Show me: Restorative Justice

Remember “show and tell” time when you were small? It wasn’t “tell and show” time. It’s “show”, first, for a reason. A local ‘show’ came my way this week. It was from the terrific folks at Restorative Justice Victoria. Restorative Justice video (video not displaying? click here to watch it on Youtube) Restorative Justice Victoria’s (RJ […]

The CEO, The Profits, and The Conflict

The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) has been around almost as long as the nation state of Canada. The CPR was incorporated in 1881.  The last few years have been good ones, for CPR shareholders. Yet, that “success” may have come at a price, workplace culture, as last weekend’s Globe and Mail feature on the CPR […]

Use diverse strategies to create workplaces that better benefit women

Today is International Women’s Day. The UN adopted ‘women in the changing world of work’ as its’ theme for International Women’s Day 2017. On that front, UN Women has a few facts you should know, starting with the wage gap: From the Executive Director of UN Women: “Achieving equality in the workplace will involve governments’ targeted […]

Adopt a multi-dimensional approach to reduce workplace bullying and harassment

Today, February 22, 2017, is anti-bullying day, aka Pink Shirt Day, in Canada. While the focus of the day is bullying in schools, bullying behaviour has no boundaries. Schoolyard bullies, unanswered, take their act forward; to their families, communities, workplaces. Bullying behaviour in the workplace A respective workplace seeks to mitigate bullying and harassment behaviours. […]

Use Peer Assists to Transfer Knowledge and Solve an Organization Challenge

I follow Nancy Dixon’s blog, Conversation Matters. Her work is focused on the people side of knowledge management. She has developed a succinct model for how to transfer knowledge to help solve an organization challenge. Peer Assists are part of that model. Using peer assists to transfer knowledge between teams Frame: In Dixon’s model, Peer Assists are […]

10 diverse ways the smartphone can be used for learning and applying social justice

Working in Tanzania, last November, I noticed how much the local people relied on their smartphones, and not just to scroll their social media feeds. Stoked by opportunity, and constrained by infrastructure, they are finding new ways to be resourceful with what they have. In many places in Eastern Africa, including Tanzania, the smartphone becomes […]

A Communications Code of Conduct for Virtual Boards of Directors

Some recent client interactions, one local and the other virtual, has me reflecting, once again, on the communication differences between in-person and virtual; this time, especially as it applies to Boards of Directors. I’ve sat on various nonprofit boards over the years, and followed the happenings of many others, nonprofit and private, from afar. Most […]

A Conflict Christmas Carol [A poem]

[Riffing on the basic storyline from A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens’ novella), I came up with this poem. Happy holidays!] He walked the streets, not seeing Yet, right he was, never wrong Quick to judge, quick to his trigger. At a festive party one day, he was surprised When the other declared, “you are like […]

6 Low-cost high-value strategies for virtual collaboration on a budget

[This post expands on a ‘virtual collaboration on a budget’ slide I used in a webinar last week, for Charity Village] I’ve been snake-bit a few times, when it comes to virtual collaboration. Nothing deadly, it’s just that I’ve experienced too much frustration, and squandering of dollars, at the feet of the technology gods. Basically, although […]

Alternate Dispute Resolution helps support a growing entrepreneurial culture in Tanzania

Last month, November, I was in Tanzania. Stationed in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s largest city, I provided Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) advisory services to the Tanzanian Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA). TCCIA has 20,000+ members. I was there as a Volunteer Advisor with the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO). I’ve volunteered, internationally, with […]