In the opening of this chapter, I described the watershed moment that started me on this journey. I encourage you to take five to ten minutes to identify a watershed moment for yourself. What happened in your journey that inspired you to pick up this book? Whatever it may be, take some time and write it down. This will help you lean into this experience as you begin to develop a posture of cultural humility.

Take time to reflect on the characteristics that comprise a sense of belonging and note those you believe your organization exhibits. How many can you identify? Are you happy with the quality? If you are, why? If you aren’t, what would it take to develop more characteristics and a deeper sense of belonging?

These reflective questions will help you identify why cultural humility is needed if your organization is going to be successful in fostering a sense of belonging.

After the murder of George Floyd and during the Black Lives Matter movement, many organizations made per- formative statements. Take time now to write down the statements your organization, or an organization you are familiar with, made after the murder. Did their statements lead to what you would consider substantive changes? Why or why not? If you did not make substantive changes, what got in the way?

Sometimes we make statements with the best intentions, but they may have a negative impact. Have you ever expressed an idea that you thought was accurate, maybe even supportive, and it ended up being a misstep? Did you apologize without being defensive? What was the other person’s reaction, and how did you respond?

Think about your organization. Can you say with confidence that your people would say they have psychological safety as defined in this chapter?

In this chapter I shared several exercises to help you develop a growth mindset, curiosity, and the ability to listen more deeply. Take time to review the exercises and commit to trying each one during the next two weeks. Write down your reflections on what you learned about yourself and share those reflections with a trusted col- league, mentor, or your professional coach.

Take the Cultural Humility Assessment on my website, www.DearWhiteLeader.com, to determine where you are on my cultural humility scale and share the results with someone you trust to get feedback.

I have given you a lot to think about and do in this chap- ter. You may want to give yourself a period of three months to work through these exercises, so you can give them the attention they need. I encourage you to ask others to keep you accountable by doing these exercises with them, taking the metaphor of the redwood trees and bringing it to life.

Take the Implicit Bias Association Test (IAT) and share the results with people you trust. Ask for their feedback about the results and if they have noticed you demonstrating the biases you have.

Complete the Circle of Trust exercise and reflect on the results. Identify what you can do to expand your circle to include people from different identity groups.

Identify a Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), so you can take the assessment, receive your profile and development plan, and talk with them about how you can move along the Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC).

Create a Social Identity Wheel for yourself and reflect on the questions I provided earlier in the chapter. Share the results with a trusted friend, colleague, mentor, or professional coach and ask for feedback.

Reflect on your privileges by first thinking about which privileges you have, both earned and unearned, and writing them down. Once you have done this, think about how they manifest themselves in your personal and professional life.

Complete the cultural iceberg exercise and reflect on the questions I provided earlier. Share the results with a trusted friend, colleague, mentor, or professional coach and ask for feedback.

Reflect on the eight practices you can do to manage your nervous system to better equip you to become comfortable with complexity and identify how you can develop them.

Take time now to answer the following question: What power imbalances currently exist in your organization? If you don’t know the answer, what do you need to do to find the answer?

Think back to the feelings associated with a sense of belonging (you are encouraged to speak up, you are taken seriously, your organization is open to curiosity and creativity, you are given psychological safety, you are not expected to be perfect, you feel welcomed in a supportive environment, and you are recognized both tangibly and intangibly for your contributions). Are these feelings you would associate with your organization? Why or why not?

Think back to the characteristics associated with organizations that do not foster a sense of belonging (perfectionism; sense of urgency; defensiveness; quantity over quality; worship of the written word; paternalism; either-or thinking; power hoarding; fear of open conflict; individualism; progress is bigger, more; objectivity; and the right to comfort). Which of these characteristics does your organization demonstrate? Identify people in your organization with whom you can share the list to get an honest assessment from someone else.

List your current initiatives that are related to DEIB. Then answer the following question: How are they connected to your mission, vision, and values? If they are not, why not? What steps can you take to connect them?

Now that you’ve completed this chapter, take a moment to reflect on the questions below in relation to your organization. Utilize the answers to these questions to build your Dimensions of Diversity strategy.

How have you aligned your DEIB efforts to your mission, vision, and values? If you have not, why? What is holding you back?

How are you actively tracking the demographics of your talent for all levels?

How are you including topics of DEIB in your talent development and onboarding program?

What is your organization doing to measure the climate and intergroup interactions?

What current initiatives does your organization have related to DEIB, and if you were going to categorize them using the framework, where would you place them?

How are you using data to guide your DEIB efforts?

Take time now to reflect on the conversation you envisioned earlier in this chapter where having a posture of cultural humility would have been helpful to gain a better understanding of the other person’s point of view. What would have been different? Would the outcome have been different if you did? Write that conversation down and spend time thinking about how conversations could look differently moving forward.

Write down the answer to the following question: Does your organization have a plan to address situations that have a negative impact on the sense of belonging and psychological safety of your talent? If it does not, what will it take to develop a plan so when things happen you will be ready?

Take time now to think of an upcoming conversation you will be having that may turn contentious with a neighbor, family member, member of your faith community, volunteer in an organization you are involved in, and so forth. Reflect on how this conversation will look different now that you know how to use a posture of cultural humility. Now share your reflections with someone.

Now that you have completed this book, I encourage you to review your notes on all the previous exercises and determine your next steps. Perhaps it will mean finding a coach or consultant to create the space for reflection you will need to set goals for yourself so you can continue to develop a posture of cultural humility.

Visit my website, www.DearWhiteLeader.com, and complete the cultural humility assessment so you can deter- mine if you have a foundation to move from cultural competency to cultural humility.

Share this book with others in your organization and your circle of influence. As a way to create community, you will need to provide accountability and support as you and others develop a posture of cultural humility.