So often in our western culture, we think we can think our way into just, compassionate practice. However, that’s not how diversity and inclusion work. We need all five key elements of cultural intelligence to incorporate head, heart and hands into our work.

If we don’t seek change and take action, we’re perpetuating the cultural blindness, we seek to replace with cultural intelligence.

To attract, retain and promote diverse talent and markets, employees and organizations need the four essential skills of cultural intelligence.

In any organization, tokenism hurts people of under-represented groups and it hurts the organization. But when members of all groups are working in cahoots, noticing and naming gaps, striving to create a culture where both historically dominant and non-dominant group members together feel heard and engaged, people feel valued, and organizations retain their people.

Many people believe that whatever their mental health challenges are, those challenges don’t belong in the workplace. However, more than 100 studies have shown that, when we have low psychological well-being, or face depression or general anxiety, our job productivity suffers. A leader’s compassion is no longer above and beyond, it’s vital to the organization’s culture of well-being. Leaders can provide the headspace that creates a culture of mental health and well-being.

Care for others, starts with care for you. As you come around to accepting yourself as you are, the good and bad parts, it turns out you can be more accepting of others. But you’re right, you can’t accept (or appreciate) someone or something you don’t know. Start with a Self-awareness chart!

With greater understanding, our gaze softens, compassion grows and we see opportunities for innovation we hadn’t seen before.

In an either/or set-up, one person wins and the other loses. That’s a problem because the outcome can never be 100% positive. If anyone loses, both parties lose. They both lose the opportunity to build a relationship. People and families lose connection; organizations lose productivity. So how do we all win? We know we’ve really “won” when compassion and understanding is felt by all; oneself and our colleague, client, friend or family member.

After years of being belittled under a system of Minimization, minorities may hesitate to speak up for fear of retaliation, social isolation or job loss even when a manager asks them to speak up. But when managers slow down and deeply listen, they’ll learn the root cause of distress and how it can be resolved.

To de-center our thinking and get to a place of higher understanding about a candidate, we need to slow down the conversation.