What will be your Man on the Moon moment?

As we enter into the Christmas season, lets remember that people celebrate this holiday for many reasons and that is OK. But, the unifying theme throughout the Christmas season is time with family, friends, neighbors, and maybe even complete strangers.

If you are one of these celebrating with complete strangers, that's OK, too. Just remember that each of us has a mission - to touch the heart of someone else. As you watch the video below, think about whose heart you can touch in the next two weeks. How can you make an impression on another's life that will last a lifetime? Can you make their life easier? Can you make their day brighter? Can you give them a reason to extend their hope for another hour?

You see, Christmas never was about giving material gifts. If you are a Christian, you know the first Christmas only contained one gift - the gift of a Savior. The Magi didn't come with their gifts until much later. If you aren't a Christian, the symbolism is the same - the gift you give someone else may not be material; rather, they may be a hug when it seems no one cares, a handshake when it seems the person is invisible to many, an acceptance of a person right where they are.

This season, look for your "man on the moon" moment. I promise you'll be blessed by blessing someone else.

Merry Christmas!

Let's change the conversation today

It's Monday. If you are like almost everyone else in this world, you hate today. It is the day we go back to work, we have to enter the world whether we want to or not, it is the start of the business, the craziness, the week.

Does it have to be that way? Do we have a say in how we start this week? Do we get to say today is a great day?

Yes, we do. Today, we can change the conversation. We can say we are thankful to be up, to be able to read, to be able to see the pictures in this post.

One of the tasks that I've started to do each morning - list 10 things that I am thankful for. It has given me a different outlook on my day and week. My circumstances may not change - my life is still hectic, bills are still due, there is usually not enough money to get to each of them - but there are at least 10 things that I am thankful for.

Try it. See how it may change your conversation today. See how it may change your day today.

What would you include in the job description for Santa Claus?

What would you include in the job description for Santa Claus? How about round belly, white beard, jolly personality, willing to sit for hours, be able to withstand heat, and patience. That's a pretty good list.

What about proficient in American Sign Language, ability to get in and out of chair often in order to reach customer, being willing to interact with children who have differing abilities, and multilingual? While we often forget these important characteristics, they are just as important as the first list.

This is why the acceptance of diversity is so important in business. Gone are the days when we had the cookie cutter life, when those who are different are relegated to live-in facilities or to the walls of their home. Gone are the days when all of our customers do not expect to have the same experience.

I work in the Quality Department of a company whose greatest workforce population speaks Spanish as their first language. Most of them know how to speak and write English; however, they are most comfortable in Spanish. All training at our location is performed in English only. How effective do you think that has been? When a new Quality Engineer tasked with developing ongoing training efforts for all of the employees said that all training should be in English and Spanish, upper management bristled. Diversity is a part of all business functions - even Quality.

Have you wondered what the experience would be for a child with differing abilities meets a Santa who can accommodate her? Watch the video and experience the wonderment.

On this Monday, I needed this ....

How do you define diversity?

I love watching TedTalks. In 15 to 20 minutes I get to hear someone's experience, opinion, or knowledge on various topics. Often it makes me, as a former professor used to say, think harder.

Recently, I did a search on YouTube for “TedTalks and Diversity”. The search results surprised me. Of the top ten listings, eight of them were for racial diversity. I'm not sure why I was surprised, when I speak with others about diversity that is the first definition their mind goes to. Typically, in my sphere of influence it is usually the differences between Black and White. Maybe I need to change my sphere or maybe this is how narrowly people define diversity. Even Miriam-Webster does it. Here is the first definition listing for Diversity:

“the condition of having or being composed of differing elements: variety; especially: the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization."

In reality, diversity is a very broad topic covering differences in age, ability, culture, sexual, sexuality, gender , religious and the list can go on and on. For those of you who are stuck in the middle of my list wondering why I repeated sex, sexuality, and gender, each of those categories are separate and distinct; but, that is a topic for another day.

For just a moment, lets see how other news sources define diversity. A search on USAToday's  website does better than YouTube; three of the top ten diversity articles are race related. The Washington Post had the same results – three out of the top ten articles centered on race. Both of these established news agencies had a result of 30% for racial diversity. I expected to see maybe one hit on racial diversity and nine hits on all the other types of diversity. Only  CNN's website gave me that type of diverse listing; zero out of the top ten diversity articles centered on race.

Granted, YouTube and these three news giants are not the end all be all of literacy nor are they an authority on diversity in the United States. Yet, they do play a large role in how we see the nation and the world around us. Having an article search on the word diversity turn up so many articles of racial diversity and little to none centering on other types of diversity is a little disconcerting.

When we speak of diversity and how diversity can make an organization, a family, a nation stronger, we need to really look at all of diversity. There have been many examples of how to look at diversity; some say it is a lettuce salad with multiple types of salad and accompaniments all put together in one dish, others see it as a melting pot. I correlate diversity to a piece of Oriented Strand Board or more commonly known as OSB Board. Have you ever seen OSB? It is made up of little pieces of wood glued together in different angles; it literally looks like someone laid out a layer of wood chips and poured glue over them so that they stayed in place. Multiple layers of this glued-together-wood-chip substance are put together to make one board. It is almost indestructible and damage proof.  

In my mind, that is how diversity is. When people open themselves up enough to work together, get to know each other, and trust each other the group can become almost indestructible. The glue that ties us together is the respect we have for each other and the common narrative we have. That narrative may be the simple fact that we are all human and need love, acceptance, and nourishment. Once a group develops trust the ongoing dialogue can create even more common narratives such as social and belief networks and systems. Through the common narratives society as a whole becomes more supportive and in turn families become stronger, children have higher educational and social achievements, and communities become more inclusive.

I have a challenge for each of you. Look at your sphere of influence and ask yourself how diverse it is. Do you need to broaden your wings a little bit? Do you need to include others who are different from you? For those of you who already have a diverse sphere of influence, do you know what your common narrative is? Have you asked those in your network what they believe that narrative is and do you agree?

It will be interesting to hear what your answers are.  

Do you walk away from diversity?

So many of us have been hurt by religion. I know I was, I walked away from my faith and then after much searching and learning about the facts of my faith - not always what I was taught - I came back.

But, what do we do when we are hurt by our faith? Do we just walk away and make believe nothing has happened? Do we allow the faith to continue to go on as normal? Many of us choose to do that very thing. Many choose to walk away and never help to create or make change from within.

In the TedTalk that I listened to this morning, Chelsea Shields answers that question from her vantage point. She didn't walk away from her faith when things were unequal, she didn't stop showing up for service, she didn't ignore the problem. She stood there and fought the good fight to change a system that was not defining the original claims of her faith.

That, in its essence, is what diversity is about. It is not about ignoring the problems that we have, not about walking away mad, and its definitely not about giving up. Rather, it is about standing in the gap and realizing that a change must be made and slowly making that change. Diversity is about looking at our individual issues, gaps, mishaps, and figuring out how to reconcile them with the world.

Take a few minutes and listen to Chelsea and let me know what you thought of it.