My “Expressing Feelings” Algorithm for Difficult Workplace Conversations and Problem-Solving

“Never mind all that feelings stuff, let’s just do it”. Just do it. Just do the work. If only life were so simple. In the workplace, jointly solving problems often involves difficult conversations, and conflicting views. Difficult conversations won’t go well unless feelings are surfaced. We have to have those conversations. Change happens, finding solutions to […]

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. […]

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 […]