Announcing the Inclusion Strategy Partnership

Nebahat Timur Tokgöz

I am thrilled to announce the addition of two partners to assist me in leading Inclusion Strategy to greater heights of collaboration and success!

It is my honor to be associated with these dynamic, exceptional, and visionary women - Tresa Eyres and Nebahat Timur Tokgöz. Collectively they add a wealth of knowledge and experience, competency, and professionalism to Inclusion Strategy. They each also bring something even more valuable to me: Passion with a purpose.

Inclusion Strategy was founded on the principle that all people are valuable and hence, should be valued. Tresa and Nebahat have given tirelessly, through their careers and pro bono endeavors, to achieve that mission. Nebahat has also developed a rare gift of painting as a further means of expressing her passion for people and the creative process. Our diverse backgrounds and complementary skills and experiences will provide our clients with greater opportunity to strategically create success through inclusion!

Please join me in welcoming Tresa and Nebahat to Inclusion Strategy!

  

Tresa Eyres, Partner  

Tresa is a learning and development professional with more than 25 years helping clients improve their leadership and productivity. In the years 1994 through 2001, she was a key member of Bank of America Advisory Services, Inc., which provided on-site consulting to a number of financial institutions in Turkey.

Contact: Tresa@InclusionStrategy.com

Nebahat Timur Tokgöz, Partner

Nebahat is a seasoned business professional with more than 30 years of demonstrated success. At a time in Turkey when few women held executive office, Nebahat was one of the first female Assistant General Managers of a financial institution and the first (non-family) female member of a Board of Directors.

Contact: Nebahat@InclusionStrategy.com

Learn more about Tresa and Nebahat on our updated website! 

16 September 2013    

Independence

The Founding Fathers

Committing treason, more akin to blasphemy, as they were citizens of a nation still influenced by decades of a belief in ‘divine right’ did not come easily to the Founding Fathers.  This belief that kings were appointed by God was waning by 1763 when the British, as a result of really poor management, raised taxes in the colonies resulting in the American Revolution which helped to put an end to divine right altogether. 

 

The Founding Fathers are often referred to as a mono-cultural group, but they were hardly that.  The regional, religious, political, and historical diversity of the group that represented 13 distinct governments reviewed and debated 90 declarations before establishing the “Committee of 5” to write what became the Declaration of Independence.  The Committee in turn, gave the job to Thomas Jefferson who submitted the first draft on June 28, 1776. After a few days of debate and modification the final document was signed on the Fourth of July, 1776. (This date has been contested by historians, but an almost-final draft of the document was printed and posted on July Fourth.)

The authors and signers of the Declaration of Independence had to agree to disagree if they were to gain their freedom from tyranny.  They had to debate deep philosophical and political differences and stay in that room during a sweltering Philadelphia summer until they truly represented united states. The Continental Congress had found enough strongly shared common interests and beliefs to sever their ties to their homeland forever.

The Declaration of Independence Has Six Sections

The Introduction: Which begins “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,”

The Preamble: Another incredible beginning: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The Indictment: An outline of the offenses the authors claim were committed by the King of England, including “For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:”

The Denunciation: The justification for the declaration, “Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.:”

The Conclusion: Establishes “That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved;.”

The Signatures: This evidence makes it impossible for the 56 signers to deny their commitment to the content of the document.

An Evolving Inclusion Strategic Plan!

Now that the newly formed United States of America declared their independence from

Great Britain they had to make themselves independent in fact. It took another 13 years before George Washington was inaugurated.  The fact that the document signed in 1776 excluded the majority of the people under its jurisdiction does not diminish its impact. As we evolved as a nation the words of The Declaration of Independence were used to argue for the enfranchisement of all U.S. Citizens.  87 years dragged on before slavery was abolished.  Another 3 years elapsed before former male slaves gained the right to vote.  54 more years passed before women who were U.S. Citizens acquired the right to vote. The powerful words contained in this document are used to assert the rights of people all over the world and act as a catalyst for defending freedom, representation and democracy everywhere.

As you celebrate this holiday, please remember to read The Declaration of Independence and think about where we might be without our diversity and inclusion, in other words, without our independence.  The Declaration Of Independence

Happy Independence Day!

Onward,

~ Wendy 

Inclusion Strategy 

Do One Thing!

The Invitation
Many of you live what would be considered multicultural  or intercultural lives as people who love to travel the world; eating foods of all types; soaking in the wonders of cultural institutions providing bridges to other worlds, often within our own neighborhoods; and of course, having relationships with many people from many cultures.  So, your responses to my invitation to "Do One Thing" in celebration of World Day for Cultural Diversity and Dialogue Development, which is today, May 21st have been very interesting.

A few of you thanked me for the reminder to be mindful and intentional in your quest to do one thing for diversity and inclusion today; a few of you committed to doing one thing today or this week and letting me know what that thing is after it is done; and a few of you shared recent experiences:

Some Responses
"I have been meaning to pick up Chaim Potok's The Chosen  forever, and started last night."

"I have a letter that I will scan to you when I get a chance.  Our Muslim neighbor sent it to  their neighbors, very well written, explaining who they are (in detail), about their religion and their attitude about the Boston bombings, etc., and their concern about what our attitude might be.  I haven't responded yet, but intend to do so."

" ... a Chinese artist visiting and we struck up a conversation. His English was far better than my Mandarin. We talked about a Chinese artist I had seen in Washington, D.C. at a Hershorn exhibit, about a Korean artist I had seen in Seattle, about the differences between how English and Chinese poetry is conceptualized, about the proper way to prepare a Chicago hot dog. I was reading a book on the history of Chicago and he compared it with the history of Shanghai. A large unknowable world became smaller and grew handles. The skin around my uniqueness began to breathe."

Multicultural
I am always thinking about how our cultures rub off on each other, how we cannot undo the impact that others have on us, how indelibly we are marked by the sound of unfamiliar music, the taste of unusual cuisine, the colors of unexplored terrains, the scent of new places, the challenge of speaking a foreign language, the feeling of exotic fabric on our skin.  That is what makes this day so wonderful!  This invitation to do something that for me, at least, is so much fun.  I must admit, it is a challenge to do one thing today as I usually do multiple things for diversity and inclusion.  So, I thought, 'how can I convey my message of being multicultural to you?'
 
I have decided to share one of my favorite poems.  This poem is one that I have shared with some of you before as it is an excellent expression of what many people like me experience being members of multiple cultures.  Please let me know what you think and what you have done on this special day!

 

Child of the Americas

I am a child of the Americas,

a light-skinned mestiza of the Caribbean,

a child of many diaspora, born into this continent at a crossroads.

I am a U.S. Puerto Rican Jew,

a product of the ghettos of New York I have never known.

An immigrant and the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants.

I speak English with passion: it's the tongue of my consciousness,

a flashing knife blade of cristal, my tool, my craft.

I am Caribeña, island grown. Spanish is my flesh,

Ripples from my tongue, lodges in my hips:

the language of garlic and mangoes,

the singing of poetry, the flying gestures of my hands.

I am of Latinoamerica, rooted in the history of my continent:

I speak from that body.

I am not African. Africa is in me, but I cannot return.

I am not taína. Taíno is in me, but there is no way back.

I am not European. Europe lives in me, but I have no home there.

I am new. History made me. My first language was Spanglish.

I was born at the crossroads

and I am whole.

Taino
Cemi del Mar
Indigenous Puerto Rican People
Deity of the Sea

  
Aurora Levins Morales
1986


 
 





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