Beginning keynote with bad Japanese accent.

Dr. Robbins often begins his keynotes and presentations with a bad Japanese accent (remember, he's Vietnamese) to make a point about mental models and giving others a chance. More often than we would like to think, we make quick subconscious judgments about people using superficial cues like accents, skin color, gender, religion, etc. leading us to convenient mental boxes. While this makes life a little more simple, it would be fair to say that we regularly "size" people up incorrectly. In other words, we make mistakes on a regular basis, and we tend to make more of these mistakes with outsiders than insiders. Dr. Robbins refers to these types of mistakes as Unintentional Intolerance - a term Dr. Robbins coined to name the things well-meaning, nice people do that turns out to exclude others, to be intolerant. Contact Dr. Robbins at 616-915-8424 if you and your organization would like to know more about unintentional intolerance, and how to prevent it.