Names and identity

- In a recent workshop I was conducting on communication strategies for non-native speakers, over half of the participants had altered the pronunciation of their name to make it easier for English speaking colleagues to pronounce. Now, you may already be on a team where people have a different name than their birth name, or what people call them at home. And their reasons for doing so may have nothing to do with you at all. It may be that they just don't want to be asked, over and over again, how to pronounce their names. Or their names are constantly mispronounced in such a way that they just don't want to hear it any longer. Here are some things to consider for your team, and to create safety and inclusiveness and increase cultural awareness for everyone. Create an icebreaker, for example, where everyone gets to discuss the origin of their names. Why your parents named you what they did, what your name actually means.…