Cultural Intelligence: Speaking The Universal Language of Empathy

Is cultural intelligence just another DEI initiative, or is it a core leadership competency? In this healthcare edition of The Ethicsverse, Katrina Garcia, Director of Compliance at AdventHealth, and Ximena Restrepo, Compliance & Privacy Partner at Logan Health, joined host Nick Gallo, Chief Servant & Co-CEO of Ethico, to make the case that cultural intelligence belongs squarely in ethics and compliance.

Drawing on experiences from crisis stabilization units, international compliance teams, and hospital rounding across shifts, the panel explored how cultural differences show up not only across borders but across the hallway, and why empathy is the universal language that helps compliance teams build trust, influence behavior, and get better information. Here are the key takeaways.

Key Takeaways

Cultural Intelligence Is a Leadership Competency, Not a DEI Program

DEI is an organizational effort, like a patient safety or quality program. Cultural intelligence is an individual skill set that each person develops over time.
No one is born with cultural intelligence. It grows through exposure to different people, patients, and experiences, and it requires curiosity and the motivation to learn.
Leaders without strong cultural intelligence can still be excellent leaders, but they will be less impactful with certain audiences and in certain situations.
Workforce demographics are shifting quickly, which makes leading diverse teams across ethnicity, race, gender, generation, and region a growing requirement.

You Cannot Influence People You Do Not Understand

Compliance is a human business, and so much of the job is influencing behavior. Delivering the same message to every audience causes your success rate to fall through the floor.
Cultural competence is central to stakeholder management: you have to speak the other person's language, literally and figuratively, to move them.
In healthcare, cultural intelligence helps teams ask the right questions and involve patients in their care. In substance abuse and mental health treatment, success rates are higher when providers share a patient's culture.
When language fails, small acts of humanity, a smile, patience, even a little charades, can still communicate care and build trust.

The Four Capabilities of Cultural Intelligence

Motivation (drive): the curiosity and willingness to engage with people who see the world differently.
Knowledge (cognitive): a basic understanding of cultural norms and values. You do not need to know every culture, just be aware of the general themes in your work.
Strategy: using that awareness to check your biases, avoid stereotypes, and plan how to ask better questions.
Action (behavior): adapting your tone, gestures, body language, and communication style to the cultural context in front of you.

Empathy Is a Compliance Skill, Not a Soft Skill

Empathy is not the same as being nice. Saying "my family member passed away too" centers you; acknowledging what the other person is going through centers them.
Combining cultural intelligence with emotional intelligence produces cultural empathy: the ability to see another person's perspective and respond respectfully in context.
Empathy requires action. ER nurses model this by connecting with patients and families immediately, and compliance teams supporting them should exhibit the same competency.
In investigations, empathy means asking what motivated someone rather than leading with judgment, and pausing long enough to let people talk, especially in high-emotion departments.

Be Curious, Not Judgmental

Investigators almost always form assumptions from the first report. In Ximena's experience, more than 90% of the time the outcome is not what she initially assumed.
Replace accusatory questions like "Did you know this was against policy?" with neutral ones like "Help me understand what challenges led you to this decision."
People clam up when they feel judged. Curiosity lowers their guard and lets you understand how the lock actually works before trying to pick it.
Policies written from a local U.S. perspective can be misinterpreted by international teams, so corrective action that looks like misconduct may really be a translation problem.

Addressing Resistance to Change and Accountability

Resistance does not happen at the organizational level. It is the sum of individuals, so change management cannot be done by edict; it has to be done person by person.
Be the change: build relationships first by asking international and local teammates about their regions, families, holidays, and daily challenges.
Use hotline data, inquiry trends, and themes to show leaders how different perspectives and understandings of policy are driving behavior.
Watch for a lack of leadership sponsorship. Leaders do not need to know everything, but they must listen, model expectations, and say "let's figure it out together."

Small Leadership Changes Can Unlock Speak-Up Culture

Different cultures have different norms about speaking up to leaders, HR, or compliance, so tailor education and reassurances about non-retaliation to your audience.
When Katrina showed remote international teams she cared about them as people rather than functions, trust, ideas, morale, and speak-up activity all increased, and mistakes decreased.
When someone will not raise a concern, there is usually fear or apathy behind it. Leadership reinforcement helps those walls come down.

Culture Exists Across the Hallway, Not Just Across Borders

Cultural differences show up between U.S. regions, departments, and even shifts. Day shifts may be loud and energetic while evening shifts are quieter and more reflective.
Tune into the personality of each unit, whether it is an ICU or a pharmacy team that bakes cookies every morning, to learn how to resonate with that group.
Shared experiences build bridges: potlucks, music, and a country-themed holiday celebration where staff decorated offices with their own traditions measurably lifted morale.
Understand the person behind the name tag, not just whether they can hit the deadline.

Bringing Cultural Intelligence to Upper Management

Tie cultural intelligence to trust and to your organization's core values and mission, especially the commitment to quality patient care.
Come with results: show leaders what changed over three to six months of intentional relationship-building, then propose embedding it in other departments.
Invite executives into the activities themselves, whether a monthly cafeteria lunch with kitchen staff and EVS teams or community events, so they gain the exposure firsthand.

Measuring the Impact

Track speak-up metrics. More reports and inquiries across the board can be a good sign that employees feel comfortable, unless they are concentrated in a single area.
Hypothesize what you would expect to move if it were working, such as more identified reports relative to anonymous ones, and measure against your historical trend.
Pair the logic of data with stories and small wins at compliance committee and board meetings. Examples are what people remember.
Compliance holds data no one else in the organization has, and AI now makes it easier to aggregate qualitative case data to spot trends.

Avoiding Stereotypes and Cultural Blindness

Do not claim you "don't see culture." Cultural blindness shuts down honest conversation.
Never assume you know someone because of their background. Ask them directly over coffee, lunch, or a virtual chat.
Recognizing your own assumptions is a sign of self-awareness. Build on it by educating yourself through research, documentaries, and conversation.
Curiosity is not enough on its own. It takes initiative, time, and effort to actually get to know people.

Closing Thoughts

Both panelists ended on the same note: start small and start today. Katrina urged compliance leaders to take a colleague to lunch, ask where they are from, and give themselves grace when they get it wrong, because it is an ongoing journey. Ximena encouraged beginning with your own department and borrowed Dale Carnegie's advice to be interested in others rather than trying to be interesting.

The one mindset shift they would ask of every compliance professional? Stay curious, keep that childlike wonder, and resist the urge to believe you have seen it all. But as Ximena put it, be curious and then do something about it.