Strategic Planning to Increase Cultural Competence in Organizations

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Strategic Planning to Increase Cultural
Competence in Organizations

• Kevin Browne, PhD
• Midwest Center for Cultural Competence, LLC
• WI-SHRM Conference, October 12, 2006
• kobrowne_at_charter.net

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Training Goals

• Understand culture and how it affects
  organizations and all spheres of life.
• Understand dimensions of diversity
• Understand the cultural competence continuum
• Understand the importance of cultural competence
  to organizational and global business success
• Understand a Strategic Planning process for
  developing more culturally competent
  organizations.
• Provide an opportunity to explore your cultural
  values and beliefs and how they affect your
  organization.

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Culture What is It?

• Culture is the sum total of life patterns passed
  on from generation to generation within a group
  of people and includes institutions, language,
  religious ideals, habits of thinking, artistic
  expressions, and patterns of social and
  interpersonal relationships. (Hodge,
  Struckman, and Trost, 1975)
• Culture is mans medium there is not one aspect
  of human life that is not touched and altered by
  culture. This means personality, how people
  express themselves, the way they think, how they
  move, how problems are solved, how their cities
  are planned and laid out, how transportation
  systems function and are organized, as well as
  how economic and government systems are put
  together and function. (Edward Hall, 1976)

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Culture

• Everyone has culture
• Culture is learned and shared, and always subject
  to change.
• Culture is localized, created through discrete
  interactions among specific people.
• Culture is evaluative values are embedded in
  behaviors and choices
• People often belong to many subcultures at once.
• Underlying cultural values change slowly.

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Iceberg Theory

• More Visible Features
• Clothing
• Food
• Language
• Less Visible Features
• Attitudes
• Perceptions
• Communication Styles

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Lens Exercise

• People often make assumptions about others in
  order to understand with whom they are dealing.
• This defining of others is rooted in needs for
  control in our lives.
• Relationship building is key to cultural
  competence!
• What is our lens regarding the culture of
  business/organizations?

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Dimensions of Diversity

• Race
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Age
• Sexual orientation
• Physical abilities
• Partnership status
• Socio-economic status
• Education level

• Physical appearance
• Geographic location
• Rural/Urban
• Work background
• Parental status
• Family structure
• Cognitive ability
• Citizenship status
• Etc.

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Cultural Competence

• A behavior response to cultural difference and
  diversity.
• Identifying where we are on the continuum helps
  us move toward greater supporting and promoting
  of cultural competence.
• We are always, inevitably, responding to culture
  and difference.
• Our basic life position on the continuum
  represents fundamental beliefs and values. In any
  given encounter we can move up or down on the
  continuum.

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Cultural Competence Continuum

• Cultural destruction
• Incapacity
• Denial
• Pre-competence
• Competence
• Cultural proficiency

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CC Continuum

• Cultural Destructivenessmaking conscious efforts
  to destroy different cultures (were number
  one). Belief in cultural superiority oppresses
  others.
• Cultural Incapacityinability to be helpful to
  other cultures (take care of our own).
  Paternalistic, ignorant of others, denies equal
  access

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CC Continuum

• Cultural Denialbelief that dimensions of
  diversity arent important (everyones the
  same). Belief that dominant models apply to all,
  encourages suppression of difference.
• Cultural Pre-competencerealizes inadequacy of
  response to difference, attempts to improve
  (nice policies, limited action). Dangers
  complacency and tokenism.

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CC Continuum

• Cultural competencevaluing and embracing
  difference, self-examination, developing cultural
  knowledge and skills, commitment to cultural
  encounters (mutual adaptation to difference).
• Cultural proficiencymindfully engaging in
  behaviors and beliefs that value dimensions of
  diversity (hold culture in high esteem).
  Advocate for cultural competence throughout
  system and community

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Benefits from becoming more culturally competent

• Competitive advantage in the global marketplace
• Higher workplace productivity
• State/Federal compliance

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Cultural Intelligence

• Need to switch off cultural cruise control
• Knowledge specific knowledge of cultural
  differences
• Mindfulness paying attention to contextbe aware
  on own assumptions and feelings, notice what is
  apparent about others, see multiple perspectives,
  use empathy, etc
• Behavioral Skills ability to adapt behavior and
  communication to a range of intercultural
  situations
• Group discussionwhat does silence mean?

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Cultural Ways of Knowing

• Different cultural priorities achievement,
  social harmony (saying no, bad news), etc.
• Knowing analytic, holistic, sensing, etc.linear
  thinking not shared worldwide
• Relationships or Results
• Is age valued or devalued?

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Cultural Meanings in Business and Organizations

• Meanings derive from the worldviews of the
  different partiesdiverge or converge?
• Meanings contractual or relationship-based?
• The context tells us why, which leads to what.
• Contexts are both verbal and non-verbal
• Understanding meanings requires good
  communication and relationships.

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Culture and Business

• Most of the world conducts business based on
  trust and relationships.
• Cultural Intelligence requires knowledge,
  flexibility, mindful awareness, behavioral
  skills.
• Openness and learning from experiences of
  difference, generalizing the learning.

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Intercultural Communication

• High-Low context
• High Context The successful exchange of
  information depends on applying a shared
  framework for understanding. Meaning tends to be
  implicit and less literal. Heavy reliance on
  voice tone, body posture, facial expressions, eye
  contact, use of silence, and other non-verbal
  cues. Context is critical!
• Low Context Reliance is placed upon explicit
  meanings, often written. Words are taken
  literally, and non-verbal communication is often
  ignored. Documentation is prevalent.
• Face-to-face vs. e-mail
• Are organizations in the U.S. mostly high or low?

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Strategic planning I

• Identified Needs/Issues
• Goals/Objectives/ Desired Outcomes
• Strategies/Methods
• Accountability
• Target Dates
• Status/Actual Outcomes

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Strategic Planning II

• Product Development/Service Delivery
• Organization
• Community relationships
• Staff/Management development
• Communication

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Organizational Environment

• Physical Environment is the design conducive to
  diverse styles and needs?
• Staff and Management do they take a leadership
  role in modeling cultural competence
• Communication and Language is it respectful of
  different cultures and styles of communication?
• General Environment is the organizational tone
  one of appreciating differences?

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Physical Environment

• Mission/Vision Statement
• Leadership
• Organizational Structure
• Accessibility Procedures

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Staff Management

• Education and Training
• Personal, unit and agency assessments

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Communication and Language

• Respect Statement
• Multilingual Capacity

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Dialogue vs. Debate

• Dialogue
• Inquire
• Unfold shared meaning
• Integrate multiple perspectives
• Uncover and examine assumptions

• Discussion/Debate
• Tell, sell, persuade
• Gain agreement on one meaning
• Evaluate/select the best
• Justify/defend assumptions

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Organizational Cultural Assessment

• Cultural Audit
• --Surveys of organizational culture
• --Qualitative interviews

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Coaching for Cultural Competence

• Individuals and Teams
• Some tools MBTI, FIRO-B, 360 assessment

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Team-Building

• Teams are increasingly multicultural
• Have to manage process, give feedback, create CQ
• Value of cross-cultural teams increase range of
  expertise and performance, reduce errors
• Requires flexible leadership, overcoming group
  think
• Group stages forming, norming, storming,
  performing (Tuckman 1965)
• Team-building exercises challenge exercises,
  appreciative inquiry with teams

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Appreciative Inquiry Process

• A.I. as a change process for building cultural
  competence in organizations
• Understanding the organizations existing culture
  (inner dialogue)
• Understanding how this org. culture/dialogue
  works to resist change
• Change the stories (that anchor the culture) in
  order to change the inner dialogue.
• Works with organizations and teams

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Cultural Self-Assessment

• A brief culture assessment (handout)

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Poetics of Diversity

• What sets worlds in motion is the interplay of
  differences, their attractions and repulsions.
  Life is plurality, death is uniformity. By
  suppressing differences and peculiarities, by
  eliminating civilizations and cultures, progress
  weakens life and favors death. The ideal of a
  single civilization for everyone, implicit in the
  cult of progress and technique, impoverishes and
  mutilates us. Every view of the world that
  becomes extinct, every culture that disappears,
  diminishes a possibility of life Octavio Paz,
  The Labryinth of Solitude

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Selected Resources

• Midwest Center for Cultural Competence, LLC
  www.mcculturalcompetence.com 608.251.4726
• Cultural Intelligence, by D.C. Thomas and K.
  Inkson, 2003
• Intercultural Communication in the Global
  Workplace, by L. Beamer and I. Varner, 2001
• Appreciative Inquiry Handbook, by D. Cooperrider,
  D. Whitney and J.M. Stavros, 2003.