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Saad Ali Khan

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Happy October. Our Dance calendar this month features Jarabe Tapatío, a traditional Mexican courtship dance from Jalisco. Colourful regional dress, sweeping skirts and charro-inspired styling make the performance immediately recognisable, while the dance itself develops through approach and response. Each person reacts to the other and influences where the exchange goes next.

There’s something useful here for anyone managing people. When you invite someone to contribute, your response helps determine whether they’ll keep contributing. Some people think aloud, others need more time. Some will challenge directly, while others develop their point gradually. A discussion dominated by the fastest or most confident speakers can leave valuable experience and insight unheard.

Managers can widen participation by making room for different ways of contributing, asking interested questions, bringing people back in when they’re interrupted and showing how they’ve considered the feedback they receive. People are far more likely to contribute when they can see that there is genuine scope to influence the discussion.
How much room do people in your team really have to shape what happens next?

Swipe for October’s key dates and observances, and save the post for later.

🔗 Download our 2026 Dance calendar via Stories to explore how cultures around the world come together through rhythm, tradition and shared meaning.

#Inclusion #Management #Participation #EmployeeVoice #JarabeTapatío October 2026 Dance calendar from Huma Qazi Limited, New Inclusion, SYNERGIES and The Privilege Project. Photograph of couples performing Jarabe Tapatío in Jalisco-style colourful Mexican folk dress, with sweeping skirts and charro-inspired menswear. Text introduces the Mexican courtship dance and its approach-and-response dynamic.

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Happy October. This month our Dance calendar features Jarabe Tapatío, a traditional Mexican courtship dance from Jalisco. Often performed in vivid regional dress, with sweeping skirts and charro-inspired styling, the dancers move through a series of approaches and responses. Each person reacts to the other, so the back and forth influences what comes next.
Workplace conversations develop through response too. An idea can only go so far on its own, and people aren’t always listened to equally. Someone may receive less attention because they’re junior, new to the organisation, outside the expected role or less familiar to those around the table. Our assumptions about identity, experience or credibility can also influence whose ideas we’re willing to explore further.

Allyship can show up in how we handle those everyday exchanges. Give people time to finish, notice who gets talked over, and ask questions that come from genuine interest rather than assumptions. The questions we choose can help someone explain an idea more fully and give people who receive less airtime a better chance to contribute, build credibility and influence what happens next.

Swipe for October’s key dates and observances, and save the post for later.

🔗 Download our 2026 Dance calendar via Stories to explore how cultures around the world come together through rhythm, tradition and shared meaning. October 2026 Dance calendar from Huma Qazi Limited, New Inclusion, SYNERGIES and The Privilege Project. Photograph of couples performing Jarabe Tapatío in Jalisco-style colourful Mexican folk dress, with sweeping skirts and charro-inspired menswear. Text introduces the Mexican courtship dance and its approach-and-response dynamic.

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For September our calendar features Bharatanatyam, a classical dance from southern India. Over centuries, dancers developed an extraordinarily precise and detailed way of communicating through movement, rhythm, hand gestures and facial expression. During a single performance, a dancer may portray several characters and the meaning of a gesture can change depending on how and when it’s used.

Bharatanatyam gives us a fascinating example of how much meaning people can communicate through detail and context, which takes us naturally into the less obvious ways we communicate at work.

We all decode nonverbal cues such as tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, timing and behaviour. What’s interesting is that people don’t always read those signals in the same way. Culture, experience, personality and neurotype can all influence interpretation.

A communication style that feels warm and confident to one person may feel overbearing to someone else. Direct eye contact may be read as engaged by one colleague and uncomfortable by another. A pause may be taken as uncertainty, reflection or respect depending on who’s interpreting it.

Inclusive communication means allowing for that difference and being curious about how people communicate, checking our assumptions, and avoiding treating one style as ‘the standard’ everyone should follow.

What might change if we became a little more aware of how differently people can read the same signals?

Download our 2026 calendar, themed around Dance, and explore how cultures around the world come together through rhythm, tradition and shared meaning. Each month includes hyperlinked dates to help you learn more about key observances across diverse communities throughout the year. The calendar link is in the comments.

#Inclusion #Communication #Belonging #Bharatanatyam #Dance

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Happy August! This month our calendar features classical ballet, a dance tradition that developed in the royal courts of Europe and became one of the world’s most elite and technically demanding performing arts.

Ballet requires discipline, precision, strength, artistry and years of preparation. It has also developed within traditions where people held particular expectations about body shape, background and who they believed had the potential to succeed.

Today, leading schools and companies are reviewing some of those practices. They are widening access and providing dancers with specialist healthcare, nutrition and psychological support, including adjustments to training and recovery where needed.

High standards depend partly on how people are given the opportunity to reach them. In the workplace, managers and leaders make decisions about who gets recruited, encouraged, developed, sponsored and trusted with the next opportunity. When organisations broaden where they look for talent, reconsider inherited criteria and give more people meaningful opportunities to develop, they give themselves a better chance of recognising ability that might previously have been overlooked.

#Leadership #Inclusion #Talent #Equity #Ballet

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Our July calendar features the #Haka, a ceremonial group performance with centuries of history in Māori culture. Different iwi, or tribes, perform their own Haka to welcome visitors, recognise achievement, honour those who have died and #prepare for significant events.

The Haka’s emphasis on collective #readiness offers us a useful workplace lesson. Research published by Harvard Business Review and Harvard Business School found that team #rituals can help people reconnect with a shared #purpose, strengthen collaboration and prepare for important work.

We should also pay attention to who gets the time, space and permission to prepare and who doesn’t. Some people have greater control over their diaries, fewer interruptions and more confidence that colleagues will hear them. Others move between meetings while perhaps juggling access needs, caring responsibilities, different time zones, slower technology.

A workplace ritual could be as simple as encouraging people in back to back meetings to take 30 seconds to close tabs and note anything they still need to address from the previous discussion. Or, at the start of a significant meeting, teams could also use a 90 second reset.

◾ Purpose. Why are we here?
◾ Outcome. What do we need to achieve?
◾ Perspective. Who might we overlook, and whose knowledge or experience do we need before we begin?

These rituals take less than two minutes and work equally well online or in a meeting room. Leaders can use them to give everyone a clearer starting point, while paying closer attention to whose circumstances, contributions and perspectives the usual pace of work may disadvantage.

Strong teams prepare themselves and one another for what comes next, and they make sure that readiness is not reserved for those with the most control, confidence or access.

Huma Qazi | Kate Stuart | Louisa van Vessem | Saad Ali Khan | Sofia Beale | Sara Chandran | Áine Maher | Shiva Raichandani | Rebecca Westaway | Amelia Donkor | Jacq Cho

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Our July calendar features the Haka, a ceremonial group performance with centuries of history in Māori culture. Different iwi (tribes) perform their own Haka to welcome visitors, recognise achievement, honour those who have died and #prepare for significant things to come.

The Haka’s emphasis on collective #readiness, is something that’s worth remembering. Indeed, research published by Harvard Business Review and Harvard Business School found that team #rituals help people reconnect with a shared purpose, strengthen collaboration and prepare for important work.

A workplace ritual could be as simple as, in back to back meeting scenarios, encouraging people to take 30 seconds to close tabs and note anything they still need to address from the previous meeting. Or, at the start any significant meetings, doing a 90-second reset to prepare everyone.

◾Purpose. Why are we here?
◾Outcome. What do we need to achieve?
◾Perspective. Is there anything, or anyone, we haven’t considered before we begin?

These ritual examples take less than two minutes, work equally well online or in a meeting room, and incorporate several elements from the Harvard research mentioned. Visit our Linkedin page for all the links

Strong teams prepare themselves and one another for what comes next.

Huma Qazi | Kate Stuart | Louisa van Vessem | Saad Ali Khan | Sofia Beale | Sara Chandran | Áine Maher | Shiva Raichandani | Rebecca Westaway | Amelia Donkor | Jacq Chow July 2026 calendar cover featuring a group of Māori men and women performing a haka outdoors beside water and wooded hills. Three men in traditional patterned garments lead the performance in strong, grounded stances, with raised hands and expressive faces, while other performers sing and play guitar behind them. White text asks, ‘What can work learn from the haka?’ The accompanying copy highlights preparation for important moments as a workplace lesson. A July date strip and the Huma Qazi, New Inclusion, SYNERGIES and The Privilege Project logos appear at the bottom.

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#Values are often spoken of as personal convictions, but they are also shaped by context, power and consequence.
To stand for what we believe in is not simply an act of courage; it can also be an act made easier by #privilege safety and credibility.

For some, speaking up is praised as integrity. For others, the same act may carry risk, judgement or exclusion.

Kimberle Crenshaw’s work reminds us that not all inequality is experienced in the same way; identities intersect, and so do consequences.

An empathetic lens asks us to honour values while recognising the unequal cost of living them.

#Leadership #Culture #Integrity

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How much do you trust your thinking with AI?
Recent research highlights #BrainCapital (cognitive skill and brain health), as a key factor in how effectively we use AI.

Join us this Thursday 30 April at 2pm BST for a short, focused session on the human side of working with #AI. If you make decisions with AI, Áine Maher will help you understand the thinking patterns that shape #judgement under pressure, and share practical ways to improve #clarity in the moment.

Our latest carousel offers a snapshot of the research to spark your thinking. The full report is recommended as a pre-read ahead of the session.

Scan the QR code in the carousel to secure your place.

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This month our calendar features Khon, Thailand’s masked epic theatre, where stories from the Ramakien are carried through movement, music and rich visual detail. Many performers whether hero, demon, or monkey wear intricate masks that help to fix their characters in place. There’s no help from facial expression, no quick smile or frown to carry meaning. They portray meaning often through delicate hand, finger and wrist movements. The audience has to look past what they would usually rely on.

There is a useful parallel here for work.

It’s very easy to give the most weight to what is obvious. Job titles, confidence in a meeting, who speaks first, who keeps talking. These signals are easy to see, so they can dominate how we read a room or situation.

Privilege can also shape who is more visible in the first place, bringing some voices into clearer view while others receive less attention.

But they are only part of the story. Important work and context can sit out of view, in how ideas are developed, how people are brought together, how outcomes hold. The people doing that less obvious work may not be the first to speak, or the most visible in the group, but their work still counts.

Applying that same expanded awareness at work can improve how people are understood and how their contribution is valued. Let’s improve how we notice and how we listen. Let’s look beyond the obvious.

#Leadership #Clarity #Perception

Huma Qazi | Kate Stuart | Louisa van Vessem | Shiva Raichandani | Sara Chandran | Sofia Beale | Saad Ali Khan | Rebecca Westaway | Áine Maher | Jacqueline Chow | Amelia Donkor

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This month our calendar features Khon, Thailand’s masked epic theatre, where stories from the Ramakien are carried through movement, music and rich visual detail. Many performers whether hero, demon, or monkey wear intricate masks that help to fix their characters in place. There’s no help from facial expression, no quick smile or frown to carry meaning. They portray meaning often through delicate hand, finger and wrist movements. The audience has to look past what they would usually rely on.

There is a useful parallel here for work. It’s very easy to give the most weight to what is obvious. Job titles, confidence in a meeting, who speaks first, who keeps talking. These signals are easy to see, so they can dominate how we read a room or situation. Privilege can also shape who is more visible in the first place, bringing some voices into clearer view while others receive less attention.

What is most visible is not always what is most valuable, and relying on the same signals can narrow how contribution is recognised and how decisions are made.
But they are only part of the story. Important work and context can sit out of view, in how ideas are developed, how people are brought together, how outcomes hold. The people doing that less obvious work may not be the first to speak, or the most visible in the group, but their work still counts.

Applying that same expanded awareness at work can improve how people are understood and how their contribution is valued. It can also shape more inclusive decisions about who is heard, who is trusted, and who is given space to contribute.

#Leadership #Clarity #Perception

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