Remembering the Brilliance of Ursula Franklin: The Real World of Technology

Ursula Franklin died last month, in Toronto. She was 94. Ursula Franklin was a “Canadian giant” for a whole lot of reasons; she was a world-renowned physicist, feminist, Quaker, author, pacifist, professor, Holocaust survivor, public intellectual, mother, and mentor. She was honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1982 and with the […]

Summer Fun and Learning at Toastmasters

I’ve been part of a local Toastmasters club for the last two years.  This was my first foray into the Toastmaster’s world. We meet once a week; early morning (6:55-8:15 a.m), at a local community centre. Toastmasters and my experience with Toastmasters Toastmasters focus is to provide a supportive environment to improve public speaking. Toastmasters originated in […]

Communication Breakdown – A day-in-the-life story of a home care service provider

So much of our daily conflicts have communication breakdown as their root cause. By improving our communication skills, our abilities to “make common”, we give ourselves a huge leg up, when it comes to working with others and effectively managing conflict. Jennie’s story Jennie is a home care service provider. Her job is to provide […]

Getting to Hello: A Strategy For Facing Unfamiliar Territory

Picture this – You are in a foreign land, and feeling uneasy. You’re crowded around a table, with people that you barely know. The conversation feels awkward. The food is different. You’re confused. Not in control. You ask yourself, what’s next? Yesterday, I did a workshop, on cross-cultural conflict management, for my local Inter-cultural Association. For […]

Superheros in Cross-Cultural Conflict Management

An icebreaker activity I often use in training workshops is ‘Superhero’. I learned this activity via Thiagi. Here’s how it goes… I divide participants into small subgroups of 3-4. I ask them to identify a superpower that would help them be more successful in the training topic. I give them a few minutes to share […]