The world’s population will grow to 9 billion over the next 50 years — and only by raising the living standards of the poorest can we check population growth. This is the paradoxical answer that Hans Rosling unveils.

Even the most worldly and well-traveled among us will have their perspectives shifted by Hans Rosling. A professor of global health at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, his current work focuses on dispelling common myths about the so-called developing world, which (he points out) is no longer worlds away from the West. In fact, most of the Third World is on the same trajectory toward health and prosperity, and many countries are moving twice as fast as the west did.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Most of you know that I am committed to my work on Diversity. I want to share with the Invincibelle supporters and community the discussion around Diversity 2.0 at the Milken Global conference.

As promised to some, I am posting the link to the entire discussion below: Thanks for your support.

Q. Are there diversity practices/policies that your organization has implemented in the last five years to keep pace with changing workforces?

My response: – I believe company culture and values of the culture are the drivers of performance.The combination of D&I and ethics continues to shape business. Tying diversity and inclusion to ethics, social responsibility and reputation can increase recruiting, retention and stock price. Most importantly, an effective program emphasizes behavior not just compliance. When the Ethics officer at Waste Management retired, the CEO merged the ethics and diversity functions. Tying Ethics to Diversity did more for the D&I than ever imagined. Having a new role report directly to top leadership demonstrated the highest level of commitment. More investor funds are looking for socially responsible companies. Take, for instance, the Calvert Group’s Diversity Index. From this list the corporations can recognize the impact of D&I policies on stock price.

Global marketplace - In the twenty first century, rapid globalization requires a new look at diversity. Imposing US based D&I initiatives onto an international playing field without thoughtful regard to the distinctions that create business identities and cultures can create tense relationships, as well as loss of revenue, staff and credibility.

Women in the workforce: women as half of all workers changes everything. Recognizing the importance of women’s earnings to family well-being is the key piece to understanding why we are in a transformational moment. Flexible work arrangements, flexible career paths, and new leadership styles better meet the needs of today’s diverse workforce as well as today’s flexible and fast-changing economic environment. They argue these new work policies should not be perks for only a chosen few. All workers need policies that meet the changed realities of work and family, not just elite workers. In short, the conversation is no longer about whether women will work, but rather about how businesses are dealing with the fact that their workforce is increasingly made up of women and most workers today—men and women—share in at least some care responsibilities.

Hourly Workers: With the economic downturn, it is important that there are policies that allow for workers to keep their jobs at the same time companies create a culture where they are able to work through their availability and share responsibilities.

Here is the link to the video below:

Diversity 2.0: Building a workforce to succeed in a global workplace

With help from some surprising footage, Derek Sivers explains how movements really get started. (Hint: it takes two.)

Leadership Lessons on How to start a movement

Click here to view the embedded video.

Last night, sitting with my family at the dinner table, I was called a feminist. Whether I am one or not, the real question I have is, So what’s the Big Deal?

That got me thinking. I had have multiple conversations with women all over the world and all generations given the nature of my work. And I seem to find that the older generation from the 1960s, who were part of the second phase of feminism, have some pride when it comes to being a feminist and the younger generations from the 1990s, who are the part of the third part of feminism as stated by Rebecca Walker, onwards don’t think it is “Cool”.

I really respect the women of the 60s whose efforts opened up the possibilities for the women in the younger generation. Thank God for their efforts for the simple things we take for granted like maternity leaves, paternity leaves and role models. I believe this was a breakthrough for those women who wanted to break the idea that women could only find fulfillment through childrearing and homemaking. Not to say that for some – this is the most important but that does not mean any one is the ONLY way.

I also admire the younger women who want to have it all – work life, family and balance in life. They are not willing to give into the rat race that leads to making a choice between work OR family.

What I believe is that feminist or not, there is no point proclaiming that there is a particular way for anyone to BE.

If you have a child and you have no choice but to work for a living OR have to leave the kid at the day care OR simply love what you do and don’t want to quit – it means nothing about what kind of a mother you are. You are the BEST mom that can be for your child. Don’t sit around thinking what is a woman supposed to do to manage worklife. You know the answers. Get help and get going.

If you have the choice to spend the time with your child while you raise him OR decide to take on part time work – it means nothing about what kind of a mother you are. You are the BEST mom that can be for your child. Make the most of your time taking care of the house and your kids.

Just love being yourself. Don’t bother about what is Right OR Wrong. There is no such thing.

Feminist OR Not, appreciate their efforts and respect their point of view and they will respect YOURS. Offensive OR Not, Do unto others as you want others to do unto YOU. Don’t give too much meaning to a word. Finally, the meaning is an interpretation that is ALL. And each interpretation is unique.

As far as I am concerned, I find this conversation abrasive and pointless. The matter of the fact is that I don’t make a Big Deal about it. Finally, it is up to an individual and how the experiences have shaped her. Good or Bad, those experiences, are what creates our view of the world. And whatever I do, I will always have a smaller view of the world by myself than with a community. I choose my community – to have more wholesome experience.

If you have a similar story, please write to me at Contact Us. I will work on a section called “Voices” where you can have a community to share to broaden our experiences.

Good day!

Rosie Kuhn, Ph.D. is the creator and director of the Transformational Coaching Training at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.  As a Life and Executive Coach, she is focusing on women leaders and entrepreneurs who are committed to generating excellence in themselves, their team and their company.

I met Rosie at the OPEN Women Leadership Forum 2010 and sat down to talk to her about her book “Self Empowerment 101″. This topic is of interest to me since many of us look for empowerment outside and I wanted to find out if we need to begin by looking inside.

DB: Rosie, please tell us more about your book –”Self- Empowerment 101.”

RK: Self-Empowerment started out as part of a book for coaches. But, as I was writing I realized that what was being said about our relationship to power, to success and to money was relevant to everyone – not just coaches. From there, the book grew itself into this present form. Now,  it’s an online course on DailyOm.com called Activating your Personal Power and its moments away from being a workbook too.

DB:  Why is this book important than ever before?

RK: As the world is going through its own transformation or paradigm shift, each of us is perhaps confronting feelings of anxiety, worry, powerlessness and perhaps hopelessness. It’s really important to explore the source of our own beliefs and interpretations regarding these anxious times and to reflect that there is incredible evidence that each of us is powerful beyond belief. It takes only a willingness to begin to see where and how we choose to appear powerless and where and how we can choose to be powerful. Self-Empowerment 101 is a great tool to support people in revealing their true essential power and to use it in ways that will significantly shift their lives and the planet.

DB: What’s the biggest challenge for getting women to get what they say they want to achieve in their lives?

RK: As one woman put it “I’m not being allowed to have it the way I want.” When she and I looked closely at what she was saying she could see how she was not being in a state of allowing. When we are not in a state of allowing, how can we have what we want and what we want to achieve?

What is it that doesn’t allow us to be in a state of allowing? Well, most women value being loved by others over their own self-love, self-respect and self-honoring of their own needs and wants; so much so that we as women learn to forget that we have our own needs and wants and our own thoughts and feelings. By forgetting it is easier to then sublimate our desires in service of accommodating others.

Our multicultural world can be confusing too. On the one hand, what is encouraged is self-empowerment, self-fulfillment and generating meaningfulness in ways that may conflict with religious and cultural ways. On the other hand there is a part of us as women and as humans that is fulfilled by caring for others. It can be challenging to know what is true. Sometime there is a practice of balancing both – allowing for both and respecting both.

Allowing ourselves to know what we want – know what we want to achieve is a very important step. Allowing this knowing, acknowledging it for what it is can then allow possibility. The how to’s will reveal themselves effortlessly once we allow ourselves to know!

DB: At Invincibelle, we stand for women to help them in their professional development, how can women be more empowered to act?

RK: As I said above, first, we have to empower ourselves to allow ourselves to know what it is that’s most important.

Second, once we know, we have to empower ourselves to stay present to this knowing and not capitulate or fall back into forgetting.

Third, noticing what we do – how we empower ourselves to not act, or to act in ways that doesn’t serve our knowing, allows us to see that we are choosing to choose based on certain beliefs, expectations and assumptions.

Fourth, we have to be willing to allow the possibility that our beliefs, our expectations and assumptions may not be accurate and true. I saw a bumper sticker that said “Don’t believe everything you think!” When we can allow ourselves to see things in another way, this empowers us to be more at choice in the way we want to move toward or away from what we desire.

Fifth, Invincibelle is an incredible resource for women to find information, resources and support. This is a very important component of self-empowerment – getting connected with people who believe in you and want you to succeed!

DB: What is success?

RK: The most elegant definition of success is  Having what you say you want! Now, to me, this success is extremely individualistic. My success may not be your success. However, our successes together may create phenomenal success as a community, culture, country or planet.

DB. How do we discover our power?

RK: As I write in the first chapter of Self-Empowerment 101, power is essential in our being. Without power we would not be a living organism. We are infused with the power of the sun and the elements of the earth. This is just a fact of the matter!

The important aspect of this question is that what is to be discovered is how we are using our power. We are making choices in every moment of the day. Those choices are either moving us toward what we say we want or they are moving us toward, what I call an underlying commitment. For example, in regard to food, I can say I want to stay away from carbohydrates because they make me feel bad in lots of ways. But then I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with cookies on the side. By noticing my choice I can see that I’m using my power to support my underlying commitment, which might be to enjoy the feelings of satisfaction that comes with eating comfort food. This noticing practice is very powerful and points to the evidence that we are always at choice about how we are self-empowering.

DB:  How do we tackle our fear of failure or humiliation in starting things with uncertain outcomes?

RK: The Buddhists have a very important principle that they practice: Let go of the attachment to the outcome?

Now, this might seem crazy. Up until now, in this interview I’ve been encouraging us to know what we want, and allow ourselves to have the want and to have the outcome too. Now I’m saying let go of your attachment to the outcome. What’s with that?

The intention of self-empowerment is to be and be with whatever appears on the path of our desire. It may be success and prosperity, it may be failure and humiliation – most likely there will be some of both. But the most important practice is to notice how you are empowering yourself to be with what is.

Choosing to see the present circumstances as failures and as humiliating is just one choice among many to choose from. And, as I share in the book, it is essential to see that we are actually never failing. We use our power to create the illusion of failure. When we look at what we’ve been doing that has led to the perceived failure of a particular project it becomes clear that we’ve most likely sabotaged our success.

So tackling our fears of failure and humiliation means being curious enough to take a step in the direction of what we say we want; being curious enough to explore how we are being and being with the people and events that show up in our lives. Be at choice – whether how you are being is serving you and your desired outcome or serving that underlying commitment. Being curious allows us to discover ourselves beyond the fears we carry. We are not our fears. And the process of self-empowerment allows us to find that this is so.

DB:  Why do we need to keep our commitments?

RK: We are always keeping our commitments. It’s important to get this! We have the commitment we speak out loud and then there’s the commitments we don’t talk about or even think about or even know that we have. The more we can distinguish which commitment we are honoring at any given moment the more we can be at choice. This is self-empowerment at work!

The more we can honor our spoken commitments the more we are integrity with ourselves and others. The more we are in alignment with our word and our actions the more empowered we feel. The more we practice living into our commitments the more compassionate we become with ourselves and others. The more compassionate we become the more we are willing to share our prosperity and kindness with others. What a wonderful world we are creating  – even in this very moment, as we step ever closer to self-empowerment and global peace.

DB: What motivated you to write this book?

RK: As I mentioned earlier I wanted to write a training manual for my trainees. For the past nine years I’ve been facilitating the Transformational Coaching Training Program. I’m very good at speaking, teaching and facilitating, but I wanted to get it into a book form. Though this book was a offshoot, the book on becoming a transformational coach is a work in progress. One of my many spoken commitments is to have it complete in September 2010.

Click here to buy the book on Amazon: Self-Empowerment 101