Running errands this morning I heard about the looming baguette shortage in France and it reminded me that sometimes it’s okay to grow up and turn into your mother. Wait…there were a few steps in between. 1. The looming baguette shortage, led to 2.) thinking about all of the baguette I ate traipsing around Paris…
DetailsI’m travelling in Paris with my mom this week for her 80th birthday. And, for her birthday, it’s not just accompanying her on her dream to see Paris and making sure she doesn’t trip on the brick sidewalk and break a hip, it’s about accepting her fully and joyfully with her full regalia of predilections…
Details(This post originally appeared 9/2013.) A review of recent photos from road trips with my son Lucca has yielded a certain theme. Let me give you a sampling: World’s Largest Toilet, Columbus, IN, August, 2013 Shit Fountain, Chicago, IL Special Birthday Outing, April 2013 Crapo Park, Burlington, IA March 2013 Aside from me clearly being…
DetailsMy brand is about intercultural communications, and intercultural communications is about appreciating different perspectives—even suspending your own belief in something momentarily to try to see something from another’s perspective. Even If you go back to your own idea—which is actually likely (science supports this–it’s been your idea innately for years) you never know. And, just…
DetailsWhile marketers are screaming about the need to be exciting and interactive and praising of millennials, the next generation, Gen Z (aka our children…or at least my children, since a characteristic of young boomers or x’ers was to delay having children while building our careers…aka having it all) has burst onto the scene, and they…
DetailsI have a client who talks a lot about creating a teaching and learning culture. The context for him, which he captured in his book about active grandparenting, was how grandparents, parents and grandkids can all learn from one another across the generations. What’s amazing is that at 87, he is living his philosophy, constantly…
DetailsI learned a few weeks ago that there were going to be 800 students from Brazil in Chicago this summer, studying at the Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Illinois Chicago and University of Chicago. I immediately sent a proposal to IIT to offer a workshop on Communicating and Socializing with USAmericans. They need to…
DetailsThe lady was standing in front of the cash register with a tray full of baskets of fresh cooked battered and fried somethings, as they entered the road side stop somewhere in the middle of Illinois. “What are those?” asked her teenage son. “Fried chicken gizzards,” said the ‘gas station chef’ as she placed the…
DetailsI got my Parkway Alumni News in the mail today, and read about a kid who, now grown up, searched for his favorite high school teacher, to say “thanks.” Now a successful entrepreneur, he also sent her a check for $10,000. She said it made her feel like she “won the lottery!” In honor…
DetailsCultural competence is defined as “the ability of individuals and systems to respond effectively and respectfully to all people in a manner that recognizes, affirms, values and preserves the dignity of each individual.” And while many may in theory aspire to this, changing national demographics, differences in communication styles and expression of values, as influenced…
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