In too many places, the work of #diversity, #equity, #inclusion and #belonging is the "job" of a relatively small number of individuals in a team, unit, committee. Before it can be a "joy" for all (for, after all, inclusion and belonging should be joyful), workplace culture has to be confronted. In the last few weeks, I have given a number of webinar sessions that have spoken to the importance of tackling #workplace #culture to drive systemic change efforts, particularly in r

This fall, Toronto launched its Year of Public Art 2021-2022 aptly named ArtworkTO. Curious, I was nicely surprised to learn about #Pop Up Art Hubs around the city, from community galleries, Union Station to suburban shopping malls eager to fill up empty retail spaces due to the #pandemic's impact. After exploring one of these suburban Art Hubs (which I may save for a later post), I planned a brief shopping jaunt downtown to the Toronto Eaton Centre. If you need a break from

In my last post, I closed with the benefit of #intercultural fluency. I wrote: "Intercultural fluency can allow you to develop into the bridge between cultures and groups, thereby enhancing your own skills as a catalyst, a networker, a leader, a coach. It fosters the opportunity for #collaboration across different styles of verbal and nonverbal communication, of resolving conflict and differing face needs and varying ways to be in the world." I promised a future post on #inte

This post on the pros and cons of #intercultural #fluency has been delayed, in part by my efforts to enjoy the altogether too-brief Canadian summer and the revamping of my website! Intercultural fluency is the ability to perform more than one culture (its values, beliefs, practices, etc.) sufficiently and effectively. By ‘perform,’ I mean that you are able to be seen and received as a competent member of a culture, based on your performance of the culture’s verbal communicati

In January, I presented a webinar for the SIETAR (the Society of Intercultural Education, Training and Research), NY-NJ-CT Tri-State chapter, that now seeming ridiculously wordy. I called it “Embedding Intercultural Fluency Training in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Transformation.” It was my first webinar and my first virtual presentation in a while to a US-based audience, which, in these days of borderless Zoom events, was also drawing in interculturally-minded participant

Many countries are multicultural. Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, the UK, the US, Brazil, France, to name several. However, in Canada, multiculturalism has been a defining national characteristic since the 1970s, when it was invented. I say invented because Canada is, officially, the first multicultural country. Interestingly, it was born out of the strife and struggle that followed the aftermath of the country becoming official bilingual (En