In this episode of Why Gifts Matter, Bruce Anderson talks with Michael MacKenzie, who currently works at Montage Support Services in Toronto helping people who experience disabilities find meaningful career paths through a program he designed called Making Work Work.

Having experienced an unusual number of career twists and turns himself, he’s very adept and helping people to see the path they are on and the gifts they want to bring. Known for a keen ability to see the gifts in others, he has story after story of seeing gifts in others and then helping them to find often unexpected ways for them to give those gifts.

He’s very clear about his Core Gift, which he remembers coming out at a very young age. One example is about wandering the Inn his great-grandmother ran in the Scottish Highlands and interviewing guests about what they were good at! Then he’d ask them to contribute that at the Inn’s evening social hour.

Michael has no limits in his creative thinking about what is possible, and asks us to stretch our assumptions about what both gifts and work really mean to people who often have life stories of feeling like they don’t belong.

Get ready for the ride! Michael has a lot to say, says it quickly, and gives us a window into what happens when we assume everyone is gifted.

Find out more about the Core Gift Institute by visiting our website, www.coregift.org

Thanks to Jeff Hoyt at Hoyt’s Greater Community Radio for vocal additions.

This episode was produced by Laura Byng, with music by Benson.