1. Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Intercultural Competence and Why it is Important To Career Specialists
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Welcome to Treaty Six (PA/Saskatoon)and homelands of the Metis People- My name is Elizabeth Duret and I have been with Sask. Polytechnic since 2005 and I became a I became a qualified IDI administer in 2009 and began working in this area.
Today you are getting a mini-crash course in intercultural competency and an assessment tool that . I hope we can cover the 3 outcomes within the hour and 15 minutes so I will try to be as succinct as possible. You may hear some terms you are not familiar with but my hope is that you will want to learn more about them by the end of this session. Hopefully, you will have gained some insight, awareness and come away with some ideas, more questions, and a desire to learn more about what was discussed today and what does it mean to you and your workplace.
Our end goal in this work is to be more inclusive and welcoming to not our colleagues but to our community members on a day to basis… and to gain some insight about how we respond to diversity and differences…If diversity is the mix and inclusion is making the mix work then how do we make the mix work…..
Warm up exercise – pen in dominant hand…now move to non-dominant hand…right handed people…dominant culture……writing exercise…..
Our landscpe is changing rapidly and we are compelled to respond to it.
Elizabeth Duret CHRP
Sask. Polytechnic

2. Begin with the end in mind….
What is the IDI® and the intercultural continuum?
Explore the concepts of culture
Self-reflection on bias and stereotypes
We have one hour and 15 minutes and I want to make sure that I allow some time for discussion and stories…this can be a difficult topic and I have seen some emotional reactions…but I want to be sure that people feel comfortable to ask questions without judgement…and learn…

3. What is Intercultural Competence?
The ability to communicate, work/interact effectively and appropriately across cultures. It involves developing the knowledge, motivation and skills to bridge cultural differences.
“To be culturally competent does not mean you are an authority in the values and beliefs of every culture. What is means is that you hold a deep respect for cultural differences and are eager to learn, and willing to accept, that there are many ways of viewing the world.”
The capability to shift cultural perspectives and appropriately adapt behavior to cultural differences and commonalities
Building intercultural competency is a developmental process and depending your personal experiences, where you have lived, traveled, exposure to diversity and different cultures, will have a strong impact on where you are on the continuum

4. What is Culture?
The collective experience, beliefs, values, knowledge, economy, and ways of life of a group of individuals who share certain historical and/or present experience.
Culture is not static and changes constantly.
Dancing on Embers: Challenging racism in organizations.
Lopes, Tina and Thomas, Barb (2006)
Culture: A learned system of meanings that foster a particular sense of shared identity and community among members.
Race:
Cultural generalization is another helpful tool. Broad characterizations can be useful as a general guide to anticipating and discussing cultural reactions, attitudes, and behaviors in a neutral way. While cultural generalizations are helpful in analyzing cultural patterns (e.g., Americans tend to be individualistic while Japanese tend to be collectivist), it is understood that no cultural generalization will ever apply to everyone in a culture (no matter how small or isolated) because individual personalities and backgrounds always play a role in how people think and act. In intercultural communication, cultural generalizations are used as a shorthand way to make non-judgmental cross-cultural comparisons, not to oversimplify or deny the complexity of social interaction.

5. Intercultural Development Inventory®
Frames a “developmental” approach and provides a way to assess intercultural sensitivity
A profile specific to your experience
Cross-cultural tool tested by rigorous psychometric protocols in numerous validation studies
Proven construct and content validity and high reliability
There are qualified Administrators across 20 countries and currently there are approx. 20 IDI Qualified administrators in Saskatoon who can administer the assessment. Then there are trainers who can do workshops to help develop and gain a better understaning.

6. Intercultural Development Continuum
Denial Disinterest Avoidance
Polarization Defense Reversal
Minimization Similarity Universalism
Acceptance
Adaptation Cognitive frame-shifting Behavioral code-shifting
Monocultural
Mindset
the IDI is a developmental approach and provides a way to assess intercultural sensitivity. I am going to highlight the word developmental. The profile specific to your experience and there is no right or wrong on the continuum…
Recognition and acceptance of superficial cultural differences such as eating customs...Folkfest…Human beings are basically the same.
Goal is the deepen understanding of one’s own culture (cultural self-awareness) and to increase understanding of culture-general and specific frameworks for making sense (and more fully attending to) cultural differences.
Denial – denial worldview contains few, if any categories for culture- one’s own or others….Under these conditions cultural differences cannot be detected. Goal is to start making more discriminations among cultures very carefully and safely. There is a threat involved with different cultures. Low – difference medium to low similarity….
Polarization – Defense and Reversal/ High difference – low similarity
Minimization – People in minimization are aware of other cultures and may have some extensive knowledge about some of them such as political or economic matters….we categorize information into familiar boxes…medium difference High similarity
Acceptance – recognizes multiple cultures and can compare and contrast them..They are different but interesting…respect for differences, join diversity efforts, curious and want to learn more. More sophisticated approach to diversity
High difference, high similarity
Adaptation – bridge between cultures,, an ability to change cultural behavior in appropriate and authentic ways. Looks through the eyes of another…
Shifting behavior and perception..in another persons worldview.
Put up posters of each stage and the language used…
What was experience like?
What did you notice?
Why would it be important to identify not only where you are but where someone else is?
How you heard any of these statements? Do you see yourself up here?
Remember….this is developmental and if you see yourself…then you are already becoming aware…
Part of becoming culturally competent means increasing your knowledge and awareness of the underlying sets of beliefs and meanings (and the values attached to them) that ground culture.
Generally intercultural competence can be broken into three dimensions: A mindset, a heartset, and a skillset, (curiosity, open-mindedness).
Intercultural
Mindset
Modified from the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS), M. Bennett, 1986
Copyright, 2007, 2009 Mitchell R. Hammer, Ph.D.

7. What do we see? What do others see?
What is the extent to which you feel part of or socialized in the dominant culture? Are you inside or outside of the bowl?
 What happens if “insiders” of the dominant culture are unaware of their norms and values and do not see what is cultural about their behaviour? What assumptions are they are making?
 What is it like to be a member of the non-dominant culture? Is it a safe environment to address differences as a member of the non-dominant culture?

8. Your level of cultural sensitivity and cultural competence has been influenced by:
Your parent’s attitudes
Your personal experiences with and exposure to other cultures
Education and Travel
Your friend’s attitudes
Various forms of media (television shows, news reports)
Your community – who holds key positions? (politics, business)
Building intercultural competency is a developmental process and depending your personal experiences, where you have lived, traveled, exposure to diversity and different cultures, will have a strong impact on where you are on the continuum

9. Ice berg concept and how deeply entrenched these things are….
If you look at the ice berg…did you hear anything about the concept of family, attitudes about child rearing, respecting your elders, courtship practices, decision makers, who leads the traditions and where are
Stories about Palestine man, Serbian, concept of beauty, caps on teeth, which grabs you? Different situations. Child rearing, relationships,….
What is our normal in the workplace? Communication, time, power distance, high/low context, formal/informal, dress,
Nursing – what are your codes of conduct? Concept of time? Patterns of handling emotions? Decision making?

10. Q & A
For more information on the IDI – please google Mitch Hammer and IDI ….