperative &
Basic Definitions
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Changing Demographics
70% of
the net new
entrants into the
workforce are
women, people
of color and
immigrants
For the first
time in history
there are 4
generations in
the workforce
with different
needs and
expectations
10% of the
workforce is
gay, lesbian,
bisexual,
transgender
Asians and
Hispanics are
the fastestgrowing
population
groups
The more your workplace mirrors the communities you serve,
the greater your likelihood of developing relevant services.
By 2020,
39% of the
workforce will
be people of
color
It is estimated
that 1 in 4
people has a
disability
Nearly 1/3
of the total
U.S.
workforce
(32%) is age
50 or older
©The Winters Group, Inc.
The median
age of
Hispanic
population is
25 years
The Evolution Of Diversity & Inclusion
Diversity 1.0
Stay Out of Trouble
1960s – 1970s
Diversity 2.0
Can’t We All Get Along
1980s – 1990s
Diversity 3.0
Diversity Helps Us Compete:
The Business Case
2000 – Present
Diversity 4.0
Sustainability
The Future
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Cross Cultural Competency Is A Key Skill For The
Future
Cross-Cultural Competence
Named #4 of the top 10 work
skills needed for the future
Research tells us that what makes a
group truly intelligent and innovative is
the combination of different ages, skills,
disciplines, and working and thinking
styles.
Source: Future Work Skills 2020 http://www.iftf.org/futureworkskills/
©The Winters Group, Inc.
Cross-Cultural Competence Defined
A continuous learning process to
develop:
• knowledge
• appreciation
• acceptance
• skills
The ability to discern cultural
patterns in your own and other
cultures
The ability to effectively incorporate
several different world views into:
• problem solving
• decision making
• conflict resolution
©The Winters Group, Inc.
Cross-Cultural Competence Is Required
For…
Recruiting and hiring the
best talent requires
intentional inclusive
strategies.
Workforce: Talent
Attraction
Workplace: Talent
Engagement and
Retention
Managing the multi-cultural,
multi-generational, global
workplace will require your
organization’s leaders to be
culturally competent to
successfully engage differences.
©The Winters Group, Inc.
To be successful in the future,
your organization will have to
understand the wants, needs
and motivations of different
stakeholders.
Stakeholders:
Volunteers, Donors,
Suppliers, Community
The Relationship Between Diversity,
Inclusion and Intercultural Competence
Diversity is
the “mix” of
differences
Inclusion is
“making the
mix work”
©The Winters Group, Inc.
Intercultural
Competence
is “how” to
achieve your
diversity &
inclusion
goals
Culture & Cultural
Identity
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What Is Culture?
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Culture Is…
…the collective programming of the
mind that distinguishes the members of
one group or category of people from
others. (Source: Geert Hofstede, Cultures
and Organizations: Software of the Mind)
…the behavioral interpretation of how a
group lives out its values in order to
survive and thrive.
©The Winters Group, Inc.
Culture and Cultural Identity: Just Like An
Iceberg
10%
90%
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Culture Is Like A Fish In Water
Culture is ever present and
we usually don’t realize it.
Just like a fish does not
know it is in water.
Until you take it out!
©The Winters Group, Inc.
Self-Awareness
“You must try to truthfully
understand what makes you do
things or feel things. Until you
have been able to face the
truth about yourself you cannot
be really sympathetic or
understanding in regard to
what happens to other
people.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
Former First Lady of the United States
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Cultural Competence Journey
Self
Awareness
Understanding one’s
“cultural” self
Other
Awareness
Exploring other cultural
norms, values and beliefs
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Bridging
Skills
Learning to be culturally
adaptive
Exercise: My Cultural Identity
1. Please write in 4 groups that have had the most influence on who you are:
Culture comes from institutions, organizations or groups shared beliefs and values.
2. Please rank order your four groups (1 strongest influence on you, 4 weakest influence)
3. For each group, please list 2 cultural influences (based on your perceptions):
Cultural Influences: The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an
institution, organization or group.
4. How easy/difficult was this exercise (circle one):
Easy
1
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2
3
Difficult
4
5
Exercise: My Cultural Identity (Example)
1. Please write in 4 groups that have had the most influence on who you are:
1
African
American Female
Entrepreneur
3
Baby Boomer
4
2
Mother
Culture comes from institutions, organizations or groups shared beliefs and values.
2. Please rank order your four groups (1 strongest influence on you, 4 weakest influence)
3. For each group, please list 2 cultural influences (based on your perceptions):
Cultural Influences: The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an
institution, organization or group.
Civil Rights
Movement
Need to work
twice as hard
Direct
Freedom
4. How easy/difficult was this exercise (circle one):
Personal /
Spiritual Growth
Nurturing
Materialistic
Protective
Easy
1
©The Winters Group, Inc.
Difficult
2
3
4
5
Different
Worldviews
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Different Mindsets Exercise
You are a part of a task force that is exploring ways to
enhance services to the Somali community as it is one of
the fastest growing cultural groups in your area.
Volunteers have noticed that your efforts to date have not
been very successful. The group has decided to start by
developing marketing materials that would help the Somali
community understand the services that The United Way
provides. Given the mindset you have been assigned…
How would you approach this task? How would you think
about it from the mindset that has been assigned to you?
©The Winters Group, Inc.
Exploring Our Worldviews
Worldview A: Cultural differences are not something that you
know much about or have had much experience with.
You are most comfortable with people with whom you have a
lot in common. In business situations, you may be so intent
on the tasks at hand that you do not notice or think much
about the cultural aspects of business relationships with
clients and coworkers. You are mostly task oriented and feel
that if the task is well laid out, you will achieve the desired
outcomes. You may tend to work more closely and effectively
with coworkers who seem to be like you while not making an
effort to reach out to coworkers who seem “different.” You
may tend to avoid or be disinterested in cultural differences.
Worldview B: You are aware of diversity and other
cultures around you, but you may have a relatively
incomplete understanding of them and you probably
have some fairly strong judgments about some
cultures. For instance, you might routinely attribute
negative characteristics to one or more groups of
people who are different than you such as most
women, most European Americans (Whites), most
African Americans (Blacks), most "foreigners," or
most Gays. In business settings, you are likely to
feel that the goal of diversity efforts should be to
help “diverse” members adopt “our” ways.
Worldview C: You tend to recognize the essential
humanity of every person and try to behave in tolerant
ways towards others. You are aware that diversity and
other cultures exist all around you, and you may be fairly
knowledgeable about culturally-based differences in
customs, celebrations, and behavior. You do not denigrate
other cultures and you try to avoid stereotypes by treating
everybody the same. You probably believe that, despite
interesting differences in food, customs, etc., people from
other backgrounds and cultures are deep down fairly
similar to you physically and psychologically.
Worldview D:You tend to recognize cultural
differences between your own and other groups and
seeing how these differences are valuable to your
organization and to yourself. You both acknowledge
and deeply respect cultural difference. You are
aware of your own culture(s), and you see that your
own culture is just one of many ways of experiencing
events around you. You think people from other
cultures are fully as complex as yourself. Their
ideas, feelings, and behavior may seem unusual to
you, but you realize that how they experience events
is just as "rich" and valid as your own.
©The Winters Group, Inc.
Culturally Competent Behaviors
Show respect for and interest in the other
person
 Learn about the cultures of those around
you (geography, customs, history, etc.).
Strive to interact meaningfully with those
who you perceive as “different.”
 Learn to feel and exhibit comfort with
groups and individuals from other
cultures. (E.g. spend time with people
from diverse groups both at work and
outside of work.)
 Give cultural information about yourself
freely when it is requested.
 Be open and accommodating to other’s
needs to gain information. Do not
assume that they know what you know.
Strive to be nonjudgmental
 Continually ask yourself if you are
making a value judgment about others,
rather than recognizing that others
might just do things differently that
you.
 Remember that we are programmed to
make snap judgments. Continuously
work on this tendency in order to
reduce such behavior.
Make decisions using a “cultural” lens
 When making decisions, ask yourself,
does this work for most or am I making
assumptions based only on my own
world view and cultural frame?
 Seek out the opinions of diverse
people and test your assumptions.
©The Winters Group, Inc.
Culturally Competent Behaviors
Modify your listening skills
 Listen for your own cultural assumptions,
perceptions and expectations.
Ask questions
 Learn about other views, work styles and
assumptions, and needs. Encourage
others to do the same.
 Be comfortable in asking questions about
the preferred terminology,
pronunciations, etc.
 Use DNA tool.
Shift frame of reference when necessary
 Demonstrate empathy and understanding
for other values, attitudes and beliefs;
distinguish empathy from agreement.
 Be flexible in your approach to situations.
There are many ways of doing things.
Manage conflict constructively
 Demonstrate an understanding of
different cultural assumptions about
what conflict is and alternative ways of
dealing with it.
Recognize unconscious bias and
stereotypes
 Know your own culture, why you
believe what you believe, your history
and early experiences that have
shaped your value system.
 Be aware of and monitor your own
unconscious biases and stereotypes.
 Ask people you trust to give you
feedback on potential biases that you
may not be aware of.
©The Winters Group, Inc.
Thank You!
www.wintersgroup.com
mfwinters@wintersgroup.com
@thewintersgroup
@maryfwinters
/wintersgroup
©The Winters Group, Inc.