Expert Forum

Shortly after I moved to Portland in 1980, a colleague, knowing my background with high school and college choirs, invited me to join the Choral Arts Ensemble, a forty-voice group that primarily sang classical music. Oddly enough we were invited to sing back up on a number with singer/songwriter Barry Manilow during his concert here in town. Read more

One of the books I was reading in 1968 as I was finishing up work on my master's degree from the University of Oregon was Black Rage by Drs. Price Cobbs and William Grier, both psychiatrists, both black men. The book was released following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and received significant attention, eventually leading to a television special. Dr. Cobbs had participated in the march to Selma and was active in the civil rights movement. Read more

As a young boy, my parents told me there were three topics I should never address with adults - age, religion, and politics.  I'm not quite sure why I was given that directive, but it seemed that every kid I knew got the same lecture.  I think it had something to do with respecting people's privacy and in the 1950s the climate was pretty reserved and many things were kept "close to the vest". Read more

A well-known consultant and speaker, Ken Blanchard, says that there are four things that must be in place to help an organization be successful - mission, vision, values and direction. As I think about these four attributes, it would seem that mission and values represent the places we must work from while vision and direction assist us to move forward. Read more

For the past two years I've been struggling with a way to address the topic of race in America, both individually and corporately. This week I had the opportunity to be with some people at a local organization to discuss the direct and indirect impact the recent events are having on peoples' lives. One of the participants said, I can't bring my whole self to work when I'm feeling frustrated / sad / frightened. Read more

I was sitting in the office of a chief diversity officer for a large corporation in Cincinnati, Ohio.  We had just completed a session on leadership, diversity and inclusion. The topic of race relations surfaced and she began to tell me about a time when she packed a box lunch for her son who was leaving to drive to Atlanta. Read more

In July I began writing about the intersection between leadership, conflict and character. There were two main drivers for undertaking this project.  First I was frustrated with the political processes that had taken place in 2008 and again in 2012. Campaign slanders and the inability to get things done were pushing me to ask the question why we can’t do something about this process. Read more

When I have a room full of people come together to explore the dynamics of diversity, I first give them a brief history lesson of how diversity, inclusion, and intercultural communication became important workplace topics.  We got into diversity in the first place due to compliance, legislation that states that we can no longer discriminate against people based on their race, gender, or religious background. Read more

Every year our firm sponsors a twelve person running team that takes part in a 200 mile relay from Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood to the beach in Seaside, OR. The course is divided into 36 “legs” ranging in length between four and seven miles; each team member runs a total of three legs. This was our 19th year sponsoring a team and we were a diverse group. Read more

The diversity and inclusion field has become a full blown profession consisting of internal and external practitioners. Due to the complexities of meeting individual and organizational needs it may sometimes be hard to determine what standards or boundaries are necessary to meet client needs. Read more

I am struck by the progress we are making in the field of Diversity and Inclusion, both externally and internally, knowing full well there are differences in approach and philosophy. This article is devoted to examining how we might need to expand our sphere of influence to include some of the outside forces that do not directly apply to our specific places of work, but rather the items which undergird our overall make up as a nation and possibly the world at large. Read more

It seems that in the fast and faster pace of today’s world we may be accomplishing more, but at what cost.  We can get “there” in less time thanks to faster planes, trains, autos and GPS.  We can get in touch faster because of e-mail, Instant Messaging and 4G phones.  With the internet we have access to more information than we know what to do with.  Yet how much have we really accomplished in human relationships, with diversity and inclusion? Read more