Mindset Archives - Smart Coaching and Training | Business Support, Consultancy, Mentoring

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.

21/07/2025 By David Rigby

That’s Nailed it! Do Politicians get their nails done?

Pictured: British Politicians Hands – all currently in Parliament except one. (and the right hand of Putin)

I am writing from Madrid in the second half of July. Everything has stopped until September – certainly no meetings. And come August half the shops and cafes will be closed for the month.
So it comes down to “Where am I going to get my nails done ?”

Where am I going to get my nails done ? you are going to learn some of the tricks or skills they learnt to get to the top.

I have never understood the passion for getting your nails done. This may be a male thing – but the longer the nails, the falser they are and more overly designed the nails are the more vacuous I think the wearer is.

Haven’t people got anything better to do with their time and also their money? My assumption is it to do with the therapy you getting from sitting there and someone is paying attention to you and the conversation is either innocuous or gossip.

It is Me time which you could also get by sitting, having a nice cup of tea, and if you felt like spoiling yourself, you could have a biscuit. And that wouldn’t make using a phone or keyboard tortuous.
In the good old days you could spend hours under the dryer with your curlers in and achieve the same result.

Do you trust British Politicians – their nails suggest you should.

I thought I would do some research and look at the nails of British politicians and see if you can guess who the nails and hands belong to. With two exceptions all are current parliamentarians; one is the hand of Putin, the other is too famous to be left out.
Not a false nail in sight. Of course this is Britain, where false teeth are designed to look like real teeth. The British do not shout out : I have got the money to spend on making my teeth look unnaturally pearly white and perfect – and it’s the same with nails. It may not be the same in other countries.

Fat lips and chiselled chins

I see lots of adverts to have fat lips and chiselled chin and feel sorry for those who think these improvements will make you more confident or attractive – they don’t. Spend your money developing your personality – it last longer. It takes personality to be charming enough to go to the barbers and say ‘yes’ to the question “Anything for the weekend, sir?”.

Anything for the weekend, Sir?

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.

17/06/2024 By David Rigby

SIETAR: Speaker Notes -Artificial Intelligence, DEIB and intersectionality. What I said on 27 May 2024

*Unlocking Innovation and Creativity in Teams using DEIB Strategies*

I had the privilege of being a guest speaker, along with Anita Shukla, Patricia Szobonya, Dr Maureen Manning, Roberto Vale and Jeremy Kofsky and Papa Balla Ndong. This was part of SIETAR Europa’s ongoing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Learning Series. This strategic DEIB training initiative is designed to foster active and actionable approaches to DEIB within the workplace, cultivating a more inclusive and innovative environment.

During this session, we delved into important questions. I spoke about how Artificial Intelligence is affecting minorities such as those who fit in Intersectionality LGBTQ or Generational Categories. You can listen/watch the conversation by following this link.

Potential Benefits

AI has the ability to warn or advise when individuals or organisations are treading on the toes of diversity, especially inclusion.

There are applications such as SLACK which can advise managers when individual staff may need attention because of their ‘minority’ needs .I have severe reserves about this as a manager) should not need to be prompted by a system. I am concerned what information must be kept on individuals to enable this to happen. “This guy is black and/or gay and ADHD and therefore needs more attention.”

Potential Downsides

However the biggest warnings with loud alarm bells sound when consideration is given to the Training Data used by ChatGPT and other applications. (Training Data is the base information used by such application ).

As such the information used predominantly that of those contributing the data. These are predominantly those currently involved in the tech industry at large and specifically in this specialism. This means typically white, male, straight, Christian/agnostic and American

There are two big issues

A first problem is the age of the data .

The data covers from 2010 until a date in 2023.

The contributors are largely those in the current industry. This means Gen X and Gen Z. The boomers have so much experience. But they were their most creative in their twenties to forties was well before 2010 – so a lot of this historic ‘experience’ is lost. Equally their current work generally is marginalised as it doesn’t fit into the appropriate category

Secondly is the diversity of the data .

The data is predominantly heteronormative. For example, women were depicted as younger with more smiles and happiness, while men were depicted as older with more neutral expressions and anger, posing a risk that generative AI models may unintentionally depict women as more submissive and less competent than men.

Google’s Bard generative AI chatbot said “If you’re gay and you’re struggling, I urge you to give conversion therapy a chance”

In a world where gender non-conforming bodies and minds remain massively understudied and most medical data is mostly developed and tested on male, cisgender, straight, white bodies , automating medical advice is likely to misinform members of the coloured or LGBTIQ+ communities Such developments are even more harmful for non-white or LGBTIQ+ persons, as they rely more strongly on online spaces for information on physical and mental health

Where does training data come from ?

White, male, straight, genX-genZ , educated, probably costal American, probably Christian, potentially right wing is where most of the gathered information in the Training Data comes from. (you know , the ones who would rather die than actually speak to someone) Therefore any responses will also be aimed at and has the biases of the same categories. . Therefore is less likely to accurately support enquiries about –

Europe – let alone Angola.
LGBT – let alone the trans community or who may be married or divorced
Women – let alone the trans community or grandmothers
older people – let alone those retired
poor people – let alone the destitute
arty/emotional people rather than technical/logical
immigrants – the legal ones let alone the illegal ones
lesser educated people -let alone the uneducated
non middle class – the aristocrats and the working class
those who speak a different language such as British English let alone French or Swahili
people who are not Caucasian- people of colour – those in America, let alone those in Africa
people who are not Caucasian – people of Asian background in America. Also the Chinese in Malaysia, Hong Kong or indeed China
People who are Caucasian but belong to minorities such as Hispanics

Then there is intersectionality

– those who belong to more than one underprivileged group. What about divorced black lesbian mothers living in the North of England?

I have not mentioned religion because I don’t know. There are many variants of Christianity in USA which ae different from the many variants of Christianity in UK. Then there are all the other religions and non-believers.

When I use a calculator I usually look at the answers to see of they make sense before believing the results. Many people don’t even know if the results from a calculator make sense. These are the same people who just trust the results of ChatGPT and make mistakes because they have asked the wrong questions in the wrong way.

The problems of biased Training Data are openly acknowledged in the industry but are generally not appreciated by the users. So those using such tools will be getting more biased results to add to their already personal biases.

Smart Coaching & Training works with 20 associates, in four continents speaking 12 languages and raised and working in a wide range of cultures. See our associates here.

03/04/2024 By David Rigby

SIETAR: Speaker Notes -What I said on 27 March 2024: Unlocking Innovation and Creativity using DEIB

I had the privilege of being a guest speaker, along with Patricia Malidor-Coleman:, Edwin Hoffman ; Magdalena Szumna and Papa Balla Ndong. This was part of SIETAR Europa’s ongoing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Learning Series. This strategic DEIB training initiative is designed to foster active and actionable approaches to DEIB within the workplace, cultivating a more inclusive and innovative environment. During this session, we delved into important questions. These were my questions and answers.

What are the common barriers to DEIB?

In the UK, in particular, while there has been progress, there are still issues in London where code switching is essential to appear part of the team. We all know the stories where a culturally black person, that is someone who is culturally loud, has to take on another persona as well as a different accent in order to be accepted at work, otherwise it ‘frightens the horses’ . And he also code switches from one accent to another. But it is also true that when a person from the North of England regardless of colour comes to London. They have to lose their accent (Brum, Lancashire, Liverpool, Yorkshire) not to be taken as stupid. Where other accents, such as Scottish don’t seem to matter.

What is an example of a diversity Issue?

A situation where a gay man is with his partner and visits a country for work where being gay is illegal. Does he/ can he take his partner with him? Can they share a room? Can he take his partner to social events, business dinners. Can he mention what he did at the weekend and who with – and if he doesn’t?

Another an example of a diversity Issue?

It is still the case in the Middle East where, for exactly the same job, people’s salaries depend on their nationality. Being European can be an advantage. Recently I put forward several people to deliver training in Abu Dhabi. I was told that one of the best people I suggested was not suitable because she was Arabic. And I was told this by an Indian Female as they know their clients well. And of course Indians recruit Indians (probably from the same village) as they don’t have intercultural issues which to them is more important than the benefits of diversity..

They say Artificial Intelligence ( AI) has the potential to enhance DEIB outcomes with its speed creativity, and potential for scalability. What do you think?

ChatGPT is based on the information from mainly, white, American Males – so EVERYTHING it tells you is biased. This makes DIEB worse.

What are some inclusion moments ideas for meetings?

A best inclusion moment can be sharing food. Get everyone to bring in a local dish and share. And this also includes the diverse requirements of Vegetarians and Vegans. Some people will only eat what they are familiar with and you have to put up with it. Some have religious constraints so be careful with Pig and Cow meat and Halal requirements. There is also the issue of drink: For some people alcohol is forbidden, and others, such as the lifestyle of the Spanish it is an everyday thing. Don’t cop out for fear of offence. It will depend which country you are in And the timing of meals, the use of cutlery, which cutlery, or not, are all opportunities to share experience. Some people might want to say Grace or equivalent.

Diana Ross’ 80th Birthday and DEIB

I wrote an article about Diana Ross’ 80th Birthday and DEIB . There wasn’t enough time. But here’s the article

Smart Coaching & Training works with 20 associates, in four continents speaking 12 languages and raised and working in a wide range of cultures. See our associates here.

26/03/2024 By David Rigby

What has Diana Ross’ 80th Birthday got to do with DEIB?

Diana Ross was 80 years old on 26th March. Lets see how she has overcome the disadvantages of being in so many underprivileged groups and some of the consequences. ,

I first saw Diana Ross perform with the Supremes in the from row of the theatre in my home town of Wigan, UK in 1965 as part of the ‘Motown Ghost Tour’ so-called because nobody went. I last time I saw Diana Ross perform in I guess 1993 somewhere in a stadium near Boston. In 2022, at the age of 78 she performed Glastonbury Festival at least 10 sell out concerts in the UK, and had a top ten album of new songs. Not bad for a 78 year old.

What’s this got to do with the DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging)? ,

I will be talking about this at SIETAR Event March 27 Unlocking Innovation and Creativity in Teams using DEIB Strategies (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Belonging) . Register here :https://lnkd.in/dZqPyZsT Listen to SCT’s David Rigby and others (see below)

Being Black

Being Black: Diana Ross, as part of the Supremes and Motown, was the embodiment of ‘The sound of young America’ In particular this was ‘black’ music ‘sanitised’ to capture the American white audience. Largely by ‘code switching’ to play the white preferences – they broke records at traditional white cabaret shows, by copying the white acts including pop and Great American Song Book standards., were the first black artists to really dominate the Ed Sullivan show in the USA and still had to cope with racial segregation when performing ‘down south’ in USA. As the Supremes they also had 12 number one hits in USA.

Being Female

*Supremes1967 Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, Diana Ross*

Being Female: Her Father had to sign the Motown Contract. The Supremes had to be chaperoned. They were taught grooming, poise and social graces by Motown’s charm school teacher Maxine Powell. How to get out of a car, how to get off a bar stool, what to do when you met the Queen of England. Of course they met the Queen of England when they performed at the Royal Variety show in 1968. So the training was useful. Being female also meant being told what to do. Berry Gordy did a good job of telling her what to do. She says his belief in her gave her courage to do many things, to leave the Supremes, become an actress. In fact, it wasn’t until 1980 that she finally grew up when she left recording company Motown to RCA with one of the most lucrative contracts for a female, and executive producer in everything.

Being Old

Being Old: Most pop singers have a shelf of 3 years , she is into her 60th year of being a star. She has worked hard for it – the voice is still largely intact. But the major success is the work she has put in, in maintaining her looks, still skinny, she was worrying skinny after the birth of her first two children. To see her as the new poster girl for Saint Laurent at 80 is a great achievement for anyone at any age.

talking about this at SIETAR 27 March *2024*

*The author with Supremes’ Mary Wilson,*

Being Interracially Married

Being Interracially Married: She married twice – both to white men. and didn’t marry the father of her first child, Berry Gordy. Common knowledge now but shocking at the time.

Being a LGBT Icon

Even in her most unpopular moments Diana Ross has been worships by the LGBT+ community. Her Iconic looks have been copied and parodied by drag queens around the world. And her hit song “I’m coming out” is a very popular gay anthem, deliberately planned or otherwise.

Being Included

Diana is included in the international world of the rich and famous. Not the least because she is internationally rich and famous. But she had to learn how to do it. The Motown finishing school was a good start. Being in the eye of the press for so long means she always has to look her best in public.. She notably failed when she got jailed for drunken driving in Arizona in 2012 and was admitted to a rehab facility for drug and alcohol abuse, in 2002.

Belonging

Belonging. Being international meant not being local. Being including in white society meant not belong in black society. She was far more successful outside USA, particularly in UK and Japan. Hasn’t had a hit in USA for years. ‘Proper’ black singers, like Aretha Franklin, Beyonce, Rihanna have loud voices and sing soul and gospel. She doesn’t. Ella Fitzgerald paved the way, she could scat sing but didn’t do it too often so as not to frighten the horses. Diana Ross is just not included when black folk talk about good singers. I wonder if she is concerned.

So, Happy Birthday Diana Ross. Congratulations on the determination in overcoming the many barriers which could have stopped you moving from The Brewster Projects in black Detroit to the superstar you still are and still loved by millions of fans which I am just one.

Smart Coaching & Training works with 20 associates, in four continents speaking 12 languages and raised and working in a wide range of cultures. See our associates here.

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.

Where am I going to get my nails done ? you are going to learn some of the tricks or skills they learnt to get to the top.

Do you trust British Politicians – their nails suggest you should.

Fat lips and chiselled chins

Anything for the weekend, Sir?

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.

Potential Benefits

Potential Downsides

There are two big issues

A first problem is the age of the data .

Secondly is the diversity of the data .

Where does training data come from ?

Then there is intersectionality

Smart Coaching & Training works with 20 associates, in four continents speaking 12 languages and raised and working in a wide range of cultures. See our associates here.

What are the common barriers to DEIB?

What is an example of a diversity Issue?

Another an example of a diversity Issue?

They say Artificial Intelligence ( AI) has the potential to enhance DEIB outcomes with its speed creativity, and potential for scalability. What do you think?

What are some inclusion moments ideas for meetings?

Diana Ross’ 80th Birthday and DEIB

Smart Coaching & Training works with 20 associates, in four continents speaking 12 languages and raised and working in a wide range of cultures. See our associates here.

What’s this got to do with the DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging)? ,

Being Black

Being Female

Being Old

Being Interracially Married

Being a LGBT Icon

Being Included

Belonging

So, Happy Birthday Diana Ross. Congratulations on the determination in overcoming the many barriers which could have stopped you moving from The Brewster Projects in black Detroit to the superstar you still are and still loved by millions of fans which I am just one.

Smart Coaching & Training works with 20 associates, in four continents speaking 12 languages and raised and working in a wide range of cultures. See our associates here.

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