With so much change occurring at so many levels this year, a number of people have asked for my perspective on D&I in the new normal that we are now experiencing. There has indeed been shifts in organisations from top to bottom. Work from home, virtual work and new ways of doing things have emerged […]

With the festive season almost upon us, I am always mindful of the importance of being culturally agile when bringing people together and the significance of religious holidays to different cultures. It can be quite easy to offend people unintentionally at this time of year. So, I thought it might be apt to discuss acknowledging […]

Recently a number of former clients have been in touch wanting to discuss re-engaging in D&I work. I find it really interesting that these clients have returned having realised there is more work to be done in the space. For me this reflects an aspect that so many people in the space would be aware […]

The current situation occurring in the political realm between Australia and China is an interesting example of cross -cultural conflict. Politics aside, the behaviours and responses of both parties have been highly ethnocentric in their approach. Australia has failed to temper it’s response and been perhaps too hasty in responding. They have also reacted to […]

In recent years in Australia at formal events and meetings, an acknowledgement of country is often used in the opening. This is done to recognise the custodianship of Australia by Indigenous Australians and to show respect to the tribal people and the lands you are on. It was a point of discussion in a seminar […]

Psychological safety is an ongoing challenge in many teams and workplaces. Without it, the status quo cannot be changed and the real issues of cultural dysfunction in organisations are not addressed. It is particularly important when new people arrive that a sense of psychological safety is created so that people are able to raise issues […]

Albert Mehrabian identified 3 main areas of face to face communication and developed the theory of the 7- 38- 55 communication rule. This concept explains that 7% of meaning is conveyed through spoken word, 38% through tone of voice and 55% through body language. Interesting to note how important body language is. Having been thrown […]

In most organisations, the loudest voices or the majority tend to be the ones listened to. This means that we often don’t hear from the minority – which is sometimes called the “ghost voice”. From an inclusion perspective, it is important that we also hear those voices. Often these voices are not heard or are […]

I was facilitating a workshop a couple of weeks ago and one of the participants continually made one liner jokes that didn’t land well and then felt the need to explain himself and that it was a joke. It made me reflect on how difficult humour can be especially in mixed cultures where some people […]

Recently I was in a conversation about the little things that we as individuals can do to affect change. Many of the changes that are needed are systemic and structural and therefore there is a limit to what individuals can do. An example is climate change, an individual may not be able to directly influence […]