12/01/2026 By David Rigby

Overwhelmed – what to give up to make space for the new ?

As Christmas approached I was beginning to be overwhelmed. For the previous six weeks I had deadlines every other day. And while I was achieving them the underlying fundamentals where not being done.

Attending conferences and doing podcasts was one thing, having a visitor who broke her ribs was another, and being organized enough to stay in three different places over the holiday period was another, particularly regarding laundry. And this being Spain the weather is likely to be relatively very cold but potentially sunny. Every day required military planning.

Standing back enough was the challenge to realise you are overwhelmed. It’s happened to me before during the Christmas period. And the holiday period lasts for almost three weeks in Spain. So I decided to do no work.

*Christmas Day English Sprouts Reyes (Jan6) Roscon*

So I decided to do no work

*Spanish Puchero and traditional Spanish New Years Eve Lamb*

Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) with friends from South America – and my Spanish had turned into Italian. I couldn’t remember English either.Next day I spent making half British half Spanish Christmas lunch, and had to work out of to cook five vegetables simultaneously. Had Noche Buena, Noche Viejo and Reyes Spanish style , all with friends and at the last moment and not very formal, And In between: I have a cubic metre of physical photos so I spent the gaps scanning the negatives of maybe 5000 photos – and the scanned files still need sorting.

On the work front there are tasks which I have been completely unable to do, such as writing this, posting on the media and maintaining the website. They have had to wait.

In 2025 I spent time seeing people in Italy and Netherlands I haven’t seen in years, and attending many international zoom event, as well as attending local events in person . The conclusion is that some of those will have to go. And I also recognise that others have decided that I have to go – I am OK with that.

I am listening to the ‘overwhelmed’ podcast from Claudia Hammond on BBC is great for recognising it’s not just you. Taking time out to reflect helped me recognise I was in survival mode. You need to step out if it before you recognise it. I will be organised, with the infrastructure in a better position, to start again, by February. Meanwhile I will sort those Photos, and see I can continue to give up what I told myself to . The space created may give me time to embrace AI and do everything more effectively . Who knows? What about you ?

Smart Coaching & Training works with over 30 associates, in four continents speaking 14 languages. Most raised and working in a wide range of cultures and living in a different place than where they were born . See our associates here.

Many of our associates learned how to speak via Toastmasters and Professional Speakers Association Read more

Many of our associates are specialists in Diversity , Interculturality and related topics Read more here and here.

05/12/2025 By David Rigby

People and Purpose : Insights Beyond Borders Dec 18 Podcast with David Rigby

On the next podcast episode, December 18, David Rigby gets real about one of the challenges of HR. He highlights why true inclusion must go far beyond the ‘big five’ categories:
“What needs to be ramped up is inclusion, inclusion across different backgrounds, classes, educational aspirations. This is how you build a truly successful, diverse team,” says David.
Inclusion means everyone has a voice – and that voice matters. It shows in practice how people are treated every day. If you believe strong culture and human-centered leadership drive real performance, you’ll want to watch the full episode on LinkedIn Live, click on ‘Attend’ and mark your calendar now:🔔https://lnkd.in/dQSjHmwf

The Malaga Conferences

Just back from the Professional Speakers Association (Spain) Convention and the Diversity and Innovation Conference in Benalmadina Malaga. It was a pleasure to present at both.

” Enjoyed your session! You were absolutely in your element – dancing, singing and also educating us on being inclusive.” Remi Margaret Nwando Aiyela “I love how you bring your whole self to everything you do” Silvia Gutiérrez Gradillas “It so much passion for what you talk about, that’s for sure!!” Clair Boscq Professional Speakers Association Convention and Diversity & Innovation Conference Malaga November 2025

At PSA I talked about “Inclusion is the future”. with colleagues
Marta Pardo 🎤 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇺🇸 Alastair Greener FPSA Andrew Bryant, CSP JC Duran • Claire Boscq CSP , Customer eXperience Energizer Oliver Watson Rhythm • David Rigby • Eugene Seah • Grant ‘Upbeat’ Bosnick – Leadership Enabler, CSP • Michelle Mills-Porter The People Reader • Mike Handcock • Susana Serrano-Davey • Azadeh Yaraghi • Josie Pont- Female ChangeMakers Beth Sherman and hosted by Ben Ivey
At D&I I talked about Cognitive Diversity enabling Transculturality with The onsite speakers: include Fons Trompenaars, Anna Zelno, Barbara E. Prendota Silvia Gutiérrez Gradillas Magda Stega Piotr Pluta, Vince Stevenson Trainer of Trainers and Executive Speech Coach, Vincent MERK, Andy Pring ,Dr. Barbara Covarrubias Venegas and Alejandro Pastor
It was an honour to present with such luminaries and learn from them both content and style and add them to my friendsApart from a great excuse to spend a week in Malaga, I enjoy these conferences because it’s a chance to meet face-to-face all those people you have spoken to in Zoom as well as those you don’t know yet. And the way to get some new friends and maybe requested to do some work is to turn up. And it’s great fun too!

Smart Coaching & Training works with over 30 associates, in four continents speaking 14 languages. Most raised and working in a wide range of cultures and living in a different place than where they were born . See our associates here.

Many of our associates learned how to speak via Toastmasters and Professional Speakers Association Read more

Many of our associates are specialists in Diversity , Interculturality and related topics Read more here and here.

29/10/2025 By David Rigby

Malaga: November Events: Diversity & Innovation and Professional Speakers Association

Conferences in Malaga

Join me, David Rigby, at these two events in Malaga in November

Diversity & Innovation Conference

Benalmádena Malaga November 20-22
See more details (and below) and reserve your place here

Professional Speakers Association (Spain) Convention

Malaga November 29
See more details (and below) and reserve your place here

Diversity & Innovation Conference

I am excited to join an incredible lineup of international speakers at the Diversity & Innovation Hybrid Conference in Benalmádena, Malaga on 21-22 November 2025, hosted by Diversity & Innovation Academy . I presented remotely at the previous one in Poland in May and I am pleased to be presenting in person this time.

I’ll be delivering a talk called, “Cognitive Inclusion: Building transculturality on individual communication strengths” About understanding the way you and others communicate is common regardless of culture, so it can be used to develop transculturality.

Our onsite speakers: Fons Trompenaars, Maya Middlemiss, Anna Zelno, Barbara E. Prendota, Anna Jakielaszek, Silvia Gutiérrez Gradillas, Magda Stega, Jacek Skyski S., Diana Bohorquez Ballesteros, Tabita Luis, Bernd Gibson, Piotr Pluta, Vince Stevenson Trainer of Trainers and Executive Speech Coach, Vincent MERK, Andy Pring, George Simons, Lina Klemkaite, Andrea Martínez Celis, PhD, David Rigby, Barbara Covarrubias Venegas, Kelly Cuesta, Alejandro Pastor Lara

The online speakers are: Mohamed El Amrani, Marta García-Valenzuela, Francisco Gallego, Evelien Verschroeven, Bjørn Z. Ekelund, Ridha Mejri, Frauke Lehmann, Dr. Michele Angeline V., Constantina Rokos, Livingstone Thompson, PhD, Aminata Soucko, Amy Mortensen, Jane Jihye Kim, Peter Mousaferiadis, Amna Ben Amara, Csaba Toth, Fathima Beckmann, Matthew Hill – Corporate Presentation Trainer, Mirka Molnar Lachka, George Simons, Ilaria Mundula 伊兰

See you there – on line or in person

PSA Spain Convention

*Building transculturality on individual communication strengths*

*with Fons Trompenaars – keynote speaker*

*Just a few of the speakers at the D&I conference*

PSA Spain Convention

I am excited to join an incredible lineup of international speakers at the Professional Speakers Association of Spain yearly conference in Málaga on November 29, 2025. Hosted by Professional Speakers Association of Spain , a proud member of the Global Speakers Federation, this event celebrates diversity, innovation, and leadership in the world of professional speaking.

I’ll be delivering a talk called, “Inclusion is the future”. A reminder to consider your audience, who will have different ways of thinking, different ways of learning, different cultures, different beliefs – all the things you cannot see just by looking at the audience. Who are you positively including in your speech and who have you have excluded because you never considered it ?

If you’re serious about the business of speaking, come see my talk, along with game-changing talks and workshops from:

Marta Pardo 🎤 🇪🇸 🇫🇷 🇺🇸 • Andrew Bryant, CSP • JC Duran • Claire Boscq , Customer eXperience Energizer • Oliver Watson Rhythm • David Rigby • Eugene Seah • Grant ‘Upbeat’ Bosnick – Leadership Enabler, CSP” • Michelle Mills-Porter The People Reader • Mike Handcock • Susana Serrano-Davey • Azadeh Yaraghi • Roger Soreque • Josie Pont- Female ChangeMakers and hosted by Beth Sherman

See you there!

Why am I going to these events ?

Apart from a great excuse to spend a week in Malaga, I enjoy these conferences because it’s a chance to meet face-to-face all those people you have spoken to in Zoom as well as those you don’t know yet. And the way to get some new friends and maybe requested to do some work is to turn up. And it’s great fun too!

Smart Coaching & Training works with over 30 associates, in four continents speaking 14 languages. Most raised and working in a wide range of cultures and living in a different place than where they were born . See our associates here.

Many of our associates learned how to speak via Toastmasters and Professional Speakers Association Read more

Many of our associates are specialists in Diversity , Interculturality and related topics Read more here and here.

19/10/2025 By David Rigby

Because it’s important – “Towards a future without racism”

“Hacia un futuro sin racism ” “Towards a future without racism” Madrid October 2025

“Because it’s important” was the response when I asked Smart Coaching & Training associate Mahmoud Assy why he had arranged, promoted and paid for an event in Madrid called “Hacia un futuro sin racism” “Towards a future without racism”

No need to ask further questions

There was no need to ask further questions of the man who had arranged 15 speakers for this event. I could identify representatives from communities as diverse as Philippines, India, China, South America, Morocco, of various religions and the local gypsies. He can do this because he knows them And all of them spoke in Spanish and most work in Madrid.

The kind of people invited to be associates

This kind of event and belief systems is very characteristic of the kind of people who are invited to be associates. They tend to have many years of practical experience but also come with some sort of spirituality. This is regardless of where they were born or where they live now. Many people ask and few are accepted, That kind of commonality enables them to get to know each other quickly, and moreover to gain trust. So when opportunities arise we can be quick to respond as a team because the time has already been invested in the community,Learning from each other

I have been fortunate to have been invited to events which I would not have known about if it hadn’t been for Mahmoud,

Opportunities shared with associates

Similarly I organised for me and associate Clair Aghassipour to meet interculturality guru Fons Trompenaars in Amsterdam. And this week Clair represented Smart Coaching & Training in Netherlands for three meetings in the same week. Jessica Breitenfeld and Ian Gibbs represented SCT meeting the owner of a Saudi Arabian training organisation in Barcelona. They can’t do this unless they are well briefed and trusted. We would not have known SIETAR if it hadn’t been for associate Pari Namazie

JEDI Justice Equity Diversity Inclusion

Back to Mahmoud: JEDI Justice Equity Diversity Inclusion are his topics. Mirroring the many Diversity topics SCT is capable of supporting. See Diversity

*Mahmoud Assy and David Rigby at FELGTBI event in Madrid*

*Fons Trompenaars and Clair Aghassipour exchanging books*

*David Rigby with Papa Baba Ndong president of SIETAR*

Smart Coaching & Training works with over 30 associates, in four continents speaking 14 languages and raised and working in a wide range of cultures. See our associates here.

09/10/2025 By David Rigby

The right not to have an opinion

A better option for coaches

Sometimes it essential to have an opinion. Often you don’t need an opinion and that’s OK. If you are a professional coach you need to be able to coach people whose opinions and values differ from yours, so better you are open-minded.
There are many topics for which I don’t have an opinion. Often because I recognise I don’t have enough information to make one and I am not interested enough to find out. There are other topics, such as Gaza, where I have an opinion which seems to stand up, for which I know I only have selected ‘facts’.
This seems to contradict current life where everyone has an opinion on everything whether they know anything or not. And the ‘if you don’t agree with me then you are out’ is the next step .

So here is a list where I don’t know enough to have information to form an opinion

Trans women using women’s toilets. Trans men using men’s toilets. I know several trans people who have had the bravery and the trauma of transitioning. It takes a lot of courage to transition. Most transition to become who they really are. Is it such an afront to non-trans people to see a trans person in a toilet and how would you know. And what other options do they have? There are not enough statistics to prove their presence is dangerous but there is a lot of hysteria.
By removing all the immigrants there will be no people to do the jobs the indigenous people wont do – such as looking after old people and care in general. And regarding immigrants as cheap labour. Though it’s a disgrace on society that someone’s race determines how much they earn. It will of course mean that the people who want looking after will have to pay a lot more than they are doing now and many people wont get the support they need. And with the population imbalance there will not be enough taxes collected from younger people to support the aging population so retirement age will have to increase by a lot more. However removing all the immigrants will allow the retention of traditional culture – whatever that was . In the UK that will require returning to eating the traditional terrible English food. Not going to the Indian restaurant after a few pints, or having food delivered because there will be no-one to cook it or deliver it. It might mean more traditional Fish & Chip shops if anyone could afford to go to them.

No white people allowed? *Is this coming again ?*

*proper inclusive signage – in a Madrid University*

*Should people this old be allowed to vote ? Who is there to look after her in old age ? The kids (if any) won’t* and there won’t be anyone else to

There is a case for banning all people over 65 from voting in elections as they are very-short term minded, thinking of only themselves and not the long term as they wont be there. Best example is Brexit – where many people had opinions based on no information. Whereas 16-17 years olds are at least voting for their future. There is also a good case for making all politicians and leaders retire at 65 too!

LGB alliance (without the T) claim that they would not want trans-women in Lesbian groups because trans-women are men. In many ways it’s the same argument about having non-whites in traditionally all white clubs and having women in men only clubs. Why any of the excluded would want to join these narrow minded and bigoted groups I don’t know unless it’s to prove a point. Women only groups are the same thing

It is a fact, proven by McKinsey over and over again that diverse teams get better results. Teams which are ALL of cognitively, racially, culturally, generationally, neuro, gender and sexually diverse may take longer to get to conclusions but the results will be better. But those who don’t want to embrace this fact still believe that ‘people like us’ are the only ones we should listen to. Those who are not indigenous or went to the right school still have to be better qualified to do the same job for lower pay. But compare that to ‘would I travel in a plane with a black pilot’ because he was brought in under a quota which balanced his lack of opportunity and most likely better qualified .

What benefit to I have from this?

These few examples illustrate where I observe what is going on but don’t have the time or inclination to investigate further. I also don’t go to bars to join a group watching football to voice my opinions about footballers, where, though I may have less knowledge than the punters, I severely question the knowledge of those punters when they complain about the referee. But I am not expressing that opinion in front of them as I don’t have the knowledge to justify my opinion. It’s also boring.

And as a coach, having an open mind will enable you to cope better when your client has strong views about something you know about but can straddle the fence.

Smart Coaching & Training works with over 30 associates, in four continents speaking 14 languages. Most raised and working in a wide range of cultures and living in a different place than where they were born . See our associates here.

Overwhelmed – what to give up to make space for the new ?

So I decided to do no work

Smart Coaching & Training works with over 30 associates, in four continents speaking 14 languages. Most raised and working in a wide range of cultures and living in a different place than where they were born . See our associates here.

People and Purpose : Insights Beyond Borders Dec 18 Podcast with David Rigby

The Malaga Conferences

Smart Coaching & Training works with over 30 associates, in four continents speaking 14 languages. Most raised and working in a wide range of cultures and living in a different place than where they were born . See our associates here.

Malaga: November Events: Diversity & Innovation and Professional Speakers Association

Conferences in Malaga

Diversity & Innovation Conference

Professional Speakers Association (Spain) Convention

Diversity & Innovation Conference

PSA Spain Convention

PSA Spain Convention

Why am I going to these events ?

Smart Coaching & Training works with over 30 associates, in four continents speaking 14 languages. Most raised and working in a wide range of cultures and living in a different place than where they were born . See our associates here.

Because it’s important – “Towards a future without racism”

No need to ask further questions

The kind of people invited to be associates

Opportunities shared with associates

JEDI Justice Equity Diversity Inclusion

Smart Coaching & Training works with over 30 associates, in four continents speaking 14 languages and raised and working in a wide range of cultures. See our associates here.

The right not to have an opinion

A better option for coaches

So here is a list where I don’t know enough to have information to form an opinion

What benefit to I have from this?

Smart Coaching & Training works with over 30 associates, in four continents speaking 14 languages. Most raised and working in a wide range of cultures and living in a different place than where they were born . See our associates here.

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