Cultural Humility - The Art of Understanding Yourself In Order to Understand Others
You know what really grinds my gears? Burns my biscuit? Rustles my Jimmies? Flips my pancake and jams my jelly?
Cultural competency training! There, I said it! And I’m not gonna take it back!
You simply cannot have mandatory training without a module on cultural competency. And don’t get me wrong, I understand how important it is to acknowledge and address the impact that power, prejudice and privilege has on the world. I get how these things affect the way we interact with each other.
But I am triggered the moment I see those two alliterated words proudly put on show at the start of the impending powerpoint or e-learning that is about to rob me of 20 to 90 minutes of my already dwindling time on this earth!
And as an anthropologist, that is a heartbreaking experience because talking about culture is my happy place!
Moreover, whenever I go to one of these things all I see is the presentation of outdated “cultural” knowledge that reproduces stereotypes, reduces identity to over-simplified categories and ignores how complex we truly are.
Most of the time, however, rather than being able to handle complexity, people leave cultural competence training reinforced in their “knowledge” that the “West” is individualist, the “East” is communalist, Australians are more assertive and masculine than Indians, and as the British would say…“It’s just not cricket!” ;-)
But for some reason we still use things like Hofstede’s Cultural Domain Theory to understand cultural difference. Of course you could insert Trompenaars, GLOBE, Lewis, or any of the other folks who think they can squeeze the complex and messy wonder that is culture into nice neat boxes or sort them along lovely little colour coded lines between two binary opposites.
And I’m not trying to say that we are all the same. There are differences between cultures. But there are also differences within them. The problem is that the meanings we attribute to this difference from the outside are more often a reflection of our own biases and prejudices, meaning we end up producing a version of cultural difference that affirms our existing worldview, rather than adequately describing the beautiful complexity that is there in reality.
Side-note…Here are some cracking reasons why you should not use Hofstede:
Methodological Issues: Critics argue that the research relied heavily on surveys conducted within a single multinational corporation (IBM), which may not represent entire national cultures accurately.
Cultural Homogeneity: Hofstede's theory assumes national cultures are homogeneous and static, ignoring internal diversity and cultural changes over time.
Oversimplification: The model reduces complex cultural traits to a few dimensions, potentially oversimplifying cultural differences.
Outdated Data: The original data was collected decades ago, and some argue that it may not reflect contemporary cultural dynamics.
Ethnocentrism: Some suggest that the model reflects Western biases and may not adequately capture non-Western cultures.
Many cultural competence trainings end up making people feel like they are in control when they are faced with the inevitability of human cultural messiness. The bottom line is that when you walk out of a training believing the same things you did when you went in…then there’s something profoundly wrong!!
In fact it is impossible to be fully versed on a group of people in your lifetime. Let’s be honest, what does it even mean to be “competent in culture”?
I’m not even competent in my own culture!
I’ve lived in Australia my whole life and I still don’t fully understand it. I mean, whose Australia are we even talking about? What decade? What geographical location? What class? What gender? What ethnicity? What sub-culture? What generation?
And don’t get me started on my relationship to my Indian culture. And even more troubling, I’m Australian and Indian and I don’t like cricket…What hope is there for me?
Cultural competence is all about acquiring knowledge and skills to interact effectively with individuals from different cultures. It often emphasises understanding specific cultural traits and practices. But what if I see my individualism and my communal drive as coming in equal parts from both my Australian and Indian history?
When we treat cultural competence like an achievable goal like a “finish line” to be crossed, then we completely miss the mark. Cultural competence leaves people feeling that they are being reduced to one part of their identity…and I’m just not having it!
It is more important to have a human experience of difference than an academic one. It is more important to engage with people that don't look like you, who come from different walks of life, and to get to know them as human beings, rather that than to focus on the cognitive pigeon holes that so many of these diversity trainings seek to embody.
And this is where the idea of Cultural Humility can be useful.
Cultural humility, focuses on maintaining an ongoing process of self-reflection and personal growth. It encourages individuals to recognise their own biases, approach interactions with an open mind, and view learning about others as a lifelong endeavour. It emphasises the importance of listening and learning from others, rather than assuming one can fully understand another culture or define it in discreet ways.
This approach fosters more genuine, respectful, and dynamic inter and intra-cultural interactions. Cultural humility accepts that you do not know - you may not ever know, but that should not stop you from trying to connect and understand. In fact, it accepts that it is ok to get it wrong - it acknowledges that the quest to understand difference is a journey, not a destination.
And Anthropology is essential for grasping cultural humility because it lets the world be as messy as it is. It gives us really cool tools to think with so that we can explore human similarities and differences with more depth and sophistication. It is committed to understanding others from their point of view. It emphasises getting out of your comfort zone and immersing oneself in different cultural contexts, promoting empathy and open-mindedness.
Anthropologists practice reflexivity, constantly examining our own biases and assumptions. By focusing on the lived experiences and viewpoints of different people, anthropology fosters a deeper, more respectful engagement with diverse cultures, which is crucial for maintaining an attitude of humility and continuous learning.
And so when it comes to bringing more cultural humility into your workplace, or community or home, it is important to recognise that if we can own our biases, acknowledge what we don’t know and treat that unknowing with a sense of wonder and curiosity, then we are well on our way to developing the kind of cultural humility that is necessary for safe and inclusive spaces.
A positive consequence of being culturally humble is that it fosters psychological flexibility, rather than rigid thinking. It helps you broaden your mind. You will be able to understand and deal with more complex cultural dilemmas, and most importantly you will refrain from falling into the trap of using stereotypes.
But remember that there are so many factors that influence a person’s behaviour, not just their culture. So if a person from a different culture behaves differently it does not necessarily have anything to do with that person's cultural origin.
So be curious instead of reductive. Be open and empathetic. Be flexible and humble. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.
Looking to understand this a little deeper? Here’s a few things that might help:
Watch:
You're Doing It Wrong: The evolution of cultural competence | Raquel Martin | TEDxRutgersCamden
Read:
Beyond Hofstede and GLOBE: Improving the quality of cross-cultural research
Listen:
Dr Monty Badami is an Anthropologist and the Founder of Habitus. He combines evolutionary evidence with cross-cultural research to demonstrate how our creativity, diversity and imperfection, is actually the secret to our adaptability and success as a species.
He has spent most of his research living with the Paniya, a marginalised indigenous group in India, who were slaves until recently. However, he now works closer to home, where he delivers transformative workshops that help people put more meaning and joy back into their lives.
Monty supports organisations to improve their performance and gain a competitive edge by embracing our humanity and nurturing collaborative and inclusive cultures.
He runs a series called “Brave Conversations”, where he uses his anthropological knowledge to talk about what it means to be human, as well as challenge the norms of toxic masculinity as well as other stereotypes of class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and race.