Promoting and maintaining an inclusive work environment is more important than ever, and cultural competence roleplays can help improve your team’s dynamics. 

In our beginner-friendly guide, we’ll explain everything you should know about this kind of roleplay enablement, including why cultural competence matters, how to conduct these types of roleplays appropriately, and a few example scenarios to run through with your team. 

What Exactly Is Cultural Competence?

Cultural competence is a person’s ability to understand and respect the beliefs, values, and attitudes of cultures outside their own. A large part of cultural competence is not just having that understanding but also knowing how to communicate and interact with people from diverse backgrounds. 

However, cultural competence isn’t just respecting other cultures. It also involves: 

• Recognizing and acknowledging unconscious bias
• Navigating communication differences
• Fostering a culture of continuous, lifelong learning

It takes effort to invest in your team’s cultural competence, but doing so can create a more equitable, inclusive environment where everyone feels respected, valued, and heard. 

Why Cultural Competence Matters (Especially in Today’s World)

In today’s world, we’re more connected than ever. Thanks to technological innovations like social media, people from all over the world can interact, connect, and work together easier than ever before. Today, cultural competence isn’t just a nice skill to have — it’s a necessity for successfully communicating, interacting, and working with folks from diverse backgrounds.

Cultural competence is important because it’s a key component in effective communication and in promoting a more inclusive, equitable environment. In the workplace, for example, teams work better together when everyone is respected and feels valued.

In fact, investing in your team’s cultural competence comes with a ton of benefits, such as: 

• Better employee retention rates
• Improved collaboration skills
• Enhanced employee engagement
• More innovation 

Leveraging cultural competence roleplays is a great way to start investing in your team.

5 Impactful Cultural Competence Roleplays 

Roleplaying can be an effective enablement tool, especially when it comes to subjects like cultural competence. Here are five powerful cultural competence roleplays to introduce to your team. 

1. Nonverbal communication differences 

Nonverbal communication — like hand gestures, eye contact, or even personal space — can vary wildly across cultures. What’s acceptable or “normal” in one culture might not translate as well in another culture. Miscommunications happen and that’s OK, but how you respond matters. 

Imagine a scenario where a difference in nonverbal communication leads to a miscommunication between coworkers. As the team lead, how do you expect your team to address a situation like this one? This kind of scenario can help your team feel more confident about how to handle a nonverbal cultural miscommunication and equip them with the skills they need to make it right and improve interactions going forward. 

2. Using inclusive language 

Understanding inclusive language and learning how to recognize outdated and even offensive language is essential in any workplace. For this cultural competence roleplay, have your team run through a scenario where someone accidentally uses an outdated term (no need to go into specifics). 

The goal of this roleplay is to better understand how to speak up when team members hear something inappropriate. Correcting someone else can be nerve-wracking for some folks, and gaining confidence in how to approach situations like these is crucial for any team. Help your team find a good balance between correcting someone without shaming them.

It should go without saying, but this roleplay scenario shouldn’t invite your team to use inappropriate language like slurs for the sake of roleplaying. You can absolutely achieve the goal of the roleplay without using offensive language. 

3. Identifying and responding to microaggressions 

Similarly, scenarios that help teams learn how to identify and respond to microaggressions are important, too. Like the inclusive language scenarios, this is not an invitation to “act out” microaggressions. Instead, use this cultural competence roleplay as a means of understanding how to respond.

For example, imagine someone on the team experiences or witnesses a microaggression (again, no need to go into specifics here). How should your team address situations like these effectively and professionally? You want to emphasize educating the person while also staying professional and not adding unnecessary tension.

4. Understanding privilege and what it looks like to be an ally

With this cultural competence roleplay, work with your team to highlight what it looks like to be an ally for others. In this scenario, explore ways you can make sure your work environment and team dynamics are inclusive. This type of roleplay can help employees better understand how to effectively advocate for others while being a good ally in a professional setting. 

A scenario like this would pair well with a training or learning on how privilege can affect the dynamics of a workplace, for example. 

5. Practicing company protocol for witnessing discrimination and bias in the workplace

Like many of the other scenarios on our list, this one is also not a scenario where your team should “act out” discrimination or bias. Instead, focus on the response to an imagined instance.

For this scenario, task your team with responding after witnessing an instance of discrimination or bias at work. What’s the company protocol for witnessing such an event? This type of cultural competence roleplay can help new hires and existing employees alike better understand company expectations for how to report discrimination in the workplace. 

Using Yoodli for Effective Roleplay Enablement

With regard to impactful roleplay enablement, there’s no better option than Yoodli.

Yoodli is a roleplay platform and communication coach that uses AI technology to provide teams with realistic roleplays for workplace enablement. Top brands like Google, Dale Carnegie, Korn Ferry, and others have already used Yoodli for their own enablement programs, and for good reason.

Yoodli’s expansive library offers teams tons of pre-existing roleplay scenarios that they can practice, from performance review simulations to skills training. But Yoodli goes above and beyond to provide brands with next-level roleplay enablement. 

In fact, teams can use Yoodli’s Builder tool to design and leverage cultural competence roleplays that meet their individual and team-wide needs. After crafting a custom roleplay scenario, Yoodli’s AI will engage in real time with team members to create a realistic, conversational experience. 

Not only that, but employees and team leads alike will receive an in-depth report on how they did during their roleplay, with valuable insights around their speech patterns, listening, and delivery. Based on their personalized metrics, Yoodli shares effective, actionable tips to help teams build and develop their cultural competence in the workplace.

Learn more about how you can leverage Yoodli for cultural competence roleplays at https://yoodli.ai/ to create a more inclusive, positive environment for your team.

Core Elements of Cultural Competence Roleplays   

To best reap the benefits of cultural competence roleplays, you need to ensure the roleplay scenarios you design include some of the basic core elements Here are some key elements of cultural competence roleplays to keep at the forefront with your enablement programs.

Fostering a culture of open communication and respect

When it comes to cultural competence roleplays, one of the most important elements is making sure to promote an open dialogue and a respectful environment. You want your team to feel comfortable asking questions and engaging in self-reflection. But for that to happen, you need to foster a safe, positive environment. 

Encourage your team to ask questions without judgement. Learning from mistakes is a hugely important component of this type of roleplay. 

Learning and debriefing after roleplay sessions 

In order to best learn from these cultural competence roleplay sessions, incorporate some form of debriefing. For example, maybe you have a list of self-reflection questions for folks to think through later and bring back for discussion. 

Whatever the case may be, debriefing can maximize and optimize learning from these roleplay sessions. 

Most Common Challenges to Steer Clear of in Cultural Competence Roleplay 

Although cultural competence roleplays are important, it’s arguably even more important to make sure you conduct these roleplays the right way. It requires a certain level of sensitivity and concentrated effort to do these effectively. Here are some of the most common challenges to steer clear of when engaging in these types of roleplays. 

Avoiding unintentional stereotyping in cultural competence roleplays

The biggest, most critical thing to avoid with these kinds of roleplay sessions is absolutely non-negotiable: Teams must avoid perpetuating stereotypes and discrimination at all costs. 

Cultural competence roleplays should never include scenes where team members “act out” racism, discrimination, biases, etc. Nobody should be using offensive language for the sake of a roleplay, for example. Cultural competence roleplays are all about a team’s reaction and response to these situations. 

It’s a much better idea to start with some learnings from speakers or experts in DEIB who can educate your team on what kinds of discrimination are common in workplace settings. From there, you can practice cultural competence roleplays to work on your team’s response to witnessing these sorts of situations. 

Managing resistance to and discomfort of talking about sensitive topics

When discussing cultural competence or other sensitive topics, like discrimination, you might face resistance or discomfort from your employees. Some folks might feel guilty, defensive, or uncomfortable, and that’s OK. 

However, talk with your team about sitting in that discomfort and understanding that this is a safe place for self-reflection and education. Having facilitators and experts in the subject can help tremendously. 

The Main Takeaway  

Cultural competence roleplays can be a valuable tool for promoting an inclusive, equitable work environment if used appropriately. Investing in your team’s cultural competence can improve team dynamics, employee retention, engagement rates, and overall interactions across teams. Plus, with an AI roleplay tool like Yoodli, it’s easier than ever to incorporate this type of enablement for your team..

Sources

• Maryville University: “Cultural Competence in the Workplace: What Leaders Need to Know.”
• Harvard Business Review: “How Investing in DEI Helps Companies Become More Adaptable.”
• IEEE USA InSight: “My Own Experience with Workplace Privilege.”