The day after the killings in Orlando I heard Stevie Wonder's "You are the Sunshine of My Life" on the radio. I used to sing that song to my daughter every day when we first brought her home. It made me think about those 49 mothers and fathers who must have their own favorite song that makes them think of their sons and daughters.
Like everyone else, I was stunned by the senseless killings. To paraphrase Lin-Manuel Miranda's sonnet at the Tony Awards, hate is hate is hate, no matter what name we give it: terrorism, domestic terrorism or hate crimes.
Sadly, all over the world we have mourned, ceaselessly. For me it all started in Paris. I was saddened by the death of a close friend at the same moment in time. I didn't think it could get any worse. And then, of course, it did.
What makes us hate has been theorized since the beginning of time. Shakespeare wrote about hate and violence. But what is rarely discussed is what we need to do beyond the wailing and the gnashing of teeth.
It all starts with how we run our business, our schools and our governments. I can only tell you what I am going to do to facilitate change. I know I can't change the world, but I can change the lives I touch every day.
My team and I are committed to inclusion. We are all made up of diverse families, religious beliefs, ethnicities and sexual orientations. We are a good team and want to work for good.
To me inclusion is the most important driver of business today. Without inclusion we lose our creativity, our drive and our resourcefulness, because by accepting that people are different from us we acknowledge we are not perfect and that we can always learn from others.
The steps to inclusion we teach in our programs are three-fold. My research has proven that inclusion occurs when Learning = EQ + IQ in a culture.
Step 1: Teach people in your culture to achieve their goals by understanding how each prefers to listen, to learn and how to influence.
Step 2: Teach people the emotional intelligence of your organization by demonstrating how in your culture you accept and give feedback, and how and why you have difficult conversations in your culture.
Step 3: Teach your culture's IQ, which is how decisions are made morally and ethically, and how this is expected to influence performance.
In the workplace we need to abide by this unassailable truth: inclusion is not just a soft skill in which we count numbers and make up job titles. Inclusion is inseparable from our humanity and -- if ignored, dismissed or thought of as "soft" -- will isolate people.
Albert Einstein said, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." I am not sure that anything will stop the senseless taking of life, but I will continue to fight for diversity and inclusion.
It's our humanity that makes us who we are. Lip service further denigrates the horror in Orlando. We can and must be moved.
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