Flexible and Agile working with the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion

For many of us in the UK, home working has been a frustratingly unchanging reality for well over a year. While the debate around removing COVID measures continues against a rising number of cases, most organisations have already spent many hours discussing what the future of office working will look like in the coming years.

The Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion (ENEI) roundtable in June 2021 on flexible and agile working brought together a number of public and private organisations to review the options and give feedback on their current thinking.

Agile versus flexible working

Debbie Rotchell of ENEI outlined the trends already in play in the labour market pre-COVID due to improved technology and the globalisation of markets and talent. “The expectations of staff and customers have changed,” she said. “Working from home during the pandemic has worked out better than expected and in fact delivered unexpected benefits.”

Debbie summarised the different modes of working that have emerged, including agile, flexible and hybrid:

Agile working means working where, when and how you choose, maximising productivity and delivering best value to the organisation.

Flexible working involves an adjustment of working hours and/or location, usually through a contractual change. It is often seen as an employee benefit and is a fixed change, without the capacity to flex up or down as demand fluctuates.

Hybrid working is a mix of these models.

The drivers for future focused ways of working, such as agile and hybrid models fit into categories including efficiency, enticement, business continuity, sustainability, productivity and personal choice. They vary from savings on office costs, to reduced disruption from viruses and lower carbon footprints.

Drivers for future focused ways of working (ENEI)

ENEI research on home working during the pandemic showed that 52% reported an increase in workload (58% of females, 43% of males) and 37% were working longer hours (although more men than women reported a reduction in hours). Overall, 30% were working the same hours but at different time. Most people felt that working from home had a neutral or positive effect on performance although 69% reported Zoom burnout.

For home workers, the quality of their work, feelings of loyalty, responsiveness, effectiveness, efficiency and motivation all improved. Not only that, they saved money and time on commuting, gained extra hours with their family, found more opportunities to exercise and socialise and felt they had greater trust and autonomy from managers.

A survey by LinkedIn showed that on average, a £21K pay rise would be needed to tempt homeworkers back to the office. By contrast, 70% of companies are planning to review working from home pay scales. Should employees still receive London weightings for example or have their travel costs to the office covered? Are these permanent or transitional changes to pay and conditions? Time will soon begin to tell.

Remote working creates more inclusive workplaces, as staff feel encouraged to speak their mind more freely. Increased numbers said that leaders valued different perspectives. In the ENEI survey, 74% would like to continue to work from home, 73% found it easier than expected and 63% expect that employers will offer more home working options.

Debbie’s recommendation to employers when considering their flexible / agile / hybrid working offering is to ask the following questions:

• What are your drivers for changes to work practices?
• What are your aims and objectives for the changes?
• What do employees want to do?
• What do leaders want to do? Are they committed to building the culture required to make different working models fair and effective (for example, not privileging those who work in the office or in other more visible ways)
• How will you know if it has been successful?

How to make hybrid working a success

Claire McCartney from the CIPD feels that employers should first trial and then learn from novel ways of working. Her recommendation is to review flexible working policies now and put inclusion and fairness at the heart of your return to the office strategies. How will you address learning and development, presence bias and work allocation if some staff are office based and others work remotely?

The CIPD have handy toolkits to assess roles for suitability for hybrid working. 

For CIPD, there are 7 strategies for making hybrid working a success:

• Develop the skills and culture needed for open conversations about wellbeing
• Encourage boundary setting and routes to improve wellbeing and prevent overwork
• Ensure effective coordination of tasks and task-related communication
• Pay special attention to creativity and problem-solving tasks
• Build in time, including face-to-face time, for team cohesion and organisational belonging
• Facilitate networking and relationships across teams
• Organise a wider support network to compensate for the loss of informal learning

For many employees, it is important to avoid a two-tier system, where some employees have much better access to flexibility than others. There is already a large unmet need for compressed hours, flexible start and finish times and part time working. If home working is not an option, 74% of employees think that they should have other flexi options. The CIPD is calling for the right to request flexible working to be a day one right. They are also recommending informal and adhoc flexible working arrangements to be considered and for flexible working to be the default option.

Overall, I think it is still difficult at this point in time to predict what employees will want to do once the office is judged to be a safe place again. Who gets to say that it is safe, what evidence to we need for that and who do we trust to provide it? Employee experiences have been vastly different throughout the uncomfortable roller coaster ride that has been our home working year. This is due to the hugely unequal burdens of stress, caring responsibilities, home schooling, illness, bereavement or domestic abuse that have fallen on various sectors of the work force, particularly impacting women and employees from ethnic minorities.

Right now it is challenging to make a fair evaluation of the productivity gains and benefits of home working when it is still an enforced, rather than chosen option for many. As has often been said, we are not working from home, we are at home, working during a crisis.

In a post COVID future, whenever it finally arrives, I feel that it is vital to promote flexible, agile and hybrid working as proactive choices, open to everyone regardless of career stage without stigma. We should not relapse into viewing flexible working as a potentially career limiting option that you are forced to take due to other commitments. We should instead embrace it as a solution that offers better options for employees, employers and not least, the health of the environment.

LGBTQ+ Inclusion Matters Online Summit

During Pride Month, we celebrate LGBTQIA+ pride and mark the month of the Stonewall riots in the US in 1969. Pride Month is about inclusion, acceptance, educating people in the history of Pride and taking a close look at how far gay rights have, and haven’t, moved forwards.

This June, I joined Equality Leaders at an online summit to hear from global leading executives about what it means to be LGBTQ+ in 2021. Speakers shared ideas on what organisations should be doing to celebrate the values that LGBTQ+ colleagues bring to the workforce and how their needs and expectations have changed.

LGBTQ+ Inclusion at work

John Elliot, Chief Technology Officer at Sainsburys spoke about his journey from ‘Living a lie to living a life’ and being an out gay man at work.  His recommendation is to find the hook that will resonate with colleagues based on their own experiences, to engage them in promoting inclusion and belonging in the workplace. “A top tip is to listen to people’s lived experiences, to essentially walk a mile in their shoes,” he advised.

Change and inclusion expert, David Pearson, echoed this point when he reminded us that: “Opinion is the lowest form of knowledge. The highest form of knowledge is empathy.” Love, and who we love can be a taboo conversation at work, along with topics such as menopause, IVF and mental health. Yet if staff feel a greater sense of belonging and can bring their whole selves to work, sickness absence reduces and productivity can increase by over 50%.

Nicci Take is head of a sales organisation and pointed out that as a transgender woman, leading the company really helps you to feel like you belong. However, nine people did leave the organisation when she transitioned. She supports the use of personal pronouns, for example in email footers and Twitter handles, as it demonstrates people’s general support for the trans community but also for inclusion more widely.

“Diversity is seeing you have all the ingredients for a chicken curry, and inclusion is getting Gordan Ramsey to cook it,” she explained. “The chicken thinks it’s the star of the dish but it’s the salt that adds the flavour, even though it is only a tiny ingredient.”

Her advice on benefitting from the diversity in your workplace is to make sure that everyone in the room actually has a chance to speak (tick them off if you have to). “This is because you never know where the salt is,” she said.

Paul Martin is CEO of the LGBT Foundation, where 25% of staff are non binary or trans. He is very aware that for the LGBTQ+ community, the idea of ‘logical family’, a family you choose for yourself rather than your biological family, is very important, particular in COVID times. He noted that only 0.3% of all charitable funding goes to LGBTQ+ charities, meaning these organisations are particularly squeezed by the drop in donations during the pandemic. If you are working in your passion area, such as a charity, it’s important to set boundaries and not ‘burn too brightly’ (especially on Twitter!) It’s much more effective to promote change over the long term – approach it like a marathon, not a sprint.

Jon Hayes, Corporate Partner and lead sponsor of DLA Piper’s LGBT+ Network described how a UK National LGBT survey as recently as 2018 showed that 68% do not feel comfortable holding hands with a same sex partner. As a straight ally, he could identify with that from his own experience, as he and his future wife were not comfortable holding hands too near their respective law offices. For him, nurturing talent and having as wide a pool of people in your team as possible is hugely beneficial. “Remote working has let us all in into peoples’ lives a bit more, while at the same time being very isolating,” he said. Jon feels that it is important for straight allies to be visibly supportive, for example by wearing a Pride themed lanyard and to be seen to thrive when taking an inclusive approach.

Supporting LGBTQ+ parents

The event posed the questions, what does it mean to be an LGBTQ+ parent and how can employers support parenting? LGBTQ+ parents on the panel reported that they struggled with how much or how little of their journey to parenthood to share at work. They wanted to bring people on board with what they were going through, but lacked role models for adoption, sperm donation and surrogacy. Sometimes they had to handle highly intrusive questions that they felt other parents would not have been asked. LGBTQ+ networks could be a helpful source of support, but also parent and carer networks, particularly if they offer resources for rainbow families.

Some tips from the panel on how to support LGBTQ+ staff through parenthood:

• Adoption is a very time consuming and emotionally draining process and employers can help by offering time off or flexible working.
• It is crucial how policies are applied by individual line managers. Too much flexibility in the rules can leave room for a manager’s bias to creep in
• Provide support for parents of LGBTQ+ children. Time off to support the young person during coming out or transition would be highly valued.
• The wording you use matters! ‘Parental leave’ is a much inclusive term than ‘paternity / maternity’ leave. ‘Adoptive parent’ can be quite hurtful – it’s just ‘parent’. Conversely, referring to a sperm donor as ‘dad’ can be equally hurtful.
• Don’t make assumptions about who is the main carer.  Sometimes gay men receive less confrontation about same sex parenting than they do about being a male main carer.
• Don’t be silent, ask how you can help or support people, whether as LGBTQ+ parents or parents of LGBTQ+ young people.

Inclusive communities

The final session focused on bringing together the LBGTQ+ community and allies to build a more inclusive culture. Bendita Cynthia Malakia, Global Head of EDI at Hogan Lovells spoke about the ‘oppression Olympics’, a characterisation of marginalisation as a competition to determine the relative weight of the overall oppression of individuals or groups, often by comparing race, gender, socioeconomic status or disabilities, in order to determine who is the worst off, and the most oppressed. “Non marginalised people may use this discourse as a reason not to engage,” she warned. “You should not have to wait your turn until women’s issues are fixed, or race, or sexuality. You cannot segment these identities.”

In her view, cancel culture discourages some people from trying to understand better or do helpful things, even if they don’t get it right every time. “We need them as allies for when we are not in the room to make the decisions,” she said. “Curiosity, not confrontation is needed.”

Make sure when you are having conversations about inclusion that you acknowledge which groups you have spoken to, which you have not and why. Employee groups representing different communities based on sexuality, race or religion could join together on particular issues, for example immigration or parents’ rights.

“Equity is about taking actions that address an inequitable system,” she emphasised. “Be aware of your or your group’s privileges and don’t take a siloed approach. Do something for all women, whether they are women of colour or white, cis or trans.”

Leng Montgomery was the first trans male Masterchef contestant. “Equality is like creating a showstopper cake for everyone. You are not trying to give some people a big slice of the cake and just leave crumbs for others.” He worries that in our haste to build back post-pandemic, organisations will stick to the ‘safe pair of hands’ dinosaur diversity settings as a fall back. Also, we should beware of an over focus on data. “If I hear the same thing coming from the same people repeatedly, I don’t always need the data in order to act. Employee resource groups or networks should also act as allies for each other, for example on International Women’s Day or for Black History Month.”

A call for joint allyship was echoed by Geoffrey Williams, from Dr Martens. “Find out who is where, doing what and experiencing the company in what way. Focus on the personality types in your organisation rather than the shell they come in. Make sure employee groups work together and think about who isn’t in the room right now when you plan events and activities.”

I think we can all agree that post pandemic, working together and acting as allies for each other would help to make sure that we really do ‘build back better’.

Counting the cost of BAME exclusion – Race Inclusion and Diversity in the Workplace 2021

At the end of May, I joined over 400 delegates for the IGPP’s virtual event on Race Inclusion and Diversity in the Workplace. The Independent Race in the Workplace review by Baroness McGregor-Smith in 2017 identified that full representation of BAME individuals across the labour market could benefit the UK economy to the tune of £24 billion a year. The RIAD 2021 event set out to explore what the future could bring for employers enabling diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities for their employees.

Inclusive recruitment

Fitzroy Andrew from the University of East London hosted the event and was keen to focus on successes as well as challenges. “We are not where we were, we are a long way from those days. Are we where we should be? The answer has to be no.”

For Fitzroy, entry levels in organisations are becoming more diverse but progression is an issue. “This is not due to a lack of talent!” he emphasised. “Diversity is both an end in itself and also a means to end. The end goal is inclusion, where everyone feels that they belong.”

Kemi Badenoch, MP for Saffron Waldon brings a background in IT to her roles as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Equalities). She outlined the Government’s aim to focus on measures that work, rather than those that might just make organisations look good. While BAME participation in the workplace has risen from 19% to 50%, few people from minority ethnic backgrounds are found in elite professions or at the helm of a FTSE 100 company. For her, it is not essential to have a mentor that looks like you but their feedback needs to be honest and constructive to be helpful.

Sandra Kerr of Business in the Community (BITC) introduced the Race at Work Charter, which includes 5 steps that organisations can commit to as a way to add their voice to drive change.  Jeremy Crook, as Chief Executive of Black Training and Enterprise Group supports programmes that help black and Asian young people to succeed in education and employment, as well as campaigning for better outcomes for BAME and Muslim groups in the criminal justice system.

As a panel, they agreed that the talent and training is there, and black and Asian people do not need to go on more courses. Unconscious bias training is not a fix to bias in the workplace, but it does at least get the conversation started – without conversation, there is no culture change. Overwhelmingly, industry is keen to see Ethnicity Pay Gap legislation implemented – this would be similar to the Gender Pay Gap calculation that organisations must complete each year by law. We need the data to understand where the drop off is happening.

For leaders, now is the time for them to develop a level of comfort with discomfort, to be clear on what they don’t know and be vulnerable and open. When polled, the majority of conference delegates were in favour of recruitment processes that anonymise applicants during shortlisting. However, if you do not also address bias, this will kick in as soon as you get face-to-face. EDI experts on boards are desperately needed, as is diversity on selection panels.

Organisational culture

Dr Winston Morgan at the University of East London reminded us that for universities, there is a clear business case for increased inclusion, includingbetter student satisfaction, higher attainment, reduced drop-out rates and improved employment prospects. However, without increased funding or opportunities, higher representation of black professors in academia becomes a zero sum game.

Jake Young from the Chartered Institute of Professional Development has a strong interest in organisational culture and has identified some key elements that promote inclusion. At an organisational level, you should setstrong values and high expectations of behaviour for leaders, using behavioural frameworks and guidance on local legislation and cultural norms for people working abroad. “Think global but act local,” he advised.

You also need buy in and continuing support from senior leaders, who should hold middle leaders to account but also give them agency to take action. People data is essential – the better the data, the easier it is to target and measure impact. It is important to ask consent to collect data and explain how it will be used. Make sure you reflect on what data will best reflect progression, diversity and inclusion.

Diversity training can be effective if it is tailored to the organisation. Any change in behaviour post-training decreases over time, so it needs to be topped up regularlyand not seen as an end in itself. Training should form part of a wider strategy and be individualised to particular job roles. It can be more effective just to encourage contact between groups and “walk in another’s shoes.”

When hiring, the concept of organisational ‘fit’ should be defined narrowly so that it does not exacerbate affinity bias towards hiring those who are similar to the majority or trigger status quo bias to keep things the same. Recruiting someone to the requirements and as an ‘anti-fit’ to the existing culture can work, but only if that person is made to feel welcome and that they belong.

CEO of ACAS, Susan Clews described how Covid has seen a widening of workplace inequalities, especially for those in insecure and poorly paid jobs. It is now even harder for people to access their rights. Minority ethnic workers have been disproportionately impacted and are now experiencing higher levels of dispute.

Minority ethnic workers are more likely to be exposed to the virus (for example in health and social care), more likely to have got ill and more likely to not be able to work from home. They are a third more likely to be in precarious work, to have suffered reduced hours, furlough or redundancy.

ACAS’s recommendations are for leaders to be open and transparent about what they are business needs they are addressing as they emerge from the pandemic. What are people and the data saying needs to be done? Leaders should impact assess all measures, whether that is hybrid working, furlough, redundancy, new policies or restructuring to make sure that they do not disproportionately affect ethnic minority staff.

ACAS advice is to make your policies visible, clearly defining what bullying and harassment are. Train managers how to deal with complaints so the first conversation is not defensive or dismissive.

“Do not close your ears to complaints,” advised Susan. “Allow them to surface so they can be listened to and addressed sensitively. Workplace conflict costs £29 billion per year and 10 million people have experienced it.”

Shakhana Ramsden co-chairs the NHS “Turning the Tide Transformation and Oversite Board”, set up during the pandemic to address the stark differences in health outcomes for BAME people, who are 10-50% more likely to die as a result of catching the virus. For her, it was essential that BAME staff held board positions to address the crisis, for example by establishing BAME co-chairs alongside existing leaders.

Rozila Kana of Lancashire police pioneered a wellbeing strategy now adopted more widely in the UK and Canada. Lancashire have recruited more women and been voted best force by black police officers. She has made sure that EDI is not dropped when other priorities come along. Rozila compared diversity to mixing water and lemon juice. “They are both colourless liquids but if you put them together the taste really changes,” she said. “If you get the right leaders, then delivering EDI is effortless.”

Current challenges and hope for the future

The final panel featured a cross-generational blend of speakers to highlight current areas of challenge and signs for optimism. Linbert Spencer is an international consultant, trainer and coach and a veteran of community development. “I always have the same response when it comes to progress,” said Linbert. “Inclusion is the answer. What was your question?”

For Linbert, language has shifted over the years, but not yet understanding. The Black Lives Matter movement has reached out across all sectors and levels of society and now the emphasis is not just on diversity, but inclusion. “We struggle to describe such a diverse community, it is not just a ‘melting pot’,” explained Linbert. “Progress is about leadership not just HR.”

Rema Khatun from UEL described how growing up in a multi-cultural environment meant that disadvantage was more about class than race. Growing student debt, Covid restrictions and high accommodation costs can make young people from her community question the point of going to university. “Once at work, microaggressions definitely have an impact on career progression,” she said.

Amy Brese, an independent consultant on sustainability and financial inclusion described how hard it is to benchmark yourself against your peers when everyone is working in a virtual world. “How do I know who is getting the opportunities in the workplace for training, to step up from entry level tasks?” she asked. “I need to know what is expected of me for promotion. The requirements should be made transparent.”

Asked to describe their areas for optimism, the panel highlighted the opportunities for activism now available and the immediacy social media provides. They see less undervaluing of black contributions and a better understanding of what diversity looks like, in many more places. The new gig economy gives opportunities for entrepreneurship. “There have been no recent race riots,” pointed out Linbert. “There are still consciously racist voices but public opinion has changed. It is now rare to see an environment with no black and brown faces.”

For host Fitzroy, the take home message was clear. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast! These days, we can all be corporate activists.”

Intercultural competencies with CamAWISE and Danielle Feger

In April, as our personal cultures in the UK started to expand again post lockdown, I joined CamAWISE and Danielle Feger, Research Development Consultant, for a workshop on Intercultural Competencies and Leadership.

What does culture mean?

Danielle initially asked us to define what the word ‘culture’ actually means. Everyone has a slightly different definition, but it often boils down to ‘the way we do things around here.’ It is important to remember that there is a distinction between a description of a culture and a stereotype. Stereotypes assume that every individual is the same within a culture, when in reality people who are part of a culture will share some, but not all, of the typical characteristics.

Cultures can be national, regional or corporate. Even within a business, there can been differences in culture between employees, who might be local and speak the same language, compared to leaders who may be more international.

“You do not see the world as it is, you see it as you are,” advised Danielle. “You might be tempted to think ‘they are doing it wrong’, unless you are aware of your own cultural standpoint.”

The cultural iceberg model – what lies beneath the surface

Edward T Hall described culture as an iceberg, where the visible elements that you might observe on holiday, such as age, behaviours, language, gender and clothes are easy to spot. When you live and work in another culture, you start to sink deeper into areas such as favourite foods, festivals and traditions. It takes much longer to find the invisible cultural aspects, such as assumptions, thought patterns and gender roles. These elements are internal, unconscious and difficult to change.

Low and high context countries – say what you mean and mean what you say (or not)

Another way to analyse culture is to consider low and high context countries. Low context countries feature direct, precise and logical communication styles. “You say what you mean and you mean what you say,” summarised Danielle. People focus their attention on what is said and words are chosen carefully. Germanic and Nordic Europe, UK, US, Australia and Canada are examples of low context countries. Often, they are relatively easy to enter as a visitor.

High context countries pay as much attention to what is not said, through clothes, body language and reading between the lines. People from high context countries speak indirectly using nuanced communication and avoid conflict. Arab countries, Southern Asia, Sub Saharan Africa, countries with a lot of shared history, tend to be high context and can be challenging to join.

When working in a multicultural environment, clashes can occur when you mix high and low context individuals. If you are high context, you might feel that you are being patronised by low context communication, because in your eyes it is constantly repeating things. If you are low context in a high context environment, you might feel that people are not being open with you or explaining things adequately. “If you are not sure which approach to take with a co worker, take the low context approach and explain that this what we are doing and why,” recommended Danielle.

In an appraisal situation in particular, there is a big risk of miscommunication. If you are high context and experience low context feedback, it can feel too direct and confrontational and you might feel discouraged. If you are low context and receive high context remarks, you do not hear clearly what you have done wrong and may not understand how and where to improve.

“Some cultures can come across as abrupt or harsh. Others may come across as not taking anything seriously,” commented Danielle.

For neurodiverse people, for example those with communication challenges often associated with autism, low context environments and approaches could be particularly helpful. It is also important to make the rules for interaction clear. It could well be possible for neurodiverse people to thrive in a high context culture, if it has a clear set of expectations for different situations.

Cultural intelligence – understanding and adapting

Cultural intelligence, as defined by Thomas and Inkson, is the ability to understand and adapt to other cultures. To develop cultural intelligence, you need knowledge about other cultures combined with mindfulness, so that you can pay close attention to cultural cues and reflect on them non judgementally. You also need to have the skills to deal with situations, enabling you to choose your behaviour and body language according to the circumstances.

Cultural intelligence can be split into three aspects: cognitive, physical and motivational or emotional. Those with cognitive cultural intelligence will have clear approaches and plans for interactions and can tell if something is going well or badly. To have physical cultural intelligence, you will be able to adapt your body language, expressions and speech style to suit those from another culture. People with emotional cultural intelligence will feel relaxed about dealing with people from different cultures and are confident they can adapt to situations that are unfamiliar.

Be aware that the people you meet may not be typical of their culture. For example, academics who are often high context in their research communities, and have lived and worked abroad for many years, may not be similar to the average person you meet on your holiday travels.

Cultural dimensions – six features of cultures

Geert Hofstede referred to six cultural dimensions, including power distance, indulgence vs restraint, long vs short term orientation, uncertainty avoidance, individualism vs collectivism and masculinity vs femininity. To explain these, Danielle summarised power distance and uncertainty avoidance.

Power distance refers to the relationship between those with high and low power in society, for example between leaders and their employees. In a low power distance environment, there are few formalities, mutual respect and consultation across the power spectrum is expected. With a high power distance comes a hierarchical approach with less need for consultation. Subordinates expect to be told what to do and can be disorientated if this is not made clear.

Uncertainty avoidance reflects how acceptable uncertainty is in the culture. Strong uncertainty avoidance leads to a multiplicity of laws, rigid codes, behaviours and beliefs, together with intolerance of unorthodox behaviour. Leaders are expected to have all the answers and employees resist changing jobs, even if they are unhappy at work. In a weak uncertainty avoidance culture, changing jobs is commonplace and people are more comfortable with ambiguity from leaders. They may have a dislike of rules, written or unwritten.

How to be culturally aware?

For Danielle, the key to being culturally aware is to practice cultural mindfulness. Develop an awareness of your own culture, essentially the lens that you are looking through. Build awareness and knowledge of other cultures and look ahead towards areas of potential conflict. Practice acceptance of cultures different to your own. Be aware of whether an incident may be a product of someone’s culture, rather than their own individual characteristics.

“We tend to blame the situation for our own shortcomings, for example if we are late, but blame the other person if it happens to them!” reminded Danielle.

Danielle recommends:

• Increasing cultural and personal self-awareness by reflecting on your own experiences, past and present
• Increasing awareness of others within their own cultural and personal context (is a characteristic cultural, or is it particular to them as an individual?)
• Learning to manage your emotions and thoughts in the face of uncertainty, change and challenging circumstances
• Learning to shift frames, attune emotions and adapt behaviours to other cultural contexts

“As a leader, being culturally aware does not mean taking on all aspects of the culture of everyone in your team. Just be aware of how your culture comes across,” said Danielle.

“We need to be in charge of ourselves in order to adapt to another culture. As a starting point, look for the areas that you have in common with people across all cultures, to build connections and work from there.”