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Use Your Difference to Make a Difference: How to Connect and Communicate in a Cross-Cultural World
Recent years have seen dramatic changes to several institutions worldwide. Our increasingly interconnected, digitized, and globalized world presents immense opportunities and unique challenges. Modern businesses and schools interact with individuals and organizations from a diverse range of cultural and national backgrounds—increasing the likelihood for miscommunication, errors in strategy, and unintended consequences in the process. This has also spilled into our daily lives and the way we consume information today. Understanding how to navigate these and other pitfalls requires adaptability, nuanced cross-cultural communication, and effective conflict resolution. Use Your Difference to Make a Difference provides readers with a skills-based, actionable plan that transforms differences into agents of inclusiveness, connection, and mutual understanding.
This innovative and timely guide illustrates how to leverage differences to move beyond unconscious biases, manage a culturally-diverse workplace, create an environment for more tolerant schooling environments, more trusted media, communicate across borders, find and retain diverse talent, and bridge the gap between working locally and expanding globally. Expert guidance on a comprehensive range of topics—teamwork, leadership styles, information sharing, delegation, supervision, giving and receiving feedback, coaching and motivation, recruiting, managing suppliers and customers, and more—helps you manage the essential aspects of international relationships and cultural awareness. This valuable resource contains the indispensable knowledge required to:
Develop self-awareness needed to be a cross-cultural communicator
Develop content, messaging techniques, marketing plans, and business strategies that translate across cultural borders
Help your employees to better understand and collaborate with clients and colleagues from different backgrounds
Help teachers build safe environments for students to be themselves
Strengthen cross-cultural competencies in yourself, your team, and your entire organization
Understand the cultural, economic, and political factors surrounding our world
Use Your Difference to Make a Difference is a must-have resource for any educator, parent, leader, manager, or team member of an organization that interacts with co-workers and customers from diverse cultural backgrounds.
This innovative and timely guide illustrates how to leverage differences to move beyond unconscious biases, manage a culturally-diverse workplace, create an environment for more tolerant schooling environments, more trusted media, communicate across borders, find and retain diverse talent, and bridge the gap between working locally and expanding globally. Expert guidance on a comprehensive range of topics—teamwork, leadership styles, information sharing, delegation, supervision, giving and receiving feedback, coaching and motivation, recruiting, managing suppliers and customers, and more—helps you manage the essential aspects of international relationships and cultural awareness. This valuable resource contains the indispensable knowledge required to:
Develop self-awareness needed to be a cross-cultural communicator
Develop content, messaging techniques, marketing plans, and business strategies that translate across cultural borders
Help your employees to better understand and collaborate with clients and colleagues from different backgrounds
Help teachers build safe environments for students to be themselves
Strengthen cross-cultural competencies in yourself, your team, and your entire organization
Understand the cultural, economic, and political factors surrounding our world
Use Your Difference to Make a Difference is a must-have resource for any educator, parent, leader, manager, or team member of an organization that interacts with co-workers and customers from diverse cultural backgrounds.
- GenresNonfictionCommunication
240 pages, Hardcover
Published September 4, 2019
25 people are currently reading
328 people want to read
About the author
Tayo Rockson
2books13followersTayo Rockson is a speaker, consultant, and media personality who runs UYD Management - a strategic leadership and consulting firm that helps organizations incorporate sustainable diversity and inclusion practices. As someone who has lived on 4 continents, he is an authority in communicating effectively across cultures. His As Told By Nomads podcast was recently ranked as the number two business podcast in the world by Entrepreneur and CIO.
He has spoken at TEDx multiple times, the World Bank, United Nations Foundation among many other places and his work has been seen on NowThis News, BuzzFeed, Forbes, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Inc. as well as Global Living Magazine. He was recently named a top millennial influencer to watch in 2018 by New Theory Mag and his Art of Diplomacy TED Talk was called one of the 11 TED Talks that will make you a better entrepreneur by 99designs along with the likes of Simon Sinek, Mel Robbins and the late John Wooden.
His book Use Your Difference To Make A Difference which is based on how to connect and communicate in a cross-cultural world is scheduled to come out in the fall of 2019.
He has spoken at TEDx multiple times, the World Bank, United Nations Foundation among many other places and his work has been seen on NowThis News, BuzzFeed, Forbes, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Inc. as well as Global Living Magazine. He was recently named a top millennial influencer to watch in 2018 by New Theory Mag and his Art of Diplomacy TED Talk was called one of the 11 TED Talks that will make you a better entrepreneur by 99designs along with the likes of Simon Sinek, Mel Robbins and the late John Wooden.
His book Use Your Difference To Make A Difference which is based on how to connect and communicate in a cross-cultural world is scheduled to come out in the fall of 2019.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 13, 2019
Tayo Rockson brings all he is to this stellar primer and inspiration for anyone and any group/organization/team that seeks to identify and understand biases, differences, privileges, and divisions and co-create awesome ideas on how to make a positive difference in the world. A must read for leadership today, anyone in the HR/People business and all people working in or with DNI programs. Highly recommend!
September 12, 2019
***I want to say a special thank you to Tayo Rockson for the opportunity to review his book and providing an ARC****
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"In our fast-paced world of reactiveness and radioactivity, we sometimes forget to paint our full pictures.."
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"Use Your Difference To Make A Difference " by Tayo Rockson is an experience. This brother begins with an inside-out approach to cooperative leadership and life. He asserts that before one can effectively lead an inventory of self must occur. Rockson providesthe reader with tools to help examine the id, ego, and super-ego. This process involves unlearning, relearning, and applying ideas. He encourages the reader to channel their "Inner Sherlock" to investigate others unlike themselves. Simply put, DO YOUR HOMEWORK!Hopefully, resulting in a more enlightened society because ignorance is the antithesis of progress.
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Additionally, Rockson assumes an aerial view examining - media, history, education, types of bias, and examples of privilege and intersectionality. He sets the reader up for these analyses by providing and defining the language necessary to do the work. His tone is conversationalwith traces of the university - he didn't set out to prove his brilliance. Rockson's main objective is bridge-building, and his intent impactful. His POV doesn't condemn or judge or "pick aside."
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One aspect of the book that I didn't expect was the inclusion of poems! WOW! My favorites were "History Doesn't Have to Be a Mystery" and "The Art of Our Lives." Rockson speaks from a place of vulnerability and assures of a path foward, while, recognizing the challenges of the past and present. His next book should be a bookof poems.
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"Use Your Difference To Make A Difference " is a valuable resource to promote diversity and inclusion beyond tolerance.✊�
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"In our fast-paced world of reactiveness and radioactivity, we sometimes forget to paint our full pictures.."
📚
📚
"Use Your Difference To Make A Difference " by Tayo Rockson is an experience. This brother begins with an inside-out approach to cooperative leadership and life. He asserts that before one can effectively lead an inventory of self must occur. Rockson providesthe reader with tools to help examine the id, ego, and super-ego. This process involves unlearning, relearning, and applying ideas. He encourages the reader to channel their "Inner Sherlock" to investigate others unlike themselves. Simply put, DO YOUR HOMEWORK!Hopefully, resulting in a more enlightened society because ignorance is the antithesis of progress.
📚
📚
Additionally, Rockson assumes an aerial view examining - media, history, education, types of bias, and examples of privilege and intersectionality. He sets the reader up for these analyses by providing and defining the language necessary to do the work. His tone is conversationalwith traces of the university - he didn't set out to prove his brilliance. Rockson's main objective is bridge-building, and his intent impactful. His POV doesn't condemn or judge or "pick aside."
📚
📚
One aspect of the book that I didn't expect was the inclusion of poems! WOW! My favorites were "History Doesn't Have to Be a Mystery" and "The Art of Our Lives." Rockson speaks from a place of vulnerability and assures of a path foward, while, recognizing the challenges of the past and present. His next book should be a bookof poems.
📚
📚
"Use Your Difference To Make A Difference " is a valuable resource to promote diversity and inclusion beyond tolerance.✊�
May 13, 2021
This is a fine, very introductory book about cross-cultural interaction and could be a good fit for young teenagers or others brand new to thinking about identity, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
I am a higher education administrator and was seeking a text to offer my students; unfortunately, this book will be a pass as I cannot in good conscience recommend it to college students as written. There are sentence fragments throughout, URLs copied into a paragraph of text, and it reads like a series of social media posts. It does not follow academic style guidelines, has very few references to primary sources, and neglects proper citations for multiple quotes and references.
For example, on pages 105 and 207, there are direct quotes from individuals ("Austin Belcak writes...", "Sandy Hoffman said...") but no citations. On page 107, it is written "Studies show..." but no citation. From which scientific study did this information come? There is a whole chapter on privilege, but shockingly no citation nor reference to Peggy McIntosh. On page 62, he discusses the term "third-culture kid", a fascinating cultural group to which the author himself belongs, yet again, there are no citations to Ruth Hill Useem or any other social scientists.
Lastly, he offers many terms and definitions throughout the book, such as "confirmation bias" and "microaggression", yet he gives no citations for the definitions (and he most certainly did not invent these terms himself).
The worst offense was on page 160, where the author includes a very well known quote from the great James Baldwin, yet he MISATTRIBUTES this quote to a different writer! Any professional working in the DEI space should be familiar with James Baldwin. This is sad.
I realize that much of this critique could be remedied by an editor, and am surprised that this book made it to publication in its current state. The author seems very intelligent, good-hearted, and passionate about social change, yet sadly his powerful message gets lost in the mess of the book.
I am a higher education administrator and was seeking a text to offer my students; unfortunately, this book will be a pass as I cannot in good conscience recommend it to college students as written. There are sentence fragments throughout, URLs copied into a paragraph of text, and it reads like a series of social media posts. It does not follow academic style guidelines, has very few references to primary sources, and neglects proper citations for multiple quotes and references.
For example, on pages 105 and 207, there are direct quotes from individuals ("Austin Belcak writes...", "Sandy Hoffman said...") but no citations. On page 107, it is written "Studies show..." but no citation. From which scientific study did this information come? There is a whole chapter on privilege, but shockingly no citation nor reference to Peggy McIntosh. On page 62, he discusses the term "third-culture kid", a fascinating cultural group to which the author himself belongs, yet again, there are no citations to Ruth Hill Useem or any other social scientists.
Lastly, he offers many terms and definitions throughout the book, such as "confirmation bias" and "microaggression", yet he gives no citations for the definitions (and he most certainly did not invent these terms himself).
The worst offense was on page 160, where the author includes a very well known quote from the great James Baldwin, yet he MISATTRIBUTES this quote to a different writer! Any professional working in the DEI space should be familiar with James Baldwin. This is sad.
I realize that much of this critique could be remedied by an editor, and am surprised that this book made it to publication in its current state. The author seems very intelligent, good-hearted, and passionate about social change, yet sadly his powerful message gets lost in the mess of the book.
October 1, 2022
Though it address communication and connection, it is a book directed to what is happening today in America. The book was not what I thought it was going to be, but does give practical things to journal/ work through, especially in understanding your own bias. This would not be the best book for actually understanding cross-cultural communication.
September 9, 2019
I genuinely believe the World has been waiting for this book!! The author does an amazing job at articulating so many relevant topics that should inspire us all to “Use our differences to make a difference� make this world a better place. The book is magnificent and empowering!! I highly Recommend this book to all.
June 12, 2020
This book started a little slow for me as someone whose been in the D&I space for years. But the second half of the book offered great insights, well researched and thought through material as well as true actionable items each one of us can do. Side note, I really appreciate how he encourages us to be Allies for all regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or any other characteristic. Great read.
September 5, 2019
This book accomplishes two very important things.
1. It convinces the reader that being different is actually a GOOD thing. It normalizes being unique, being a minority, being of unpopular opinion. This would have been a good book in and of itself, but there was more.
2. It further expands and TEACHES readers how to use these difference to connect with other people and make significant change in this world. This is what makes this book special. This is what makes this book different!
1. It convinces the reader that being different is actually a GOOD thing. It normalizes being unique, being a minority, being of unpopular opinion. This would have been a good book in and of itself, but there was more.
2. It further expands and TEACHES readers how to use these difference to connect with other people and make significant change in this world. This is what makes this book special. This is what makes this book different!
November 18, 2019
Use Your Difference to Make a Differenceis probably my favorite self-help book I’ve ever read. The writing is just friendly, like a friend was giving me tips, and I love the message.
It’s normal to be unique. Your differences are a good thing. That is what Tayo Rockson explains to us in this book. I find this theme alone incredibly useful. In a time where being different is up for debate whether it’s a good thing or not, we need more of what Tayo Rockson offers here.
The other goal of this book is to teach the reader how to use their differences to impact the world. I loved this because we are all unique. This is a book for anyone and everyone, and I think it’s an important message to hear.
Overall, the writing is solid and the themes are wonderful. I suggest picking this one up!
*I received a complimentary copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*
It’s normal to be unique. Your differences are a good thing. That is what Tayo Rockson explains to us in this book. I find this theme alone incredibly useful. In a time where being different is up for debate whether it’s a good thing or not, we need more of what Tayo Rockson offers here.
The other goal of this book is to teach the reader how to use their differences to impact the world. I loved this because we are all unique. This is a book for anyone and everyone, and I think it’s an important message to hear.
Overall, the writing is solid and the themes are wonderful. I suggest picking this one up!
*I received a complimentary copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.*
October 22, 2019
The book is well-meaning and optimistic, but right now, so many books are being published on this topic - workplace diversity and inclusion - that are better written.
The most valuable things in the book are the author's non-US perspective (needed) and the exercises included in some chapters, although most of these can be found elsewhere (not original).
The worst, though, has to be the poetry. I don't read business books to read poetry (full disclosure - I hate modern poetry). So I skipped most of that because well, it was just intolerable and silly.
That said, it's a fast and easy read and for readers who like quirky with their nonfiction, this is most definitely that.
I wish it had more on being a person who's different rather than responding to difference in others. As a person with a marginalized identity, I'm always looking for suggestions on how to negotiate that better. This book sounds like it should do that more...but it only touches on it briefly and only from the author's lived experience, which is valuable, but narrow.
Overall, not essential reading; for more intellectual reading, try The Person You Mean to Be by Dolly Chugh instead.
The most valuable things in the book are the author's non-US perspective (needed) and the exercises included in some chapters, although most of these can be found elsewhere (not original).
The worst, though, has to be the poetry. I don't read business books to read poetry (full disclosure - I hate modern poetry). So I skipped most of that because well, it was just intolerable and silly.
That said, it's a fast and easy read and for readers who like quirky with their nonfiction, this is most definitely that.
I wish it had more on being a person who's different rather than responding to difference in others. As a person with a marginalized identity, I'm always looking for suggestions on how to negotiate that better. This book sounds like it should do that more...but it only touches on it briefly and only from the author's lived experience, which is valuable, but narrow.
Overall, not essential reading; for more intellectual reading, try The Person You Mean to Be by Dolly Chugh instead.
February 15, 2020
Tayo Rockson invites us to foster deep appreciation for difference as well as connection. He flexes his global awareness in such an accessible way, we feel as if we're chatting with a dear old friend. As readers, Tayo coaches us to become active participants in our learning through the embedded exercises. He is a truth teller who uses various methods (including his own special brand of poetry) to relay the state of our culture and the choice to opt in to be a part of the solution. This is one of those books that will appeal to your heart and stay with you. If you're looking to build versus break, connect versus separate, validate versus negate then this is THE book for you!
March 6, 2021
Whether you are working on your own life or helping other understand and embrace a cultural relevance perspective, this is your go-to book.
I love how this book helps me dig deeper with me & analyze my own knowledge of cultural values & biases.
Very easy to read and follow to understand the framework the author wants to teach us.
This book is a must have & must read. Nowadays, there’s a huge sense of urgency in finding tools to helps understand, embrace, and appreciate those around us.
I love how this book helps me dig deeper with me & analyze my own knowledge of cultural values & biases.
Very easy to read and follow to understand the framework the author wants to teach us.
This book is a must have & must read. Nowadays, there’s a huge sense of urgency in finding tools to helps understand, embrace, and appreciate those around us.
June 7, 2020
Powerful, relevant, and actionable. Applying these principles in your life today will provoke changes to build a more inclusive tomorrow. A must read in 2020
October 20, 2020
Jam packed with useful information and actionable suggestions. Not overly wordy or repetitive like most books of the genre. Would recommend for pretty much anyone.
October 13, 2023
LORA model - listen, observe, reflect, act
November 17, 2023
Less of an informational expiration of knowledge and more of just a how-to about leadership and diversity/inclusion.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
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