As an immigrant and settler on Treaty 4 territory of mixed South-east Asian and European heritage, I acknowledge and respect the traditional lands of the nêhiyawak Cree, anihšināpēk Saulteaux, Dakota, Lakota, and Nakoda, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation.
I am an Intercultural Development Consultant and the founder of Sights on Success Consulting. I am also a Qualified Administrator of the IDI and an ICF-certified leadership coach. I design team and leadership development programs in Intercultural Competence to support effective Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Truth and Reconciliation plans and goals. These programs include: assessment and feedback, workshops, and leadership coaching.
I have been engaging with intercultural competence since 2008. I discovered it while writing a research paper for a Master of Education degree in Human Resources Development. After completing this degree, I was offered a position by a nonprofit immigrant service organization and I had the opportunity to participate in intercultural training that included the IDI. I then implemented a personal intercultural development plan based on my IDI results. Through this process, I became aware of improvements in my ability to bridge cultural differences, communicate more appropriately with my co-workers and clients, and achieve my goals. In 2016, I attended a Qualifying Seminar offered by IDI LLC to become a licensed QA, took the IDI again, and formally noted my improvement in intercultural competence.
That same year, due to my positive personal and professional experience with intercultural development, I founded Sights on Success Consulting. Since then, I have designed and facilitated group assessment and debrief workshops for a number of organizations and provided individual assessments and debriefs for several professionals working in various sectors. I have also designed and facilitated coaching programs to help individuals achieve their intercultural competence goals. In addition, I have designed and facilitated workshops as well as presented at conferences and webinars about intercultural competence development for non-profit, business, and professional associations and educational institutions. Every now and then, I write a blog on intercultural competence development and some of my articles have been published online by nonprofit and business organizations. In 2017, I founded the Intercultural Sharing Circle, a community building endeavour that meets monthly, to support DEIA and Reconciliation through Leadership Development in Intercultural Competence.
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Meka Okochi, Director, Organizational Strategy Execution, City of Saskatoon
