You're trying to develop a strategy for your company. What are the most important steps to take?

I think it depends on the mix in your workforce. In my case, the majority of people working for our company are simple country folk, hired as workers in production and there is a gulf, or rather an ocean that separates their world from mine, plus they work in a different country. I would estimate that before evaluating cultural competency, you would need to establish what you define as CC and do this without judgement and a narrow view. Not an easy task - probably you would need to ask them whether they thought that I was the right person to make this evaluation... Perhaps it would be best to go more basic and see if there are fundamental common values within the company. It is different in a pure white collar team but not in my case.

Our team is spread across five countries, which presents unique challenges in balancing cultural awareness and sensitivity with our business needs. Internal interviews and surveys have been instrumental in crafting policies that are responsive to different traditions, holidays, strengths, and challenges. To that end, we recently updated our paid holiday and vacation policies to better accommodate team members outside the US. While we have global holidays like Christmas and New Year, we encourage team members to choose Flex Holidays. This allows everyone to be with family on holidays that are not shared with the USA holiday calendar. We celebrate building one cohesive team that is not limited by the country of residence.

In my experience, embracing diversity and inclusion never has a downside. My mission is to build a workplace where we help each other. Without a cohesive team, there will never be true success. The key indicators of our success as a company are mutual respect and collaboration.

Based on your objectives, SWOT analysis, and market research, develop a strategic plan that outlines the actions and initiatives required to achieve your goals. Define key strategies and tactics for growth, resource allocation, and risk management, and establish clear milestones and timelines for implementation.

We are in the process of implementing our action plan. Key features include: - a monthly Team Bonding meeting where we learn more about each other - skills, interests, values, movie recommendations, music, and more. - In our company Slack, we have a Virtual Water Cooler channel. This is a place for the team to talk about anything. Passions, cultural anecdotes, dreams, and guilty pleasures (Mine is Only Murders in The Building).