Increasing Your Intercultural Creativity with Genein Letford
Being able to successfully communicate, create and innovate across cultural lines helps us as teachers actually reach our students. When we can adapt our teaching to the perspectives of other cultures, it allows our students to assimilate the information we are offering so that they can excel faster. But how do we do this? Stick around for a very amazing and unique and thought provoking conversation with Genein Letford, who's a former educator and now the owner of an amazing company called Caffe Strategies.
In this podcast episode:
Introduction
Who is Genein Letford
What Intercultural Creativity Means
Seven Gems of Intercultural Creativity
Success Stories from Work
Functional Agility
Taking a Step Forward with the Gems of Intercultural Creativity
Intercultural Development Inventory
Outro
Links mentioned:
Caffe Strategies, Website
Intercultural Development Inventory, Website
Create and Grow Rich, Podcast
Transcript of the Episode:
Introduction
Kassy:
Oh my gosh, I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. This year has flown by and it's been a toughy. But there are so many great things to be thankful for. I'm already starting to reflect on this past year. And not to put it in the finished basket a little too early. But I'm ready for the hard parts of the past few years to die down a little bit. So that way we can feel refreshed and have that like glow that comes with starting a new year.
I've been reflecting on this community and how grateful I am for each and every single one of you. And I know it's cliche to talk about at the end of November, especially for us in America where we’re grateful for. But really, y'all have stepped up just listening to podcast episodes, while driving to work or walking your dog or doing dishes or whatever it is that you're doing. I'm so grateful that I get to spend this time with you on a bi-weekly basis. Bi-weekly I mean, every other week, not twice a week. At the time of this recording, we have welcomed over 315 participants to the 2022 International Orientation and Mobility Online Symposium, people from all over the world. Now just to give you a little bit of like, oh, wow, that's great it is it's so great. But in 2021 at the end of early bird registration, which ended closer to Thanksgiving, so even a little bit later in the year, we had about 200 people registered and then got up to 400. By the time that the symposium happened this year, we already have 315 people registered.
The diversity of the people in this group and in your community continues to grow. And we have really wanted for that vision to expand past the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, all of those groups we've had for many years, and we are so grateful for you. And finding ways to get this information to people in developing countries has been something that we've really wanted. Because having the diverse perspectives either in the room or in the Facebook group allows all of us to expand our perspectives. And having presentations outside of our current caseload or current teaching practices and calling out the FOMC versus Comms philosophies here really allows us to take a step outside of what we perceive as like the truth or normal or the way that we do things and allows us to really reach be on ourselves and outside of the boxes and the ways that we are used to thinking it allows us to bridge that gap between our perspective and the perspective of somebody else. And being able to do that, being able to bridge the gap between our perspective and the perspective of somebody else's lived experience is absolutely priceless. I'll just give you a small example of how shifting your perspective can really help with our teaching, as well as in our personal lives but especially in our teaching as a teaching podcast.
So just the other day I was on the call with another teacher. And when she learned that I'm a single mother, I could feel her heart sink for me, almost in a pity way. And I don't think that she meant it in any sort of negative way. But I could feel and hear in her voice, a shift. Now, I don't feel any pity for myself, I love my life, I adore my family. But here's the thing, we got onto that conversation of my personal life, because this teacher was expressing frustration with the lack of follow through with the parent. Now, the parent is also a single mother, but she is more kids than I do. And she has multiple children with visual impairments. Now I have a fraction of the lived experience of this parent, but I can feel in my body, the stress and the pressures, just a fraction of what this woman is under. And I can totally understand that the lack of follow through has nothing to do with anything that the school is or is not doing. And I can also see that this parent is probably, I don't know her, really just trying her best, because it's really hard. And that's just one tiny example of how when we can have that perspective shift across cultures, the impact that we can have is even greater.
And it comes to be an even greater and bigger and more impactful experience, when that lived experience also has to do with different cultures as well. And that's why when I read the description of Genein’s presentation proposal for the symposium, I knew we had to have her speak on the subject. I know that having my own children in an environment where there is a great level of diversity has always been really important for me. I want them to know that the way that they look at and think is not "the right way” or is not the “normal way” that everybody has different experiences, and that everybody's viewpoint is valid. And what Genein is doing in the world allows us as the teachers to take steps forward to becoming more interculturally competent, so that way we can reach our students faster in a better way in a more well rounded way.
Who is Genein Letford
Kassy:
So let me introduce you to her. Here is her bio. Genein Letford is an award winning educator, Best Selling Author and global speaker on intercultural creativity. As a TEDx speaker, and top creativity trainer she has inspired many educators to be aware of their cultural lenses and creative abilities in order to produce innovative ideas for the classroom and workspace. She is the founder and chief creative officer of Caffe Strategies, LLC, which trains administrators, educators and employees to unleash their intercultural creativity for themselves and for their classrooms. Pulling from her 15 years of working with creative geniuses, her unique curriculum utilises metaphorical strategies, heightened observation techniques, and the creative arts to reawaken intuitive thinking in her attendees. She recently published her first children's book, I am Creative with her three year old son, Shawn Letford. She show how creative thinking develops. Genein believes creative thinking paired with cultural competency are critical 21st century skills, and she is often called America's creativity coach, for her work in reigniting intercultural creativity and in our youth and in our workforce. Right.
So how can we take this information that she's going to share with us about how we can become more interculturally, creative, interculturally competent, and use it to our advantage as teachers who work one on one with students who go into people's homes, and who are really here to make an impact in the lives of all of our learners, and especially the ones that have different lived experiences than us. Let's dive into how we can all become better teachers with a little bit more creativity.
Welcome, Genein to the podcast. I am so glad that you are here.
Genein:
It's an honour to be here. I'm so excited to talk about this topic and hopefully give your audience some valuable information.
Kassy:
Yeah, I really think that you will. Before we dive into that, though, we got to know who you are. Give us a little bit of background about who you are and how you came into what you are doing now.
Genein:
Sure. I'm an educator by trade. You know, I tell people I was born to teach so I actually started my career teaching elementary education. So from pre K to TK, we call it the four years old to fifth grade about 10. And then I started a nonprofit for the graduates of my elementary school. So at sixth grade to about 12, talking about financial literacy, creative literacy and entrepreneurship. And then I was asked to speak or teach at the local university, as well. So in one week, I saw a four year old all the way to a 64 year old in the same week, and that really propelled me to ask some serious questions about, are we really giving our students the skills that they need to be successful in adulthood? Like the life skills, financial skills, creative thinking skills, and you know, how can I start bringing value to the workforce and to K 12, as well.
What Intercultural Creativity Means
Kassy:
Oh, my gosh, that's so amazing. I have questions for you outside of this about starting a nonprofit because that sounds really cool and really interesting. But just to have to have the mindset, right, and you have to have so much creativity, to teach a four year old, all the way up to 64 year old in this same a week, like can't get stuck in I do this because this is the way I do things like route, you really have to tailor it individually. So your presentation at the symposium is all about intercultural creativity. Can you tell me what that means? And, you know, what do we do with it?
Genein:
Sure, it is a new term that I have proposing I created in I trademark, I'm surprised no one else has ever thought about that. Because you have people talking about creativity, and then cultural competence. So what that term is that the mashup, the combining of them both. And so creativity, first of all, I'm redefining that term, a lot of people think creativity is only like singing and dancing. They’re like, I'm not creative, I can't sing or dance. And so I want people to understand that there is art artistry involved in a subset of creativity, but it's so much more and involves all fields, right? All walks of life, especially this field that your audience is in is right now. So my definition of creativity is
The process of problem finding and problem solving the relevance value and novelty.
Highly creative. People are very observant using all of their senses, their multi sense and tentacle, they use their intuition, their creative and spiritual sense. And they don't wait for problems to fall in their lap. They are the ones taking initiative and going to see how they can solve challenges. And so that's the creativity part. And there's cognitive functions like divergent thinking, metaphorical thinking, combinatory thinking, translation, so a lot of what the brain is doing. But in my training, I realised I can come to your office, your school and do training on creative thinking. But if the culture isn't right, for creative behaviours to really flourish, it's going to get squashed. So if people don't feel that they have the right to speak up, if people don't have the right accommodations to speak up, and I'll share this more later on, but I was a special education student, I had a speech impediment I still do. So I have went to speech therapy many hours and days throughout my elementary school experience. So dealing with a speech impediment, I had to have teachers really create the environment for me to share my creative idea. So making sure our educators and specialists are skilled with that. So that's where the cultural competence comes in. Someone who is highly culturally competent, are able to connect with people from different live backgrounds. They're very sensitive, they're very observant, using all of their senses to get information in, they're able to perspective shift and adapt their behaviour accordingly. There's some people who are very good at that. And some people who are developmentally need some more help in that. And so intercultural creativity is a combination of them both, because my research shows that they both sit on the same set of cognitive skills, which I call the seven gems of intercultural creativity.
Seven Gems of Intercultural Creativity
Kassy:
Oh my gosh, okay, I started taking notes, because it was like, wait, I won't ask more questions about this week. But I have to turn my paper, because I think so many notes right now. You just dropped so many gems, so many, like, I envision these emojis you know, in their minds blown, like, that's true. That's true. That’s… Oh, my gosh, okay. So can you just tell me one of the gems of intercultural creativity, and I know, we can find out more on your website. We'll talk about that in a second, or later on, actually, but can you just drop like one of your gems?
Genein:
Sure, and the reason they're gems, my logos, the diamond so you can get afford tonnes of lessons about that, like, you know, our beginning and things like that, but we're multifaceted as well. But the first gem I think, is the most important gem and it's called the gem journey, the mindset, Creative Growth Mindset, kind of based off of the work of Carol Dweck and her growth mindset, fixed mindset research. And so looking that you understand creativity is actually a skill. Like throwing a free throw, like typing. The more you do it, the better you get. intercultural competency, cultural competence is actually a skill, the more you work at connecting with people with different lived experiences getting, being curious about them, and knowing how to shift your behaviour in different cultural environments, you can get better at it. So that's the first gem of understanding that these are skills. These are developmental processes and you can excel.
Kassy:
Yeah, I love that. And we're looking at education in general, right? Teachers, their lived backgrounds, and lived experiences are often very different than their students, if we're looking at the diversity of teachers versus obviously the diversity of students. So it's really important as teachers that we be able to step into that learning of ourselves without shame without, like, any negativity, and to say, hey, look, there are areas where we can all grow. It doesn't matter who you are, we can all take a step forward and increase our not intercultural creativity. What was the next word called? Cultural competence
Genein:
That’s where you make connections with whoever you're serving
Kassy:
Yeah, exactly. Because you have to… work one on one with students and clients typically. And so you have to be able to empathise with somebody else's completely different culture for like, just, for example, if you look at Caucasian cultures, their expectations of their children are much different than if you look at Latin cultures, and how they perceive disability in and of itself, and how they perceive the ability or the abilities of their children. And so we have to have that competence to be able to connect with not only the students, but the parents to remind them that, you know, we're all in this together.
Genein:
Yes, and that's so important. A lot of my all of my work is based off of neuroscience, so seeing how the brain lights up when educators and specialists take that time to make those cultural connections. So new learning isn't the acquisition of new law, knowledge learning is the linking up of new knowledge to old knowledge that the brain already knows. And so it's that pairing. And so for educators and specialists to know what the child or the client already knows, and their cultural assets, right, the cultural gems that they're bringing from their home life, you're able to have learning happen better, deeper, and just more solid when you're able to make those cultural connections and tie them to whatever standards that you're trying to teach.
Kassy:
Yeah, I can see that. And not only that, but you would also increase your relationship with them as well, because then the families will more than likely, and I'm assuming I haven't read the studies, I've just, I have anecdotal evidence from not going to say how many years of doing this, where if you can actually relate to them where they are, and not where you are, as an educator. I mean, we're going into these people's homes, this is vulnerable stuff that they have to do. And they have to open up to you about the grief that they're going through about their child and their own parenting and how they feel about their child being out in the world. Because what we do is we are pushers. We say no, everybody can go to work. Everybody can, you know have or gain full employment if they want it. And I mean, that's a general right. Not everybody can earn, that's not the path for everybody. But when we can have this connection with the parents, especially the parents that don't look like us, and especially the parents who have a different lived experience than us, and we can help our learners excel so much faster.
Genein:
Yes, you know what one of the gems, if I can go through really quickly. The first one is the mindset, the second one is the empathetic way, so exactly what you were talking about. The third one is observation. And so I talked about that about the importance of just your sensory observation but just paying attention the word observe comes from from the Latin it means to attend to it doesn't just mean to see it, it just means to what are you paying attention to with everything. So when you're going into people's homes, your observation skills are very much aware you're paying attention to all the cultural data that is around you that you can possibly use to make those connections deeper. And, you know, I wasn't classified as visually impaired but I remember one eyes is very near the level of light blindness, but it is corrected with contact lenses, but I just remember being in my classroom, like unable to see anything before they figured out what was going on, and just to have adults really just let me share my experience, you know not not to go in and assume that they know what's going on. But just really allowing me to share from my perspective and hearing my mother, now my mother's a fighter, she will go into any system, and she knows her rights, but a lot of parents that you may work with, they don't know the rights that the child should have within the school system, or whatever types of systems that you're in. And some people just don't feel competent, you know, to speak up on behalf of their child or their person in their care. So just the for, I think the first step is just allowing them to share their experiences and to share their perspectives.
Kassy:
Yeah, and that relationship building, because in the schools, especially, we can be so data driven, because that's what's coming down from, that's the pressure that we have coming down from our administrators. And sometimes like relationship building gets pushed to the side, because what are you actually working on, you know, if you're sitting in a hallway with a student, and they're having a moment, and really, the thing to do is just to be there for them, like you're saying, and allow them to have that moment and share with you. But then an assistant principal walks by, there's a little bit of pressure to be like, Oh, we should be working on something.
Genein:
But see that where it's gonna shift, I feel as more the research comes out, especially the neuroscience research, I've been in neuroscience since about the year 2000, right at UCLA, jumping in and out of MRIs working with my professors. And now I'm on the other side, I'm looking at the research and trying to implement it into the workforce and doing these type of things. And so when people understand how the brain learns, it's first emotional, if you don't have that emotional, you know, connection, forget about anything else. And so sitting in that hallway with that stuff with that child, and if they're in some type of, you know, trauma or anything, and in their amygdala, you know, just working from there, there, forget about any type of academic progress, you know, you have to get them back to their prefrontal cortex, get them breathing, breath is huge, you know, get them re-grounded, and then proceed. And so hopefully, my goal is that school leaders would understand the importance of that cultural connection, and that emotional connection, because the learning will not come until that's there.
Kassy:
Absolutely. Reminds me of this quote,
Students do not care what you know, until they know how much you care.
Genein:
Maya Angelou
Success Stories from Work
Kassy:
Yeah, there we go. That just popped in my head. And that actually goes very much against what I was taught my freshman year of college, when I was taking educator classes, which was Don't smile until Christmas. Yeah. And so if you look at I mean, that was 20 years ago that I was in college, hopefully, we are taking many strides away from the ladder, quote that I just gave about not smiling until Christmas, and more towards empathetic approach. So what are some of the things that you have seen as like success stories, from your work, working in schools or with teachers?
Genein:
Sure, well, going back to that cultural connection, and my school, we were allowed to do home visits. So I know a lot of your listeners, it's a part of their job description. But for us, it was voluntary. And I remember, you know, they said that to pick a few students from from your class and go in and that's when you know, you go in, you meet other members of the home, you see different data that you weren't exposed to, because when the kids come to us in our classroom, you know, you just see the child, you don't see all the cultural assets and some of the cultural, you know, liabilities that they may be needing to work through. So now that you have that observational data, you're able to adjust, you know, you're able to perspective shift, and you're able to adjust your behaviour and so someone culturally competent, they're more capable of doing these perspective shifting and adjusting. So that's what I was able to do. And then I saw that my other students who I didn't visit, at that time, they were like, wait, you only visited a few students just because they needed you know, that extra academic assistance, but I'm doing well in your class, which means you're not going to visit me. And that made me stop and think and so I ended up visiting every one of my students probably gained five or 10 pounds because people feel your act that act you're at their home because it's their way of communicating kindness and hospitality. And it was a beautiful thing. And I have pictures today that I look at these kids are in college and in the work workforce, but it's me with this third grade student and their family. And when people we need to understand that rear social beings so they bring their whole family into the classroom with them. And when I'm able to teach and bring up certain things that I saw in or home, or that they love this particular video game, or that their brother plays this instrument. And I'm able to bring that into the curriculum, their brains start firing, because their brains are recognising that I'm making that connection and reading the content in with their culture.
Kassy:
That is so interesting. I never thought about increased assimilation, because you've been inside their home, that simple thing that is amazing. Due to COVID, a lot of us went virtual, and as O and M specialists, our profession has only been around since the 60s. So we're, in my opinion, still figuring it out. For many other people, we've already figured it out. And we are, this is how we do things. And it's in person, because I'm also going to teach somebody who's visually impaired to travel around, we had to be very creative. But the other thing that we had to do was really rely on the families to help give us that perspective, let us know what's going on at home, how are things and not just relying on teaching the students in their school or maybe at the Vocational Rehabilitation Centre, but being able to have that connection with the families.
And then what we saw over the past year, year and a half, all around the world? Is students skills increased, even though the O and M specialist was there less, or they were actually travelling outside of the home less, because, as you know, not everybody lives in a safe place, where you can say, hey, go for a walk. That's not a safe assignment for everybody. And so a lot of our learners were basically homebound. They went from having all this independence at school did not. But because of the connection with the parents, they were able to increase it. And I think that's what you're saying, because we got a sneak peek into the homes and connection with the families and the students could assimilate our information with what they already knew. A little bit faster.
Genein:
Yes, yes. And I would love to get your thoughts about that. So I have this book called Keep Your Brain Alive, and it talks about how really, that the number one the brain is plastic. And that you can rewire that in I'm pretty sure you saw you know, as someone who may lose access to to a sense later on in life, the brain rewires in order to recuperate and accommodate. But this book is saying that we should be doing that taking initiative to do that, regardless whether you lose a sense via accident or a physical reason, because, as you know, the eyesight takes to the dominant position of your senses, which automatically dulls the ability of your other senses. So part of my training as far as the observational gym, is to tell people to start working out your other senses, you know, close your eyes and smell. So when I cook with my three year old son, I make sure he smells every single spice separately, you know, and then he sees the whole thing or, or he closes his eyes and tries to move throughout his face in a space to get that kinesthetics ability up. And I feel that our senses are dulled by a lot of technology and just different reasons. But I don't know what your standards are with the parents. But you know, just from a neural perspective, having them practice, you know, using solely their other sense senses to get information and data is really important for creative thinking.
Kassy:
Yeah, actually, I think you bring up two really, really good points. And this conversation is so fun. By the way. You brought up part to whole learning or whole to part, which I'll get to in a second. But then you also brought up having a sensory experience. In my past anecdotal experiences. We've had that ability if you work at a specific place where parents come, and then they want to engage in that. I worked at a school that was only four students who could not be educated in their regular school. So if for some reason, there was a student who couldn't be educated with the SPO e-curriculum, and then they moved to Special Ed full time and they still couldn't be educated, then they were allowed to go to my school, and only then. So I had a lot of students with multiple impairments. And those students lived outside of our city. They were bused in on Sunday, and then they were bused home on Friday. So I rarely got to actually interact with parents, especially once I had to start doing a lot of data, some around five years into my career or something. The amount of data I had to collect, skyrocketed. So my ability to make phone calls decreased.
And in those situations where I had parents come in and have a sensory experience because we had a specific parent weekend event. They learned a lot about their child and you could feel the connection between them and their child grow. If the parent could do it with out, succumbing to shame, guilt, or like fear, putting their own fears on our child, because people with visual impairments, if they're born with a visual impairment, they don't have that fear unless it's put on them. Kind of like if your son falls, and you smile, and you're like, yeah, just get up, it's fine. Oftentimes, he probably will get out. That's how my kids are anyway. They're just like, okay, because they look to you, for what how should I be feeling right now, you know. So we had a lot of that if the parents could move through that, like, if they have a cultural belief of, I'm a sinner, and that's why my child has a disability, which we saw a lot. Or if they could, like, just get over whatever shame of whatever happened, shaken baby, we had lots of accidents, for whatever reason, and then they could grow that bond. So I think that that is one of the best things that parents can do. If they have a facilitator there to help them move through those other emotions that come up. Does that make sense?
Genein:
Yes. And that's why the first gem is the mindset, the Creative Growth mindset, because it's hard to get to the other gems and because you create and you connect out of your identity. So whatever is afflicting or holding down your identity with this the guilt and things like that it does affect your ability to connect.
Kassy:
Yeah. But what it does do is exactly what you mentioned, when you're cooking with your son, a lot of times we look at things whole to part. So we look at the car, and we like we learned this is a car. And then we learned, okay, cars are typically shaped like this. And then they have four wheels. And then they have doors and the windows, we learn hole. This is a car to park, but what you did with your son was part to whole, he smelled each spice, and then it came together. And that's how we teach people with visual impairments because we can't be like, Oh, here's a car move to say then they're like, Wait, what is this thing? Like you're down to, you know the tips of their fingers when you're looking at the detail. So they're like, Wait, a car, it feels… they feel the tire? They're like cars are bumpy. No, then then they feel the hook, cars are smooth. No, then cars are glass. No cars are… So we break it down part by part, door handle window, things of that nature. And then oh, all this together that makes a car. So you actually touched on two things, simply by closing your eyes.
Functional Agility
Genein:
Well, I love that. And I have to give you a little fun fact. I love the fun fact. There's actually a term called functional agility. Have you heard that term?
Kassy:
Maybe is it in a study?
Genein:
You've seen it if you're around children, because they come to the earth functionally agile, it's the concept that when you buy a kid a toy or whatever, and they take the tour out, play with it for like a minute and then play with the box for like three hours. That's functionally agile. And so adults tend to be functionally fixed, like so we see the boxes, okay, well, you just put storage in it. And so the story that I have in my book that's coming up to seven gems is my son put a placemat on his head. He was like, this is a hat, and seen me put a placemat on my head nor his father. But to him, he just saw it as a part, I see a circular thing. And it reminds me of another circular object called a hat. So I'm going to just make this a hat. And so now that So kids are just normally functionally agile, even if you show them the original use. So being functionally fixed means it's hard for you to move past the original use that the item is used for, right? You use a stapler as a stapler, but someone else may use it as a hammer or a microphone or something like that. But the kicker is the other research tech and if you need this research, please let me know because I'm all about sharing.
Kassy:
I will like come read it up on a Friday night. Yeah.
Genein:
But the research in the business world now. So they are looking at innovative teams that are producing a lot of the innovative ideas. They're the ones who are able to look at an object and break it up into parts in their mind. And so if you see a candle the rest of us you see it, that's a candle, let’s light it, it gives us light that's the original function of a candle to produce illumination, but a highly creative person who does not have functional fixedness. They can see the candle they can see it as a light source. They see the wax they can use a wax, they see it as a wick, you know the wick in the middle and is basically something that I'm terming like the MacGyver-ing it I don't know how old you are, but there's a show called MacGyver where the man could like create a bomb out of like a paperclip and a gum wrapper and like a shoe lace, right. Because he is functionally agile. He does not see just only the intended use for these objects. He sees other uses for these objects.
Kassy:
Right. I Love that. And I think for me personally, it's a good reminder that yeah, I do that fixed thing all the time. And like, I really could get inside of a box and play, and my kids would love that. But the only time I really do it is when I'm trying to redecorate my house on a budget. Like
that shoe box there that like shoe… you know, we have a lot of those like cuboids I'm like, Okay, how's this shoes right now, I could put it here, like, I could put it there. And there, I can be a little bit creative. But you're so right about the box idea, and how kids really do take just whatever, and they turn it into these magnificent things. And then what do we do, we come around, we're like, stop taking the couch cushions, they don't go in your bedroom.
Genein:
And so when we do that, so that's the imagination at play. And so and that's why I'm going to have to send you my book, I am Creative. It's a children's book. But what I wanted to show parents was that a lot of times when we do it without even knowing we're actually squashing the creative potential of our children. And so the ones who have parents that understand what's actually going on in their mind, and that their imagination is actually just, you know, building things in their mind. And they need these objects to do so. They are the ones with the innovative ideas in their adulthood in the boardrooms, and so on. And so, or are your specialists and your your educaters to understand that a child, especially a child that may need to shift some sensory inputs, because of whatever reason, their imagination has to be even that more strong, because now they have to build using different sets, right? And it's just very important to encourage that. So now when when my son does it, I'm like, Ah, what, how creative is that? Look, you use this in this way. You're so creative, and I support him.
Taking a Step Forward with the Gems of Intercultural Creativity
Kassy:
I love that I'm definitely going to bring that value into our home as creativity as something that we strive to be. So you've mentioned a lot of different words. And you've mentioned creativity in and of itself. Is there any way that people misdefine creativity, or they think about it in a different way? I know you touched on that a little bit earlier. But I'd like to circle back and really flesh out what you mean by that. And how we, as adults, given all of your gems can take a step forward into it?
Genein:
Sure. So the first you know, misstep is that creativity is only artistry. So I talked about that. And I'm a big advocate of for the arts, because the arts can strengthen your abilities in creativity and non arts field. So people who have a painting background, you know, their visual attention, people who have a dance background, and now you're talking about moving through space and proprioception, which is knowing where your limbs are in space, they are just more advanced. And this actually is connected to once again, the way that you translate ideas from one method to another. And so I'm married to a dancer and my pastors are dancers and for them to communicate an idea and dance that you can communicate in a written form and a poem in a musical you know, way that is a highly creative act. And so I want people to understand that you know, creativity isn't alone thing. Yes, you can be creative by yourself. But you're even more creative when you share your ideas with one another and you bounce back and you say, Well, what if this and you had those perspectives diversity, which is intercultural creativity. Diversity highly affects the creative advancement of ideas, right, just cognitive diversity. And just really making sure Dr. Michael Platt, who was on my podcast episode 66, Create and Grow Rich podcasts. He is one of the top neuroscientists in the nation out of the Wharton Business School and he says in his last chapter, which is very strongly says that we need to make sure that we give people who society has labelled you know, at cognitive that are not neural diverse, right, so maybe people who are on the spectrum people who have different special needs, that there are things that they can do like all the rest of us, but they need to make sure that they're in the right position that really accentuates their their facets right their diamond gifts and because I know from personal experience from some of my students, some of them who are on the autism spectrum, that they are really strong in certain areas, but the academics may not celebrate those areas you know, if you're a really strong artists or just computational processing, you know, just things like like that, that we don't celebrate like we do that you get a perfect score on the LSAT so we really need to expand our concept of creativity and excelling in these areas.
Kassy:
I love that. When I think of creativity, for us as teachers, it's like dual parts from what you just said, it's increasing the creativity in our learners, but also challenging ourselves to create eight lesson plans that aren't always the same. And bringing that inter cultural creativity and competence into our lessons, how much faster our students will be able to grow, if we can just try new things.
Genein:
The number one indicator of a highly creative person, his openness to new experience, and there it’s there and if you want that, read the research too. I can sent them, send it your way, but it's all in the book as well. And the number one indicator of a highly culturally competent person is openness to people with different lived experiences. So these are two things that you have to take initiative. Because if you stay in the same place, you will get stuck in a rut. Right?
And so for teachers who are looking to think about new lessons plans, what I did is I was just culturally aware of what was going on, like, what movies are my kids watching, like, I had to go watch that movie because of who my “clients” were right? If my clients are seven year old, then I need to be aware of, you know, Monsters Inc. And because I can teach supply and demand of that. You can teach so many lessons just by what their life is bringing to them automatically. And yeah, just I believe you're very, very true with the teachers need to do the reflective work of where am I creatively? Where am I inter-culturally, my cultural competence.
Intercultural Development Inventory
Genein:
And there's actually an assessment called the IDI where you can take it and know your cultural competence level because there's five different orientations. There's like the monocultural mindsets, and then there's an a transitional mindset. And then there's a Global Intercultural mindset. So those people who like no matter what group they're in, they're just able to connect with folks. You know, those folks that just make everyone feel comfortable, and they're just really connecting, so you can grow. It's developmental.
Kassy:
Oh, that's so cool. Okay, well, you mentioned a few things, your Create and Grow Rich podcast. We will link that is that the correct name? Okay, we've got that linked, because now, I've been looking for a new podcast for my walks. So I'm gonna hit you up. And then the IDI assessment.
Genein:
Yes, that's the Intercultural Development Inventory. So my company, it gives the assessment. It's almost like any of those psychological sets assessments, but it's not based on that it's actually global, and it's very much validated. So one of them, I'm all about validation of assessments. So it's just really showing you because I believe, you know, as educators, if you know where you want to go for your goal, you got to know where you're starting, right. And so it gives you that orientation that you could be in, but it also gives you a plan of, hey, here are some things that you can do to increase your cultural competency. And what I'm developing is what can we do within the classroom with our students to increase our cultural competency within our own selves and our own sphere, but also within the classroom.
Kassy:
I love that. So what I think I'd like to do is link it on our show notes. But also, if you're in the symposium, we're going to have a link to that for you as well. Because I think that everybody needs to take it, I'm definitely going to be taking it. And we can probably have this conversation a little bit deeper when we record your actual presentation, because I want to, I'm going to have probably have a question for you about how I can get better. So you mentioned your company, and I want to give you a shout out about your amazing company. This is our first time meeting, if we're being fully honest, but I went and stopped your website. It's beautiful. And I love your mission. I love everything you're doing. I also love that the mouse has a little circle around it for accessibility was like I don't know this called not touching know what to say.
Genein:
There are a few changes that I do have to make, on my podcast, actually, I did. And it's not published yet. But I did an interview, her name is Katarina. And she is a visually impaired as well. And so she talks about DEI and never seen an inclusion. But she gave me some good feedback. And that's another thing we need to be mindful of when we get feedback. Like don't just you know, take it like, Oh, what? Say, You know what, thank you so much for sharing. I didn't see it from that perspective, because I don't have that experience. I'm so glad you shared your experience. So there are things that I have to go back and fix on my website to make sure that everyone has access to the information.
Kassy:
Okay, well, you can do that. But I still want you to tell us about your company and what you do, because I think I just think that what you're doing in the world is amazing.
Genein:
Thank you. You are amazing as well as we're all a part of the same, I say the same tribe. We're all doing our different things together, right. But so Caffe Strategy stands for Creative Advancement for Financial Empowerment, but we look at interculturalism the home of intercultural creativity, and we do trainings and keynotes about how to educate people as far as their creative thinking and their DEI goals. So we teach, you know, like unconscious bias and being aware of micro aggressions cultural curiosity, we teach a lot of the DEI content, but at the same time, we teach it through using creativity strategies. So you're doing your metaphorical thinking, you're combinatorially thinking, your divergent thinking, you're manipulating with playdough, and Legos, and you're painting and things like that. But you're still having those conversations of what does a creative culture look like? where everyone can thrive
Outro
Kassy:
I love that. So when you are teaching, do you teach mostly school districts? Like are you at the district level? Are you at the admin level? Is this something where a O and M specialist, or maybe a teacher, friend of theirs can take a webinar from you? If they wanted to learn more after the symposium, what would be their steps?
Genein:
Well, I'm at all levels just because of my background in education. I'm very familiar with all levels. I've been hired by districts to do like, teacher professional development, schools, as well, keynotes, things like that. And we're currently getting some online classes up for the individual, like myself, like I just got to go learn on my own. And what that looks like, right now I do have a LinkedIn course called Creative Thinking for Business Leaders. But I am looking to do more for those in education, I say the opportunities are… a lot of opportunities are in corporate, but my heart is in K 12. Like I'm forged by the sea of K 12. And so I just want to make sure because we have the most important one most important jobs in the world, we are educating and shaping our next group of the word workforce. Right?
Kassy:
Right. Oh, I just had a lengthy conversation about that with one of my friends about how it really is all about the next generation, we want the world to be a better place. That's our best resource. Well, Genein, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Is there anything that I didn't ask you that you wanted to talk about before we wrap up, and then I'll ask you our last question.
Genein:
Well I just want to remind people that the formative years are the most critical years of a person's life, right? The how fast the brain is growing, how fast identities and beliefs are forming. So if we can get this type of thinking that you are creative, your ideas have value, and you can even bring them to the marketplace, people might give you money for your ideas. If everyone honestly believed that, and had the tools to actually walk it out, imagine what solutions that we would be able to offer. So that's really what I want are educators and specialists. And people who have this type of influence to really believe that everyone you meet is a diamond, they are a diamond, and they have diamond gifts within them, and they are going to shine bright under your care.
Kassy:
Oh, that is so beautiful. I also want to add that where we are within just the time, space reality, with everything being so accessible, you know, you can make money selling, you know, like drop shipping, or there are just so many different ways to make an income now, whereas there were before. And sometimes what I see in the vocational rehabilitation world, when we're training people with visual impairments to become employees, is we're missing the whole subset of being a small business by herself, that's pretty cool. And I can make you a good amount of money. So if they had those abilities, and if we could teach our students how to be creative enough, and have the fortitude to be able to fail forward and to be innovative, and to get back up, then they may not have to rely on social security and or they might be able to not have to travel very far, or get on a bus or transfer buses in the rain or whatnot for their job, they might be able to do it at home. But it takes a lot of creativity. And as an entrepreneur, you know, if you're developing your services, same here, I really have, I have to have specific days where I'm like, Okay, I'm just diving into the depths of my creativity today, and how can I connect to my people by providing for them? I think that what you said is so pertinent in general, but also right now for our community with visual impairments just because there's so much more access. They don't have to do what they used to do.
Genein:
Yes, yes, the tools are there. There's so many opportunities now. So thank you all for doing what you doing for your search service. I really appreciate you.
Kassy:
Oh, and we really appreciate you and the fact that you are elevating this conversation is really how I see it. It's so timely. It's so important and so needed in the fact that you're all about the data, which I'm typically like, Stop, I don't need it, even though I'm literally on PubMed on my free time. So I appreciate the fact that you're able to talk to so many different levels and areas in that way. And thank you so much for elevating this. If you could give our listeners just one piece of advice. I know we've had lots of advice from you. But if we were to take one step forward into being our best, most inter cultural creative… how would I say that?
Genein:
Intercultural creative self
Kassy:
Creative self! Thank you! Turned it into an adjective… What would you say would be like, the number one thing that they could do?
Genein:
I would say going back to that stat that I shared before, try to do something new. So yeah, new and meet someone new. Those two things. You know, you can zoom call someone new and do something new with them if you want to like, double down.
Kassy:
Great, exactly. meetup.com. Great thing. Well, thank you so much, Genein. I really appreciate you and your time this has been an absolute pleasure.
Genein:
Thank you for having me.