By Moumita Jamindar-Arnold
In learning and development, few topics receive more attention today than cultural competency and inclusion. Yet despite growing awareness, many organisations continue to treat these concepts as separate initiatives rather than core elements of effective learning. We attend workshops, complete e-learning modules, and celebrate cultural events, but an important question remains: are we designing learning that genuinely resonates with diverse cultural contexts and enables everyone to thrive?
As learning professionals, we influence how people learn, connect, collaborate, and lead. When learning experiences reflect diverse cultural perspectives, they build capability, create belonging, strengthen engagement, and improve outcomes.
The importance of this work continues to grow. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030, with adaptability, resilience, curiosity, and collaboration becoming increasingly important. As organisations navigate technological disruption, globalisation, demographic change, and artificial intelligence, the ability to learn across cultures and collaborate across differences is becoming a critical capability. The future of learning is digital and AI-enabled, as well as culturally responsive and inclusive.
Cultural competency is often misunderstood as learning about different cultural groups. While understanding customs and values is valuable, true competency requires self-awareness, curiosity, humility, and a willingness to examine our own assumptions and biases.
In New Zealand, this journey carries particular significance. Learning practitioners operate within a bicultural foundation shaped by Te Tiriti o Waitangi while supporting increasingly diverse communities. Importantly, cultural competency is not about becoming an expert in every culture. It is about developing the capability to engage respectfully, adapt thoughtfully, and create environments where different ways of knowing and learning are valued.
Researchers increasingly emphasise cultural intelligence (CQ) - the ability to work effectively across diverse cultural settings. In a world where teams collaborate across countries, cultures, and time zones, cultural intelligence is becoming a workforce necessity rather than a desirable extra.
Leadership scholar Edgar Schein observed that “the only thing of real importance that leaders do is create and manage culture.” If culture shapes behaviour, then learning shapes culture. Every programme we design either reinforces existing assumptions or expands understanding.
One of the most important insights for learning professionals is that learning itself is culturally shaped. Much workplace learning has been influenced by Western educational traditions that prioritise individual achievement, direct communication, competition, and linear problem-solving. These approaches work well for many learners, but they are not universal.
For some learners, knowledge is acquired through storytelling and collective discussion. Others place greater value on observation, relationships, reflection, or experiential learning. Concepts such as authority, participation, feedback, and decision-making may also be interpreted differently across cultures.
When organisations assume there is only one “right” way to learn, they risk excluding people who bring different strengths and perspectives. Inclusive learning design begins with a simple question: Who might be missing from our thinking? That question helps uncover cultural assumptions embedded within programmes. As today’s workforce becomes more culturally, linguistically, and generationally diverse, inclusive learning design benefits everyone, not only underrepresented groups.
Many organisations have increased cultural representation within learning materials. Images are more diverse, examples reflect broader perspectives, and cultural celebrations receive greater visibility. These are positive developments, but representation alone is not inclusion.
True inclusion occurs when learners see their experiences reflected in meaningful ways and when their perspectives influence the learning process itself. For example, a leadership program that incorporates Māori concepts such as manaakitanga, whanaungatanga, and kaitiakitanga should explore them as legitimate leadership frameworks rather than cultural additions to a predominantly Western model.
Inclusion requires organisations to view cultural knowledge as a source of innovation and insight, not as something supplementary. It is not simply about ensuring diverse faces appear in learning materials; it is about ensuring diverse voices influence how learning is designed, delivered, and evaluated.
Culturally inclusive learning environments depend on psychological safety. Harvard professor Amy Edmondson defines psychological safety as a belief that people will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.
Creating psychological safety requires more than establishing ground rules. Facilitators must model curiosity, welcome multiple viewpoints, and acknowledge power dynamics that may influence participation.
This becomes particularly important when discussing identity, equity, privilege, or lived experience. Facilitators do not need to have all the answers, but they do need the confidence to hold meaningful conversations while remaining open to learning themselves. One of the most powerful statements a facilitator can make is: “I don’t know, but I’d like to understand.”
Belonging is increasingly recognised as a key driver of engagement, wellbeing, and performance. Yet belonging cannot be created through policy alone. It emerges through everyday interactions that signal whether people feel valued, respected, and included.
Learning experiences play a significant role in creating those signals. When participants hear their names pronounced correctly, see their experiences reflected in examples, have multiple ways to contribute, and feel their perspectives are welcomed, they experience belonging.
Designing for belonging means recognising that inclusion is rarely achieved through standardisation. More often, it is achieved through thoughtful flexibility. Providing multiple ways to participate, incorporating storytelling, encouraging collaborative learning, and recognising different communication styles can significantly improve engagement for all learners.
Belonging is not only a moral imperative; it is also a performance strategy. Organisations that create environments where people feel safe, respected, and connected are more likely to unlock creativity, collaboration, and innovation.
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded within workplace learning, cultural competency is entering a new phase. AI-powered learning platforms can personalise content, recommend development pathways, translate materials, and support learners at scale. However, technology is not culturally neutral.
AI systems learn from existing data, and that data can contain historical biases, cultural assumptions, and representation gaps. If left unchecked, technology can unintentionally reinforce exclusion rather than reduce it. This raises important questions for learning professionals: Whose perspectives are represented? Which languages are prioritised? How do systems define success? Who may be excluded from the design process?
The future of inclusive learning will depend on our ability to combine innovation with cultural awareness, critical thinking, and human-centred design.
If cultural competency implies mastery, cultural humility reminds us that learning never ends. Cultural humility encourages us to recognise the limits of our knowledge and approach every interaction with openness and curiosity. It shifts the focus from “knowing about others” to “learning with others".
For learning professionals, this mindset is particularly valuable because workplaces continue to evolve. Demographics are changing, global connections are expanding, and employees bring increasingly diverse expectations about leadership, wellbeing, communication, and learning. No framework or toolkit can prepare us for every situation. What will serve us well is an ongoing commitment to listening, reflecting, and adapting.
As we look towards the future of learning, cultural competency and inclusion should not be viewed as specialist topics or optional considerations. They are fundamental to effective learning practice. Learning professionals can begin by:
Auditing learning content for cultural assumptions and unconscious bias.
Engaging diverse stakeholders in programme design.
Incorporating Indigenous and culturally diverse knowledge systems alongside traditional models.
Providing multiple ways for learners to participate and demonstrate capability.
Measuring belonging and psychological safety alongside traditional learning metrics.
Evaluating AI-enabled learning solutions through an inclusion lens.
These actions move cultural competency from aspiration to practice. This work does not require perfection; it requires intention. Ultimately, culturally competent and inclusive learning is about unlocking human potential. When people feel seen, understood, and valued, learning becomes more powerful. Teams become more connected. Organisations become more innovative, and workplaces become places where everyone has the opportunity not just to participate, but to belong. In a world that is increasingly diverse, digital, and interconnected, that is essential to leadership.
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An enthusiastic Human Resources Generalist and experienced Learning and Development Specialist who enjoys working with organisational leaders to support their organisation strategy, people, performance and culture. An articulate and highly organised individual with specialty in building and delivering major work programmes using innovative and analytical methods, team management and stakeholder engagement. An experienced presenter, facilitator, public speaker, leader, coach, and a mentor. Connect with Moumita on LinkedIn.