Tuesday 29 November 2011

Why Your Organization Should be Thankful to @LadyGaga



I set out to find a recording of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade; however, I am thankful I found instead the ABC Holiday Special “A Very Gaga Thanksgiving”. Sung from her high school cafeteria, which had been “Gaga-fied” for the occasion, I was fortunate to catch the performance Lady Gaga gave of one of her hit songs I had not yet heard.

“Hair” is an anthem to those who did not have a seat at the cafeteria table, rallying them to be proud of their personal identity and to have faith that each one of us deserves respect for our own individuality. It is also an ode to her realization that, rather than assimilate to the masses, she'd prefer to emulate her mother.

Ms. Gaga equates herself to being one of those children who didn’t have a seat the cafeteria table of her choice when she was younger, and very much identifies as a victim of bullying. Our society has been facing the grimmest of circumstantial outcomes when it comes to bullying. With tragic youth suicides more common in our headlines, bullying has become a distinct glaring problem.

Bullying has been on Lady Gaga's bulls-eye with laser point ferocity. She offers her battle cries not to nay sayers, but rather to those being arbitrarily “nay sayed”. Therefore not only inspiring people to understand the deeper wounds of bullying, but to also create a race of her “little monsters” who are nothing but proud to defend themselves and their own thoughts.

I have encountered more than a few raised eyebrows when speaking of Lady Gaga and her outside-the-box art. Fan or not, however, anyone that proudly utilizes their public voice to amplify a message of acceptance, respect and individuality should be praised. People such as Lady Gaga are the game changers and innovators.

With similar intentions, actions and outcomes we now know that bullying isn’t just a schoolyard experience; it also happens in the workplace.


The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety has compiled some great examples of toxic behaviours you have every right to avoid encountering while at work, such as:

  • Gossip – Spreading rumours, false or true information.
  • Excluding or isolating someone socially.
  • Physically abusing, threatening physical abuse, or using intimidation.
  • Using inappropriate, 'obviously offensive' humour in conversation or digitally.
  • Violating privacy and personal space by pestering, spying or stalking.
  • Yelling or using profanity.
  • Criticising a person persistently or constantly.

Some more workplace specific experiences might be:

  • Undermining or deliberately impeding a person's work.
  • Withholding necessary information or purposefully giving the wrong information.
  • Belittling a person's opinions, creativity or innovation, regardless of success.
  • Tampering with a person's personal belongings or work equipment.

Indications of “bullying” from management may include:

  • Having areas of responsibilities removed without cause.
  • Constantly having work guidelines changed.
  • Not afforded responsibilities, creating a sense of uselessness.
  • Unwarranted disciplinary actions.
  • Blocking applications for training, leave or promotion

According to the Ontario Safety Association for Community and Healthcare Workplace Bullying Handbook one in 10 Canadian workers has been the subject of harmful bullying, intimidation or belittlement by a boss or co-worker. In 70% of the cases, the bullying only stopped when the victim quit or was let go. In a further 17%, the victim was transferred. Even worse, the bully suffered consequences in only 13% of cases.

It's safe to say Lady Gaga is devoted to teaching society the following:
  1. Being your complete self can be a source of innovation.
  2. Everyone is welcome to the table.
  3. Discrimination and Bullying are never acceptable.
Aren’t these the same concepts we hope to instil within our organizations to help them function with higher quality?


Business leaders from here on out should be thankful to Lady Gaga. She is encouraging and coaching our youth to be better people, which in turn will lead them to become better employees and employers. It will only cost our organizations more in the long run when we have to spend our resources combating an issue like bullying – something we all had assumed was just “kids being kids”. Lady Gaga’s efforts are securing a safer and more innovative workplace of tomorrow. We must follow her lead by taking the time to address the cause and effect of bullying that our youth face on a daily basis now, so that we do not expend great resources in the future combating these identical issues in our workplaces.

In tribute to those denied acceptance, throughout Ms. Gaga’s performance, she continued to add additional hair pieces to her ensemble. The first being a turban of golden brown hair, and finally a long teal hair extension that she bobby-pinned into the top of her freshly placed hair hat.

She states while adding the final piece of teal hair:

“Just one more piece of hair; and this one is for all the kids who are bullied at school who are afraid to be themselves. I’m going to put this big funny piece of teal on my hair and tell you that I feel fabulous because it is my freedom and my choice to do so, and I hope that every day at school you remember, you remember that there is somebody who is fighting for you.“


"I've had enough, this is my prayer, I'll die living just as a free as my hair" ~ @LadyGaga

We also recommend you get to know The Born This Way Foundation , @eGlobalLearning was one of the first diversity minded organizations to be followed by @BTWFoundation and we couldn't be more honoured!  

Thursday 10 November 2011

At the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month by Joseph Lévesque


(The following is a guest blog by friend of Global Learning, Joseph Levesque. Joseph is a professional classical singer, government employee, and proud Canadian.) 


Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day, Armistice Day or Veterans Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries to remember the members of their armed forces who have died on duty since the First World War.

Remembrance Day is observed on November 11th to recall the official end of World War I on that date in 1918. The major hostilities of World War I were formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice. The day was specifically dedicated by King George V, on November 7th 1919, as an observance of members of the armed forces who were killed during World War I.

Every year on November 11, Canadians offer a silent moment of remembrance for the men and women who have served, and currently serve their country during times of war, conflict and peace. More than 1,500,000 Canadians have served in Canada’s military and sadly the country has lost more than 100,000 fallen heroes. They gave their lives and their futures so that we may live in peace.

The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem “In Flanders Fields”.

 
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.


Its’ opening lines refer to the many poppies that were the first flowers to grow in the churned earth of soldiers' graves in Flanders, a region of Europe that overlies parts of Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Canadian physician and Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae is popularly believed to have written it on May 3rd, 1915 after witnessing the death of a fellow soldier and beloved friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. The poem was first published on December 8th, 1915 in the London-based magazine Punch.

In 1918, American YWCA worker Moina Michael, inspired by the poem, vowed to always wear a red poppy as a symbol of remembrance for those who served in the war. At a November 1918 YWCA Overseas War Secretaries' conference, she appeared with a silk poppy pinned to her coat and came bearing 25 more for fellow attendees. She then campaigned to have the poppy adopted as a national symbol of remembrance. At a conference in 1920, the National American Legion adopted it as their official symbol of remembrance.

Following the First World War, a French woman Madame E. Guérin, suggested to British Field-Marshall Earl Haig, a founder of the Royal British Legion, that women and children in devastated areas of France could produce poppies for sale to support wounded Veterans. In 1921 she sent her poppy sellers to London, where they were adopted by Field Marshal Haig. The first of these poppies were distributed in Canada in November of 1921, and the tradition has continued ever since. It was also adopted by veterans' groups Australia and New Zealand.

A white poppy is also not uncommon. Some people choose to wear white poppies as a pacifist alternative to the red. The white poppy and white poppy wreaths were introduced by the UK's Co-operative Women's Guild in 1933. Today, white poppies are sold by Peace Pledge Union or may be home-made.


On November 11 especially, but also throughout the year, we have the opportunity to remember the efforts of these special individuals. In remembering, we pay homage to those who respond to their country's needs. On November 11, we pause for two minutes of silent tribute, and we attend commemorative ceremonies in memory of our war dead.

I want to conclude with another poem, this one by Mary Elizabeth Frye. While this text has no direct correlation to Remembrance Day, Canadian composer Eleanor Daley has set the poem to music as a part of a Requiem – entitled “In Remembrance”. It is often sung in Canada as part of memorial and remembrance services.

“Do not stand at my grave and weep” by Mary Elizabeth Frye (1932)

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation."

- George Washington

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Where Did You Come From? Where Did You Go?


Immigration is woven into the DNA of mankind. According to National Geographic, there is a theory that over 25,000 years ago, when the 7 continents are believed to still have been connected, thousands of people emigrated on foot from what is now known as Siberia to Alaska.

This alone proves immigration is nothing new. When we are not satisfied with something, we have the motivation to walk away and find what we need somewhere else. 

With all the current public discussion of immigration law reform in the U.S. and the ballooning backlog of immigration applications here in Canada, I was inspired to take a look into the history of immigration to North America. I trust you will find these glimpses as interesting as I have.

Every Canadian and U.S. citizen has immigrant roots in their personal history.

But back to our Siberian nomads. Once arriving in the Alaska area, also known as the Bering Land Bridge between Asia and the Americas, the people were met with two massive glaciers insurmountably blocking their path forward. With no way to move on, the population decided to create their society there on the land bridge and essentially wait it out. 

They would colonize, cultivate and survive in sharp, frigid, Siberia-like conditions for the next 10,000 – 20,000 years. That’s not a typo: a 20,000 year rest stop. Eventually the Earth’s environment began to shift, and a path beyond the glaciers presented itself. This enabled the population to immigrate into what would become Canada and the United States, as well as parts of Mexico and South America. They would become the indigenous people of these continents. 
 


Around the year 1000 AD, it is believed that Norwegian explorer Leif Ericson would land on the coast of what is now Newfoundland and Labrador, leading the first-known European expedition to step foot on North America. While there are two tales behind if he landed there on purpose or by mistake, he and his crew would nevertheless settle there to explore what they would name “Vineland” – named for the discovery of ample amounts of grape vines.



Most of us know the saying “in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue”. Italian explorer Christopher Columbus would set out to find India on the dime of the Spanish Queen. He would miss his mark and land on an island in the Bahamas, and then continue on to Florida.  


Columbus is regarded by many as the man who discovered the “New World”. Protests by Native American historians and activists still occur to this day regarding Columbus’ claims of discovering a place that was already inhabited and the alleged crimes of humanity he committed against its inhabitants. 


Regardless of how you feel about either Ericson or Columbus, it would be these two men and their crews that would pave the way for a future of other Europeans to immigrate to North America.


 
We must also lend the proper recognition to the history of slavery, and the understanding that not everyone chose to immigrate to North America.  African people were being forced into slavery and transported to our continent as early as 1619.  




The first Chinese immigrants to North America landed in Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island in 1788 with British explorer John Meares. 70 Chinese carpenters built him a boat and then, it is thought, they married into the native communities of Vancouver Island, and their cultural traces were quickly assimilated. For centuries before this, it was forbidden to emigrate from China and it was considered a capital crime.   

 


The pioneer Japanese immigrants known as the “Issei” first arrived in Hawaii in 1868 and then in Canada between 1877 and 1928. 10,000 Japanese immigrants were settled permanently in Canada by the year 1914.





Canada is most certainly known and praised for its multicultural and multinational historic diversity. The latest Statistics Canada census recorded just over 6 million foreign-born people in Canada.


This represented virtually one in five or 20% of the total population. This is the highest proportion in 75 years. In 1901, there were 25 reported ethnic origins represented in the Canadian population. The most recent Statistics Canada census results accounted for over 200.


We must welcome with care the people that opt to leave their countries behind so they can share their lives with us here in North America. Our everyday actions should never agitate the oftentimes already turbulent process immigrants’ face. Why disrespect anyone that sets out to instil a sense of courage, adventure and security into their own family legacy?  


Patience, mindfulness, empathy and respect are key to smoothly integrating the emigrated into our teams and communities.

“Remember, remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt