Local Organizations Improve Their Intercultural Competence

Oshkosh, WI - (March 6, 2018) -- Businesses and organizations in Oshkosh and the surrounding communities are recognizing the importance of intercultural competence to their mission and bottom line, and are taking concrete steps to further their efforts.

Fit Oshkosh, Inc., an organization dedicated to improving racial equality and building a welcoming and inclusive community, offers a tool to assess and improve intercultural competence. The Intercultural Development Inventory™ (IDI) has been used since 1998 in corporate, academic, and other settings in more than 30 countries around the world.

The IDI, conducted by a qualified administrator, is a 50-item questionnaire that takes 15-20 minutes to complete. It measures an individual’s capability to shift cultural perspective and appropriately adapt behavior to cultural differences and commonalities. This intercultural competence is a critical skill for more effective interaction in a culturally diverse setting.

The completed inventory is then used to focus individual coaching and action planning, to build real and virtual multicultural team development, to generate needs analyses for targeted developmental training, and to conduct program evaluation and other research. Fit Oshkosh can provide the full range of services, from initial assessment to program evaluation.

Tracey Robertson, co-founder and executive director of Fit Oshkosh, and an IDI qualified administrator, has worked with groups having a wide range of competency. “It’s not unusual for participants, even those with years of experience in diversity, to realize more opportunities through the IDI to reach their goals after implementing the assessment and subsequent programming,” she says. 

Associated Bank used the IDI with a select group of leaders involved in their diversity and inclusion efforts, with the intention of rolling out to additional key leaders over time. Although they are in the early stages of deployment, Darcy Pierson, Director of Inclusion, Engagement and Change Management Leadership, stated that “the IDI has helped the group identify specific and practical actions that we can take to advance our intercultural competency that go beyond traditional training classes.''

In engaging in the IDI process, Adam Jackson, culture consultant for Humana, wanted to get a deeper personal assessment of key leaders’ cultural awareness. The intention was to use that group’s scores to indicate what their larger organization may look like, and to work collaboratively on opportunities to make a difference together. A year into the initiative, Jackson says, “We have had leaders actually step up and lead some of these ‘real talk’ sessions where we explore inclusion and diversity topics. We made great progress on our action steps in 2017 and have a solid plan to continue this work in 2018.”

For more information on the IDI and other services offered by Fit Oshkosh, visit www.fitoshkoshinc.org/services.html

About Fit Oshkosh

Fit Oshkosh is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that seeks to promote social transformation through Color-Brave conversations, education, advocacy, and research in order to achieve race equity and justice. It believes in the importance of a multicultural community and strength in diversity. It values a community where people of color fit in without having to conform to the dominant culture. www.fitoshkoshinc.org