The Danger in Cultural Competency

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) work is certainly not new, however, you may see many companies and organizations finally creating new DEI positions, talking about it, and requiring their staff members to participate in training. While I commend companies for offering training to their staff, it is usually a “one and done” situation. This basically means that a company will offer training just to say they did it and to “check a box”. Unfortunately, many have this mindset when it comes to the idea of “cultural competence”. Cultural competence can often be viewed as taking a test and once you complete it and pass, you are good to go. However, this is certainly not the case when it comes to DEI work. Things are constantly changing and evolving and you must take on the mindset of a lifelong learner.

The idea of competence can function much like taking a driver’s education course, passing the road test, and never having to think about it anymore after the fact. Think about it, when was the last time you intentionally thought about how to drive – we simply don’t. We get in the car and we do what we learned when we were first taught how to drive. Now imagine taking on this dangerous mindset when it comes to DEI work. You complete a training or course and now all of a sudden you are culturally competent and seemingly have no need to further your learning or education. Instead of cultural competence, I advocate that we all take on the mindset of cultural humility. According to The National Institutes of Health (NIH), cultural humility is “a lifelong process of self-reflection and self-critique whereby the individual not only learns about another’s culture, but one starts with an examination of her/his own beliefs and cultural identities.” The mindset of cultural humility tells leaders and organizations that one training is simply not enough to shift the culture. We must be engaged in a lifelong process of learning and unlearning our own beliefs and cultural identities. Real change starts when we recognize we can never master human culture and identities.