We were lucky to catch up with Renee Bhatti-Klug recently and have shared our conversation below.

Renee, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I have served as a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) and Cultural Intelligence (CI) facilitator and consultant for about ten years at a university. During the initial COVID-19 lockdown—in the midst of both stay-at-home orders and racial tensions—the need for my services grew. In response to this need, my business—Culturally Intelligent Training & Consulting (CITC)—developed serendipitously yet strategically.

The thought process behind forming the business was in my paying attention to current cultural shifts and attitudes and taking advantage of the time I had been given back because of stay-at-home mandates. I foresaw a need for an expansion of this business and used the extra time to develop, build, and grow a company that is responsive to the dynamic needs of the communities it serves. I decided to create an LLC with the hopes of scaling the business in 2022, after I completed my doctoral program. Nevertheless, by the end of summer 2020, the business grew to a team of six consultants. Then, in 2021, through my doctoral research project, the CI model and accountability tools we developed were proven to be effective in helping individuals become more culturally aware of and responsive to diverse intercultural needs. In the three and a half years since launching CITC, we have served more than thirty organizations across the U.S. through implementing various accountability tools through our unique and customizable CI model.

Our approach is different with each organization we engage: what’s common is that we collaborate over time with leaders, getting to know people at all levels of the organization to understand the landscape while measuring and addressing unique needs.

Renee, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Culturally Intelligent Training & Consulting (CITC) is a Women of Color-owned and-operated DEIB consultancy group that respects the process of change. Our growing team of facilitators, consultants, and researchers—who are currently in Arizona, California, and Colorado—aim to model what we teach in culturally intelligent ways. We use our original CI model because it empowers individuals to personalize CI so they can disseminate and institutionalize it organizationally for systemic transformation.

Cultural Intelligence (CI) is a person’s ability to understand and guide how they feel, think, and act when they engage with people across cultures, including ability, age, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, and race. Research proves that CI enhances people’s communication and performance when they work with individuals across multicultural dimensions.

CITC internally developed, tested, and trademarked an approach to CI to help individuals learn how to create inclusive cultures for organizational change. We teach people how to develop the capabilities of Openness, Awareness, and Responsiveness. We do this by strategically walking them through reflective, action-based exercises that develop the skills of curiosity, which guides Openness, or a willingness to learn; empathy, which guides Awareness, or the active process of learning; and compassion, which guides Responsiveness, or the art of creating inclusive cultures through informed behaviors.

We start with an organizational culture survey and follow this with a dynamic blend of training and consulting: we listen to needs, consider timelines and budgets, and offer honest answers to guide leaders in developing DEIB-first organizations. Our facilitators have expertise in the following community-centered topics: compassionate leadership, disability, the Enneagram for business, gender equity and empowerment, global/international advocacy, LGBTQIA+, racial justice, trauma-informed leadership, and veterans.

CITC’s DEIB Solution is different than other models because: 1. We are not satisfied with the one-and-done DEI workshop model; true diversity and inclusion work takes time. We honor this process. 2. Our model is data-driven and time-tested for organizational success. 3. We will leave organizations better than we found them. 4. We empower the members within organizations to continue DEIB work into the future. Our research-based and time-tested approach helps move organizations from intentionality to action.

Although our facilitators and consultants on average have over twenty years’ experience in implementing DEIB-related programming, because our business launched in the midst of COVID-19, we were given a unique opportunity to facilitate all programing online. We discovered that developing interactive content in online spaces, and connecting with people across time zones and screens, could be difficult, but through implementing CI strategies, our team united to learn from every organization with which we partnered to make future content more accessible and responsive. Moreover, despite escalating racial and political tensions, we learned how to approach sensitive topics—like bias and privilege—with compassion. Many clients have noted that this method allowed them to understand the importance of these topics, as well as their roles in building more equitable systems.

I believe because CITC came together during universally trying times that we developed resiliency, tenacity, and focus in understanding how to ascertain and address complex organizational challenges with patience and action-oriented solutions.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met Dr. Alene Terzian-Zeitounian in spring 2019 during the first meeting of our doctoral cohort. I intuited from the fact that we had both served as English faculty during our careers that we would be kindred spirits, especially given that the doctoral program did not have a literary focus. During our first semester, we were assigned to the same group and, by the end of our project, a friendship blossomed. Because Alene lives in Los Angeles, while I live in Phoenix, our friendship flourished from a distance–even before COVID forced us to engage in remote communication. When CITC began to take off, I needed help managing an increasing roster of clients. One day over the phone, Alene shared her dream of leading initiatives surrounding DEIB, as she had been engaging similar work at her organization for several years and this focus guided her dissertation study. I was shocked, as I hadn’t fathomed her pivoting away from teaching, but I trusted her on her words. Soon thereafter, I invited her to the team just before several large contracts materialized. Through my partnership with Alene, we have created a dynamic blend of analytical and creative tools to assist our clients in understanding how to operationalize DEIB for organizational transformation. From cultural surveys to CI assessments and digital/printed facilitation guides to interactive facilitations, our clients have several ways to understand themselves, their colleagues, and their organizational needs.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Building a reputation starts and ends with integrity and authenticity, or being who you are no matter where you are or whom you are with. We often are told that, when people are selecting contractors from proposals or conversations, that organizations select us because of the values that guide both our CI model and our organization and how we engage people: we are direct, diplomatic, honest, and kind. We give of ourselves without wasting time, energy, or efficiency. When our clients meet with us, they interact with people, not a corporation or entity. No matter how much we develop and grow, we want to keep our signature personability. This means we’ll use technology and growth to our advantage, but not at the cost of human connection. People see this and come to trust us because of it.

My advice to anyone growing a business: understand and be confident in who you are, not just as a leader but also as a person. Be that person with everyone you engage, especially those closest to you. Lead from your values and let these guide every interaction, decision, and conversation. If you do this, you’ll have few regrets because integrity and authenticity will uphold your reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.culturallyintelligent.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/culturallyintelligent
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneeronikabhattiklug/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxCMszTXDIr_qKN4H43zpzw

Image Credits
Jessica Juniper Photography