Engaging Internationally

As Time Goes By

April 11, 2012

I’ve been  thinking  a lot recently about the passage of time.  What does it mean and how do we mark it?

I like to celebrate & commemorate anniversary dates of different events – some of us  do and some prefer not to – that preference can be personal, organizational or cultural.  Many of us who …

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Videoconferencing Options for Multinational Working Groups

March 28, 2012

Perhaps like many of you, I work with a number of multinational Boards and other working groups.  Historically they have either met in person, or via conference call.  Recently I did some research on the state of videoconferencing, hoping to find some platforms that could bridge the divide between meeting in person, and meeting by …

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Reflections on gender and cross-cultural sensitivity

March 7, 2012

Leading up to the annual International Women’s Day (IWD) celebration on March 8th, there has been a lot written, and blog discussions, about the role of women in the world.  Some of these discussions have also veered in the direction of not only gender issues but general diversity awareness.  Where we are in our own …

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Systems Thinking

March 1, 2012

I don’t much like labels – perhaps because the work I do has never fallen neatly into any available labels.  But one label I was recently given, I do quite like: systems thinker. “Systems thinking  is the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole.”  Here’s another perspective on systems thinking …

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The Value of Mentoring

February 15, 2012

The good folks at whydev.org are starting a peer coaching program for the international development community.   That got me thinking recently about mentoring.  One of my earliest mentors advised me to ‘always be a mentor and have a mentor’;  and  I have always tried to follow that advice.  Sometimes the assumption is made that mentorship …

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