Benita Lee, Trade Consultant, Founder, Benita Lee Professional Corporation

In this episode of The One Problem, Benita Lee, a trade consultant, talks about the intercultural divide and offers one way to bridge it.

Hi there. My name is Avil Beckford, and this is the latest episode of the One Problem Podcast. There are tons of problems in the world, but we're going to focus on one problem at a time. Why get overwhelmed? As is the case with most of my guests, I have some sort of prior relationship with them, and that's indeed the case with our guest this week, Benita Lee. I met her on LinkedIn, and she's from Calgary. I went to the University of Calgary, so we have a few things in common.

She is a trade consultant and owns her own firm, Benita Lee Professional Corporation. Over to you, Benita.

Benita Lee

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my thoughts and have a discussion with you and your audience. So many questions. But let's take a stab at this one. Why do we look at cultural differences as a divide? And what I think we should be doing is building bridges by collaborating in this polarized world. It seems like everywhere we turn, there's conflict because somebody does something different from us, believes something different or looks and sounds different from us. And I mean, there's been many studies that say that the USA faces a growing cultural divide among lines of race, religion, income and other dimensions.

These increasing disagreements go hand in hand with a fraying social fabric, growing dysfunction in the political arena, and the disintegration of social capital. That's what the Economic Journal said. My solution is that, well, I started with your article with the skills that you listed that we as leaders and people should focus on learning in 2022. Well, you name complex problem-solving, critical thinking as one and two, and I really like that. So I'm just going to add another C, which is collaboration. Complex problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration.

Have you read or watched?

1. Pamela Jeffery, Founder, The Prosperity Project & Women’s Executive Network
2. Alta Odendaal, Financial Coach and Consultant
3. Larissa Russell, Founder and CEO Queer Voicez and Creative U Business
4. Glain Roberts-McCabe, Founder, the Roundtable, Group Coach Academy
5. Dr Marsha Carr, Professor, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
6. Gabriella O’Rourke, Business Consultant, Borden Ladner Gervais
7. Stefanie Booker Atchison, Wisdom Coach & Motivational Speaker
8. Michelle Griffin, Founder Brandthority, Building Your Personal Brand
9. Donna Knutson, Founder of Write Journeys
10. Sophie Gray, Founder of DiveThru: Being Disconnected from Yourself
11. The One Problem Interview with Lois McGuire, Author
12. The One Problem Interview with Roberta Liebenberg, Senior Law Partner

Complex problem-solving is a collection of self-regulated psychological processes and activities in environments to solve ill-defined goals. And I mean, the Pandemic is one of them. Not just one group is going to be able to solve the supply chain bottlenecks that we see happening around the world. And we need collaboration and critical thinking and analysis to really define the goals and the problems and break them down. And it's not just one group that we need, not one discipline that we need.

Trade Consultant Benita Lee Talks About the Intercultural Divide

Benita Lee

When I reflected on your question, I think I've been analyzing this hypothesis for 20 years. I think the reason why I was curious about global trade and intercultural relations has always been that global trade brings peace. Can you build bridges over differences? I think we can. And the one example that I can think of which exemplifies this is during the pandemic, a bunch of us from totally different industries: a virtual assistant, a person in operations and a lawyer and myself came together and started a virtual networking group.

If that is not a good example of why collaboration across differences can build bridges, I don't know what is. The Jingle Mingle is on December 12, and you are invited, Avil. I hope we'll see you.

Avil Beckford

Sounds good. Thank you so much, Benita, for talking about this. Because the intercultural divide is really important.

Next Steps

1. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel
2. Join the Art of Learning Membership Site

The One Problem is just one way to learn from me. You can also join the Art of Learning membership site.

If you want access to my Bookish Notes, please consider joining my membership site, the Art of Learning.