Diversity and Inclusion - Global Perspectives

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is doing some exciting things.  Last week they hosted a Diversity and Inclusion Thought Leader's Summit in the Washington DC area and invited 100 thought leaders from around the world to participate in broad ranging discussions around issues of gender, workplace flexibility, education, employability and competencies for the global economy.  Fans Johansson whose work in cross-field and cross-cultural innovation and creativity has always been of relelevance to our efforts here at TruMann Consulting was the featured speaker.

I was privileged to be invited as a panelist addressing issues of education and employability skills and wanted to share what I articulated to the group as the key competency areas required to be successful in our increasingly global economy.  Briefly these include:

Job Content Competencies– specific to each position e.g. engineer needs to understand math and physics; an accountant, finance; a doctor, biology; a craftsperson, manual dexterity, etc.  Clearly technology plays a critical role in this area.

Career Success Competencies – communication - verbal and writen; team work –especially across diverse groups; analytical/problem-solving/critical thinking abilities; creativity/innovation; flexibility; empathy/sensitivity to clients/customers; commitment to life-long learning; focus and intensity as applied to tasks; resourcefulness.

Global Competencies – based on three key dimensions:

• Knowledge of other cultural histories, people, countries, economies, and political systems
• Ability to speak/think in other languages
• Positive attitude/interest in engaging with people, experiences, settings, ways of thinking/living different from our own

What do you think? Let us know what you think!