Listening at the 'Edge Effect' of Your Workforce with Malii Watts Witten
- Nisi Bennett
- Mar 19
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 24
Meet Your Expert: Malii Watts Witten
As the Founding Principal, Facilitator, Coach & Consultant at EngageBetween, Malii Watts Witten brings specialized expertise in cross-cultural communication and collaborative workforce development to the Building a Collaborative Workforce track. With a deep understanding of how to transform cultural differences into organizational strengths, Malii helps organizations cultivate unity of purpose while embracing diversity of perspective.
Workshop Overview
Title: Listening at the 'Edge Effect' of Your Workforce
"The interesting stuff happens," says Shankar Vedatam, Host of The Hidden Brain podcast, "when people from different groups come together, work together, collide." This collision zone—what ecologists call "the Edge Effect," where two ecosystems meet—can feel intimidating to workplace leaders who might prefer to minimize differences rather than leverage them.
In this interactive workshop, Malii will explore how the intersections of different beliefs, values, assumptions, and behaviors in your workforce actually represent your organization's greatest opportunity for innovation and growth. Drawing from EngageBetween's core competencies in helping clients build capacity across cultural differences, participants will learn practical tactics for fostering genuine collaboration that honors diversity while achieving unity of purpose.
Workshop Objectives
During this hands-on session, participants will:
Explore Research-Backed Benefits of Diversity: Learn about empirical evidence demonstrating how differences in perspective, background, and approach contribute positively to workforce effectiveness and innovation.
Apply Practical Listening Tools: Gain strategies for deep and actionable listening across diverse workforce segments, transforming potential conflicts into opportunities for organizational learning and growth.
Engage in Meaningful Consultation: Participate in facilitated exercises with fellow attendees to identify latent challenges and opportunities specific to your workplace, receiving valuable peer insights and targeted feedback.
Why You Can't Afford to Miss This Session
Innovation Catalyst: Discover how well-managed diversity at the "edges" of your organization can become your most powerful driver of creativity and adaptation in a rapidly changing landscape.
Practical Application: Through an in-session, facilitated exercise, immediately apply lessons learned to your own organizational context, leaving with actionable insights rather than just theoretical concepts.
Critical Analysis Framework: Gain a structured approach to evaluate how your workplace currently practices its espoused principles of collaboration, identifying gaps between intention and implementation.
Strategic Questions: Develop targeted inquiries that can guide your organization toward more effective collaborative processes that honor differences while achieving shared goals.
Peer Consultation: Benefit from meaningful conversation with conference colleagues who bring diverse perspectives to help you see your organizational challenges from fresh angles.
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