I gave a presentation at a conference in June 2021 that was hosted by the Canadian Mental Health Association Saskatchewan Division and Service Hospitality and I was honoured to do so. The conference was called, We’re Only Human – Promoting Positive Workplace Wellness and my presentation was about Intercultural Competence and Workplace Wellness. My presentation was pre-recorded, but during the live question and answer period afterwards, I was asked if the TRC mentioned the IDI®. [Read more…] about Intercultural Competence and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Call to Action 57
Intercultural Competence and Anti-Racism
Intercultural competence development based on the Intercultural Development Continuum TM and the IDI ® is relevant to anti-racist work and goals and effective as an anti-racism strategy, because it focuses on eliminating interpretations of difference and behaviour based on biases and stereotypes while increasing interpretations of difference and behaviour based on cultural generalizations and frameworks.
Conference preview: “Intercultural Competence and Workplace Wellness – what is the cost of doing nothing?”, We’re Only Human Conference, June 22, 2021
Workplaces that are psychologically safe are deemed to be free from harassment, discrimination, bullying, verbal abuse, unfairness, disrespect, and violence. Workplace wellness should include policies and programs that ensure both the physical as well as the mental health of an organization’s employees. [Read more…] about Conference preview: “Intercultural Competence and Workplace Wellness – what is the cost of doing nothing?”, We’re Only Human Conference, June 22, 2021
Emphasizing sameness – the “elephant in the room” of cultural bias.
If we are members of a dominant majority in a diverse and heterogeneous society, do we extend the olive branch of inclusion to others based on how much and what kinds of similarity we can recognize in them? Do we interpret inclusion as a form of conditional love? The more alike others are to us, the more we like or love them; the less similar they are to us, the less inclined we are to accept them?
[Read more…] about Emphasizing sameness – the “elephant in the room” of cultural bias.
The intercultural development coach-approach to inclusive and effective leadership.
Sights on Success Consulting uses a coach-approach to foster leadership development in intercultural competence. This means helping leaders to shift from mono-cultural mindsets to intercultural mindsets of understanding, acceptance, and adaptation to both cultural differences and similarities. Intercultural development coaching helps leaders to increase both cultural self-awareness and cultural awareness about others across diversity dimensions such as age and generation, gender, race, sexual orientation, disability, religion, etc. so that they can become more inclusive and effective.
The following topics and questions are meant to provoke thinking and self-reflection that will help leaders to shift their mindsets in the intercultural and culturally adaptive direction.
The Intercultural Development Continuum™: an organizational development tool for changing and improving how diversity is managed.
In the aftermath of the deeply disturbing racist, brutal, and fatal act against George Floyd, and the revelation of similar acts against other black people, Indigenous people, and people of colour, one wonders if organizations are thinking about and reviewing how they manage diversity. The die has been cast, and it seems to me that organizations cannot languish any longer, if they have been doing so, in a state of complacence. To continue as such is tantamount to concurring with the status quo, and that has both serious moral and business implications. [Read more…] about The Intercultural Development Continuum™: an organizational development tool for changing and improving how diversity is managed.
