What are the best strategies for improving your organization's outreach to diverse communities?

Here is an example to bring CC to life! A culturally diverse software team are developing global software while bringing together various cultural perspectives. Cultural Competency Actions: 1. Recognise and respect different cultural norms, including religion, food, etc. 2. Leverage cultural identities in the software development process to enhance usability. 3. Adopt establish inclusive communication and considerate meeting times 4. Celebrate the different cultures within the team. By taking advantage of multicultural insights and fostering a respectful team environment, the team can create software that appeals to diverse uses while improving wellbeing, teaming and collaboration.

I’d start with why. Why are you doing this? What do you want to achieve? And, how will you measure success? Then, I would: - Conduct cultural competency training - Develop partnerships with community organizations - Use targeted marketing and outreach efforts - Offer inclusive programs and services - Foster and diverse and inclusive culture - Continually assess and improve

It's important for leaders, organizatonns, and stewarts of the organization to understand cultural competency, especially when attempting to make authentic connections with communities. If people feel your outreach is performative, you won't have much credibility in the space.Taking part in a cultural assessment can be extremely helpful in identifying blind spots towards these efforts. In addition, take time to learn and have meaningful connections with different communities to understand their specific challenges.

It’s important to begin any conversation or stakeholder buy in early. To use a DACI or RACI model of everyone who should be included in the change or culture that has to be adopted. Also make sure that accountability is factored in so that change can happen and how to address it when it’s not. To be able to ask questions or feedback along the way to test the cultural change and any rapid improvements that are being suggested so that there’s a temperature check of all that’s happening.

Do your homework before asking people you have underserved or overlooked to solve the problems you have created. Start with a clear statement about why it is important for you to reach diverse communities. What are you trying to achieve and why? What is your motivation? Then consider what the barriers are to reaching those communities. Who are your policies, processes, and systems designed by - and what barriers do they create? Invest time in understanding your customer/stakeholders experience and life cycle. Look at your workforce and teams. How diverse are they? How inclusive are they? Imagine yourself on the outside looking in: would you feel safe, welcome, and valued if you got parachuted in to a physical or virtual space?

1. Celebrate diversity and difference - create opportunities for different cultures to be celebrated and highlight the contributions of a diverse group of people to your organisation's successes. 2. Education and learning - Invest in cultural competency and fluency development to increase confidence and skill to engage with culturally diverse teams. 3. Review policies and processes to ensure no organisational systems can impede a culture of respect, connection and inclusion. 4. Support diverse organisations, charities and institutions across communities.

Measuring cultrual competency requires a multifaceted approach, as it's about understanding both the reach and impact of your initiatives beyond just numbers. It is however important to use a blend of approaches which can capture story stelling, quantiative and qualitiaitve data in a powerful way. This can include: 1 - Using surveys and feedback forms to understand the community's perception of your initiatives. 2 - Tracking participation rates in your programmes. 3 - Engaging directly with the community through interviews or focus groups to get feedback. 4 - Documenting success stories and case studies. 5 - Comparing your outcomes with similar initiatives or past programmes. I hope this helps!

Remember, cultural competence is more than just a buzzword; it's the ability to deeply understand, connect with, and effectively engage across cultures. 🌎 It's about: ✨ Recognising our own cultural biases. ✨ Embracing the diversity of worldviews. ✨ Developing the skills to bridge these gaps. In our ever-interconnected world, we must continue to champion mutual respect and collaboration among all cultures.