Inclusion and Belonging
Your Guide to Inclusion and belonging from the Guide for Managers supporting Internationally Educated Colleagues.
Supporting Internationally Educated Colleagues - Inclusion and Belonging
The importance of Inclusion
Inclusive leadership means recognising, accepting and valuing differences in identity, cultures, languages, beliefs, and values, and treating all colleagues with respect and dignity.
Research has shown that inclusive healthcare teams are better able to communicate effectively with diverse patient populations, which leads to better health outcomes. We also know that promoting inclusion and cultural competence within healthcare teams can positively impact team dynamics and reduce workplace stress, leading to greater job satisfaction.
Belonging
Inclusion is an environment and culture you create in your teams. Belonging is how you want someone in your team to feel.
In essence, inclusion is the practice of actively welcoming and inviting people in, while belonging is the feeling that people experience when they are fully integrated and connected in their team.
Feeling like you belong, and are truly connected and welcome in a group, is empowering and leads to a sense of purpose. This can help people deliver better care for patients. People who belong can feel empowered and able to speak up if they are unsure about something, which can lead to safer care.
Fostering a sense of belonging in teams creates an inclusive environment where everyone feels accepted, respected, valued, heard and understood.
Inclusion is an environment and culture you create in your teams. Belonging is how you want someone in your team to feel.
Culture
To create inclusive teams, we need to understand and celebrate the diverse cultural backgrounds of all our colleagues. Culture can be defined as the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of a particular group of people at a particular time. Individual culture may include values, behaviours and preferences around clothing, food and music. Look at the image and think about your own culture and how this might differ from your colleagues.
In summary:
- Culture is learned and passed on through generations.
- It is integrated into all aspects of an individual’s life.
- Group culture is expressed by individuals to varying degrees and in different ways. This means sometimes differences between individuals in a cultural group will be greater than those between two groups.
- Culture is dynamic and evolving.
- It is hugely diverse. Each culture may have several sub-cultures and exceptions.
Have you made the effort to understand the cultural background of any internationally educated colleagues in your team?
Cultural competence and humility
Relationships are at the heart of teams. Good teams deliver better care and enhance team members’ wellbeing. But building relationships can be more difficult with people from very different cultures to us. Cultural competence is about having the skills and confidence to develop meaningful relationships across cultures.
Cultural competence involves developing a deep understanding of different cultures, learning how to interact with those from other backgrounds whilst recognising any biases and prejudices you may have.
It is perhaps natural for us to believe that behaviours and traditions from our culture are the norms.
Demonstrating respectful curiosity about other cultures means we will avoid the temptation to make assumptions, which can sometimes lead to bias and discrimination. Cultural competence is more than respecting and welcoming people from diverse backgrounds. It is about understanding how different cultures impact and shape people’s behaviours and experiences. For example, understanding people’s cultures can help us contextualise others more effectively and build authentic relationships with them.
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