I recently returned from a three-week vacation with my 15-year-old son. We went to London, Cannes, Italy and New York.

As “The Inclusionist,” I keep my eyes and ears open for inclusion opportunities and challenges. I loved traveling with my son, but I was also aware of some of our generation differences, and how those differences impacted our activities.

I decided that I would use some of my diversity and inclusion skills so that I wouldn’t make my son “wrong,” when he didn’t want to do what I wanted to do, I’m always happy when I uses those skills in my own life and they work. In this case I decided to be open, listen and be willing to change my perceptions which is what I emphasize in my cross generational dialogues.

Of course this was somewhat different since it was my son, and not someone with whom I work. We were both willing to compromise, although he did tell me that calling people on the phone was for “old people,” since no on does that anymore. “Texting is the only way.”

Together we enjoyed the British museum and the Tate Modern in London. After spending two hours wandering around the Tate Modern, I wanted to go to one of the featured exhibits. My son, on the other hand said he was tired and wanted to leave. He noticed that there was a book for sale that had all the art from the special exhibit. Our compromise solution was to buy the book, and skip the exhibit. (His idea) It could have been a tug of war but discussing our wants and needs and working out a way to meet both worked and we were both satisfied with the compromise.

Since I am “the Inclusionist,” I wanted to experience all of the cultures in deep meaningful ways, and show my respect for different ways of doing things. My son, on the other hand, was not encumbered with “relating on that multi-cultural level.” He spoke the same language of most of the younger people we met, “the language of Nintendo,” “Play station and Xbox 360.” While I was asking diversity curious questions he was busy staying up all night with people he met, playing Mario Cart and World of War craft.

Good diversity and inclusion lesson- There are many ways of interacting with people from different cultures. While we may not speak the same verbal language, we may speak the same language in other ways. It may take a day, a week or a month to get comfortable around differences, or it may take a Nintendo DS or just a video game to break through a cultural barrier and become comfortable in five seconds.