Author: Cathy Heyne

Three Small Phrases That Change Everywhere You Go A manager in New York City asks a colleague overseas, “Can you have this to me by Friday?” “Yes,” comes the reply. Friday comes and goes, and the manager doesn’t receive the work. What happened? Nobody lied. The two people simply implied different meaning from the same word. […] Continue reading… from When “Yes” Doesn’t Mean Yes

How Global Mobility Teams Make the Answer a Yes “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” The Clash’s hit song released in 1982, captures pure indecision, the question repeats, the tension builds, and the song never actually resolves it. If you work in global mobility, you already know that same question is playing on a loop […] Continue reading… from Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Years ago, I was in China for a conference, and at the end of the day I was invited to dinner at a restaurant in Shanghai. My son was studying Chinese, and he and his friends had come down from Beijing to stay with a classmate’s father. I was to be the guest of the […] Continue reading… from Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: Does Culture Still Matter?

It is 11 p.m. in a city your assignee barely knows. Anxiety has set in and your HR team is unreachable. They are asking AI, and what comes back may sound convincing, but it’s completely wrong. When assignees arrive unprepared, it rarely shows up on day one. It is usually by month three when the […] Continue reading… from What are your assigneees searching at 11 p.m.?

If you’re a Global Mobility manager, has your job gotten bigger? Many employers are now tapping into Mobility’s expertise in compliance, tax implications, and duty of care to manage global business travel too. Some of you are thrilled. Others are staring at your already overflowing plate thinking, really? Nevertheless, it’s happening.  So, what’s trending? Traveler wellbeing is front […] Continue reading… from Global Business Travel is Landing in Your Lap

For those of us at the Forum for Expatriate Management Americas Summit in Houston last week, it came as no surprise that AI was woven throughout the conference agenda. In fact, I have yet to attend a single conference this year where the topic did not come up. Are we tired of the subject yet? Traditionally, global […] Continue reading… from AI + Mobility = Serious Leverage

In 2021 I hosted a panel exploring the expat experience. One of the female panelists shared something that has stayed with me ever since. Her family was on assignment in Nigeria when her husband received a transfer order to Portugal. She was pregnant. They had young children. The company approved the move. What nobody had […] Continue reading… from The Unspoken Duty of Care Gap