diversity

Cisco Empowered Women’s Network Launch at CiscoLive!

https://youtu.be/1JT3C9XoGQU  On June 22, the first Cisco Empowered Women’s Network (CEWN) session was held at the CiscoLive! conference in Orlando, Florida. It was an opportunity for Cisco’s female customers, partners and employees and their male allies to gather for learning, sharing and networkin…

A solo trip to Russia

When you hear about Russia, what images come to your mind? Grand Palaces, matryoshka dolls, vodka? Since studying Russian history at school and in my endeavour to visit as many countries as possible during my lifetime (I’ve currently visited 42), I’ve always wanted to visit the largest country in th…

Thermometer or Thermostat? MLK Jr’s Letter from Birmingham Jail

“…when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed t…

February 12, 2013

INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY

Getting Away from Group Think

When was the last time you had a team meeting with someone outside your usual circle of colleagues? This is a question – and a challenge – laid down by Peter McDonald, a collaboration expert that I met with last week. Peter works for a consultancy that focuses on helping people collaborate. And they…

January 21, 2013

INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY

Until Justice Rolls Down…On Martin Luther King Jr.

It was a printer jam that made me realize the full power of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream Speech.”  Growing up in the United States, I had studied Martin Luther King Jr’s  outsize impact on civil rights and American history.  That said, I had never heard the entire speech he gave in 1963 …

December 7, 2012

INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY

Redefining Disability

This week the world celebrated the United Nations International Day for Persons with Disabilities. So let me ask you a question. What does disabled mean to you? If you say the word aloud, what comes to your mind? Wheelchairs, white sticks and hearing aids, maybe. Go a little deeper and you might thi…

November 18, 2012

INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY

To Bias or Not to Bias…

” We do not see things as they are, we see things as WE are” – Anais Nin A bias is a simplification that our brain goes through when we are in front of a situation we’ve been before. In that instance we rush decision and even behave inappropriately based on different elements like…