What's Next! with Tiffani Bova Navigating Differences for Unity with David Livermore
Welcome to the What's Next! podcast with Tiffani Bova.
This week we take a deep look at different factors that profoundly shape how we see the world – place, race, gender, religious beliefs, and politics – and seek ways to unify over our shared humanity despite our many diverse viewpoints. To guide us through the process, social scientist David Livermore reveals how to use cultural intelligence, a scientific model for working with people from different cultures, to bridge our differences closer to home and authentically connect with those around us.
David Livermore is a social scientist and thought leader devoted to the topics of cultural intelligence and global leadership. He’s a founder of the Cultural Intelligence Center in East Lansing, Michigan, and a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Livermore spent twenty years in leadership positions with a variety of nonprofit organizations around the world and taught in numerous universities. He is a frequent speaker and adviser to leaders in Fortune 500s companies, nonprofits, and governments and has worked in more than one hundred countries. David has authored several other award-winning books, including The Curious Traveler, The Cultural Intelligence Difference, What Can I Do?, Expand Your Borders, and most recently “Digital, Diverse & Divided: How to Talk to Racists, Compete with Robots, and Overcome Polarization” (Sep 2022).
THIS EPISODE IS PERFECT FOR… people who are seeking ways to come together, navigate difficult conversations, manage necessary relationships, and, most importantly, accept the differences that make us US.
TODAY’S MAIN MESSAGE… there are a number of differences that play into the individual personalities that reside within all of us, however, there is far more that makes us similar to each other rather than different. By applying the four competencies of cultural intelligence – motivation, cognition, meta-cognition, and behavioral flexibility – we are enabled to navigate difficult conversations and relationships across a wide range of situations.
WHAT I LOVE MOST… Ultimately, David wants to address the big picture issues, tackling tribalism, confronting racism, and developing a common vision for the future. He believes that we can achieve this by taking the time to reconnect with our shared humanity and embracing our differences, but also not letting them divide us.
Running time: 25:04
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