With the Nordic countries dominating the new World Economic Forum’s
Global Gender Gap Index 2009, it seems that the rest of the world will always be playing ‘second fiddle’ or ‘catch up’ as the top four spots once again go to our Nordic neighbours. I’m disappointed to note that the UK slipped two places to 15th this year but it is still streets ahead of the USA who slipped 4 places to number 31!  Shame on us.

The report’s Index assesses countries on how well they are dividing their resources and opportunities among their male and female populations, regardless of the overall levels of these resources and opportunities. So, who of our friends in the North won top spot and how did the rest of the world measure up?

Columbus Day is celebrated all over North and South America on Second Monday of October.

Christopher Columbus, an Italian under the sponsorship of the Spanish Catholic Monarchs, set sail with his three ships on an expedition to find a new sea route to India. Eventually, on October 12, 1942, a sailor aboard the Pinta spied land. Children from English speaking countries rembember the day by chanting:

“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” The ships were named: Niña, Pinta, and Santa María

At the time, Europeans were in search of trade routes to India and set forth on journeys in all different directions. Most of their journeys ended in vain either being shipwrecked by the violent seas, killed by pirates or killed by the natives of the lands they came across. Columbus was among the distinguished few who did live to tell their tales of discovery and brought unimaginable, fabulous wealth to the Spanish Monarchy and the unknown world into the maps of European travelers.

Find out more about Columbus Day

In a month from now Germany will be celebrating. On November 9th, 2009, Berlin celebrates the 20th anniversay of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a “Festival of Freedom”.  That is the day that has gone down in history as signalling the end of the cold war. It is one of those moments in histroy where those in Europe, at least, can vividly remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. What is little known is the story behind how the story first got out… a film maker, a vicar, and a nervous diplomat with a secret recording crossing to the West … which then lead to thousands of people on both sides of the wall converging on the crossing points, which lead to East Germany’s Communist ruler’s giving permission for the gates to be opened.

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Ann Fox of Absolutely Intercultural! And, being two interculturalists, we had LOTS to talk about. In this first part podcast Ann is asking me about intercultural communication and my speciality – how to shape your message when presenting to an international audience. Click on the link to find out more: how to present to international audiences.

Talking to Ann Fox about her award winning audio blog site www.absolutely-intercultural.com was extremely interesting. Check out the site and see what a range of people and topics ther are on offer.

What do migrants choose to take with them when they leave their homes and families forever – to help remind them of the life and the people they left behind? (I picked up this from www.globaldimensions.org.uk an online resource  promoting global learning)

In Memento, a moving two-part documentary broadcast on 2nd October, the BBC meets four refugees in Britain who had to make that tough choice. For Fazli, an Afghan child refugee, it’s a pen given to him by his father. And for Fungayi, a political activist from Zimbabwe, it’s an mbira – a traditional musical instrument that reminds him of better times. They tell their stories through the keepsakes, or mementos, they treasure most. Find out more, and listen to the programmes at the BBC World Service website.

Ingenuity, innovation and invention are words to use in connection with the efforts people in Africa have made in their use of recycled materials. Read the New Internationalist’s ‘Majority World Blog’ to see how much can be done with so little. It includes some great pictures of recycled products and links to websites for further info. Definitely worth a look – then go on to the home page and bookmark it as a major site for blogs from all over the world.

Making us laugh with his ‘Pollyannaism‘ (people who only look on the brightside) and ‘Eyorism‘ (people who only see obstacles), Dr Dick McCann gave a very insightful keynote session on the Dynamics of High Performing Teams at the Conference on High Performing Global Teams.  Bringing into focus the recent financial crisis, he compared the failure of many teams that, until recently, would have been thought of as high performing…

With a wealth of quotes and references from other notable interculturalists, Peter Franklin’s session on ‘Mindfulness: what it has to do with language use in effective international teams’  was ‘education on tap’ and introduced us to many  concepts and models that endeavour to explain what makes effective communication in international teams.

Explaining that the concept of Mindfulness was adopted from the one introduced by Ellen Langer in 1989, Peter then discussed global competencies as discussed by Kuhlman and Stahl (1998).  The main message of the presentation was about how you should consciously create understanding within global teams and that the building of meaning needs to happen on the same ‘construction site’. Other concepts introduced are examined in the book, The Mindful Manager, that Peter co-authored with Jeremy Comfort.

“You can’t fix a problem in Iraq with an 8,000 mile-long screwdriver!” proclaimed Terry Brake in his session on collaboration in virtual teams, at the Conference on High Performing Global Teams. I’d never met Terry before but am a fan of his work – and just like his books – his session was filled with insights and practical information. As he described, no longer do we have a simple ‘work place’ but agile ‘workwebs’ that are virtual and protean. And, a global virtual team consisting of  people distributed across time and space, whose task it is to collaborate, is a form of this. Terry’s session focused on his integrated set of virtual team perfomance indicators…

A serious topic, but Fons Trompenaars had us laughing, smiling and entertained in his usual inimitable fashion during his keynote address at the conference for High Perfoming Global Teams held in York, UK, last week. His main message to the audience was that creative individuals are a necessary but not sufficient part of a team for it to be effective. High performing teams need not only a diversity of roles but in particular leadership where the dilemmas between these roles are reconciled. This is the role of the Servant-Leader, reconciler-in-chief. However, his debunking of Michael Porter’s ‘Added-Value’ concept was interesting …