Cultural Competency

AUDIENCE:
Corporate/Organizational Leaders

RATIONALE:
As technology and workplace demographics continue to evolve employers recognize the need to value workers that are willing to model the language of lifelong learning.

A strategy is to provide ongoing training and tools to ALL employees. However, it must be purposeful and intentional.

corporate leaders

“Designed with the End in Mind”. So, let’s begin with the Mission Statement. Incredibly skilled and competent, new and/or seasoned employees, don’t always possess the ‘soft skills’ needed in our forever evolving workplace. This evolving workplace means acquiring the skill of cultural competence, the “Woven Traditions Way.” That is with the end in mind; Organizational Competencies – Interpersonal Communication, Trust, Integrity, Collaboration, Accountability, Driving Results, Critical Thinking, Creativity/Innovation, Global Awareness, Problem-Solving, Teamwork, Team Building, Self-Directed learning and Leadership.

Why? Because your Team is expected to navigate   with precision in this global world in which we live. For many organizations, Cultural Competency means maintaining or restoring confidence and/maintaining or gaining public trust.

Today’s corporate leaders are increasingly facing challenges that are directly related to cross-cultural differences.  If one is able to reconcile these differences, one can accelerate success.  If one does not, unexpected behavior, resistance and conflicts could seriously hinder one’s success.

The WT experience has the appropriate level of breadth and depth to make a positive difference. Research on Professional Learning (PL) confirms that short-term workshops are impractical and even counterproductive (McDiarmid, 1992).  We recommend 15-30 hours of *PL coupled with 8 to 10 hours of workplace visits sustained over several years.

GOALS:

  1. To allow participants the opportunity to pause and reflect upon one’s own cultural identity and views about difference, and the ability to learn and build on the varying cultural and community norms of others.

  2. For participants to have the ability to understand the within-group differences that makes each person unique, while celebrating the between-group variations that make our country a tapestry.

  3. Provide participants the opportunity to successfully negotiate cross-cultural differences in order to accomplish practical goals using four main components:  Awareness, Attitude, Knowledge, and Skills.

OBJECTIVES:

To be engaged in a genuine pursuit to work more effectively in a culturally diverse environment.  To be a culturally competent individual with CharACTer who is able to:

  1. effectively interact cross-culturally
  2. recover from inevitable cultural collisions
  3. be inclusive in decision making
  4. consider knowledge about learners’, family members’ and co-workers’ cross-cultural differences
  5. be inclusive and appreciative of the beliefs and values of learners, family members and co-workers
  6. be aware of how one’s personal biases and stereotypes impact relationships with others
  7. be committed to modeling the learning of cultural competency for others

AUDIENCE:
Internal Leaders (communicating with internal and workplace staff)

21st Century Skills Cultural Competence & Character Development Portfolio:

For workplace learners, it prepares them with 21st century skills including oral communication, information processing, critical thinking, media literacy, creativity/innovation, global awareness, cultural competency, problem-solving, teamwork/collaboration, self-directed learning and leadership.

internal leaders

Cultural competence is the ability to work and respond in a manner that acknowledges and respects individuals’ culturally based beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and customs.

  • Cultural competence is a skill that internal leaders can develop at both individual and organizational levels in order to work effectively with internal customers and workplace staff.
  • Cultural competence is not composed of merely attitudes or sensibilities; cultural competence is defined by actions and altered behaviors that accompany respectful understanding.
  • Developing cultural competence is a long-term process. Internal leaders in organizations may find the “Cultural Competence Continuum – with Characteristics” [created by Did You Know Publishing, adapted from the work of Terry Cross, Ph.D.] useful for determining how current operations might evolve to better serve internal customers and workplace staff.

Cultural Competency CharACTer training helps ALL workplace employees close the gap between Organizational Competencies; Interpersonal, Communication, Trust, Collaborative, Accounting and Driving Results including but is not limited to traits like self-control, diligence, respect, and thankfulness.

Our curriculum helps adult learners to build on their knowledge so that they begin to apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the character traits they want and need to develop. This is the key to helping them grow and prosper in the 21st Century & Beyond.

Impact of the Professional Learning
on the Workforce:

The learning opportunities provided through the Woven Traditions 21st Century Cultural Competency & Character Skill Development prepares workers with global competencies.  The activities require learners to:

  1. investigate the world,
  2. recognize perspectives,
  3. communicate ideas,
  4. and take action.

The curriculum was created with the “End in Mind” and being workplace ready.

The curriculum requires the learners to: use complex knowledge, engage actively in the learning, incorporate assessment of self as part of the learning process, connect prior knowledge with new information and incorporate multi-disciplinary learning.

Benefits of the Learning: 

  1. Learners will discover they are in charge of their learning. The work is designed with those ‘soft skills’ in mind, which include: collaboration, higher-level thinking, multi-level abstract thinking, problem-solving, technology, and service-learning projects.

     

  2. Requires deep learning on behalf of the learner: reading critically, thinking critically, creating goals and devising strategies to achieve those goals, and effective communication – both orally and in writing.

AUDIENCE:
Internal Learners & External Workers (those communicating with external customers and community relations personnel)

21st Century Skills Cultural Competence & Character Development Portfolio:

Preparation of the portfolio provides workers a document demonstrating the ‘soft’ 21st century skills they will use as they transition from internal workplace to external workplace.

These ‘soft’ skills include: oral communication, information processing, higher-level thinking, complex processing, divergent thinking,

employees

creative thinking, critical thinking, multi-step habits, problem- solving, skills in media literacy, creativity/innovation, global awareness, cultural competency, teamwork/collaboration, self-directed learning, and leadership.

Becoming culturally competent is a journey, not a destination or event, and no one person has all the answers.  The most effective Internal Leaders and External Workers are those who are purposeful and intentional about developing their cultural competence through practice with others and by learning from their mistakes.

The 21st Century Skills Cultural Competency & Character Skill Development Portfolio allows for purposeful and intentional learning. Through its use learners gain knowledge about how one’s own culture influences the individual, helps one to develop knowledge of other cultures that go beyond simplistic stereotypes and assessments and opens communication between internal leaders and external workers, as well as both of those groups in their communication efforts with external customers and community stakeholders.

Within the portfolio there is a natural infusion of character traits which include but is not limited to self-control, respect, responsibility, courage, fairness, honesty and integrity.

Impact of the Portfolio on Workers:

The learning opportunities provided through the Woven Traditions 21st Century Cultural Competency & Character Skill Development Portfolio documents, demonstrate and models adult learner’s preparedness for the external workplace.  The activities require learners to:

  1. investigate the world,
  2. recognize perspectives,
  3. communicate ideas,
  4. and take action

The portfolio was created with the “End in Mind” external workplace readiness.

The curriculum requires the adult learners to: use complex knowledge – refining reasoning and decision making skills, engage actively in the learning, incorporate assessment of self as part of the learning process, connect prior knowledge with new information and incorporate multi-disciplinary learning.

Benefits of learning with a Culturally Competent Character Education Portfolio Approach: 

  1. The portfolio is not an ‘add-on’ as it is aligned to workplace readiness skills.

     

  2. Learners will discover they are in charge of their learning. The work is designed with those ‘soft skills’ in mind collaboration, higher-level thinking, multi-level abstract thinking, problem-solving, technology, and community service-learning projects.

Requires deep learning on behalf of the adult learner – reading critically, creating goals and devising strategies to achieve those goals, applying community collaborative service-learning projects, refining research skills and effective communication – both orally and in written.