Last week, the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO) sponsored an event in Victoria, coinciding with CESO’s 50th anniversary and National Volunteer Week. The event welcomed Volunteer Advisors, local government and community leaders, clients, and supporters. I’m a Volunteer Advisor with CESO. I attended. CESO is an international development organization working in Canada, with Aboriginal communities, and around the […]
CESO support of Aboriginal communities’ development in Canada informs its International work
May 2, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Communication and Diplomacy: The skills workplace managers need to improve most
March 21, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
Raise your hand if you’ve been witness to a workplace conversation that goes something like this? Employee: I wish you had checked with me before making the decision. Manager: I just assumed that it worked for you. Employee: It puts me in a difficult position with the team. Manager: Don’t worry. I’ll talk to them. […]
Show me: Restorative Justice
March 15, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
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
March 9, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
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
March 8, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
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
February 22, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
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
February 17, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
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 […]
A Communications Code of Conduct for Virtual Boards of Directors
January 10, 2017 by · Leave a Comment
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]
December 19, 2016 by · Leave a Comment
[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 […]
