18 days in China...

Today, I returned to Leuven from an 18-day trip in China. I am very grateful to my school Vlerick – for putting this trip together in the first place, to my classmates and friends – for their companion, and to my family - for their support:).

The core of this trip was a 12-day MBA course on “International Management in China”. During the course, my MBA class spent a week in Beijing and five days in Shanghai, immersing in the cultural, social and business life of urban China. The course consisted of lectures, company visits, sightseeing and group projects. The lectures, which were delivered to us by numerous business and academic leaders, covered topics such as: understanding the macroeconomic policy, starting and developing a business, dealing with intellectual property issues and managing business-government relations. In order to get a flavor of how business is done on the ground, we would leave the classroom nearly every day to visit not only local subsidiaries of foreign multinationals, but also Chinese companies that have grown to the become relevant international players in their respective industries.

Parallel to the course, I was becoming increasingly amazed by how China’s single-party government had managed to rapidly grow the economy and improve the life standard of its people in the last 30 years. The predominant bias in the West is that only multi-party systems that foster fair political competition can lead to sustainable economic and social welfare; and that single-party systems are inherently flawed, corrupt and ultimately unsustainable (ex. USSR, the Eastern European communist countries and a dozen of African states). Well, China has proven the West wrong – China’s economic and social progress is attributed to a great extent to its single-party political system.

The question I kept asking myself was: will China keep its single-party system in its bright future, or will it have to transform its political system to a multi-party democracy? I argue that China’s system will gradually evolve into something in between these two extremes – a single-party system where the people will have a greater and faster say in policy making. The single-party system has so far enabled China to quickly develop policies and to be consistent in their implementation. Western democracies lack this focus and continuity in policy making: when the opposition comes to power, it is often reluctant to build upon what the previous government has already created. For example, in Macedonia, when the government changes, the new ruling coalition fires a significant part of the public administration staff and replaces it with people from its own ranks, thereby incurring a significant loss in knowledge and skills. Many of the economic and social policies set by the previous government are abandoned by the new government, although the old policies have perhaps just began to show results.

The challenge for China is to keep growing its economy and improving the life standard of its people. Only then can it justify its single-party system. One of the major problems that China is addressing is its growing income inequality, caused by the rapid economic growth and the rural-urban migration. The regional differences in GDP/capita are staggering: provinces in East and South-East China are significantly richer than those in Central and West China. The government is therefore heavily investing in moving jobs westwards, by investing in infrastructure and in rural development in the central and western provinces. China is also investing in social welfare: the government is preparing a health care reform (to be enforced next year), which will provide universal medical care to all Chinese people, regardless of their personal income level. A few days ago, I read in China Daily that children from rural China have a five times greater probability of dying, before the age of six, than children living in urban areas. The health care reform will address this issue.

We can’t have a discussion about China, without touching upon the issue of internet censorship. One of the first things I found surprising when arriving to China was that I wasn’t able to access Facebook – it is one of the many international websites (including YouTube and Twitter) the access to which is banned by the government. Through the notorious Great Firewall of China, the government forbids the creation, dissemination and access to any information that “endangers national security and honor of the state, undermines social stability or comments on the state’s policy towards religion.”

Before judging, we should realize that the overriding mission of the governing Communist Party of China is Social Harmony Above All, and the Party is prepared to go to great lengths to achieve its mission. Look at Google for example – they tried to defy the system (although they initially accepted to play by the Chinese rules so they can make money). A few months ago, Google disobeyed China by saying “we will no longer censor search results”. The outcome: the staff of Google China had to clear their desks, pack their suitcases and move to Hong Kong. When in China, do as the Chinese tell you to do, or else take your business elsewhere.

In my opinion, internet censorship is an unsustainable method of containment of public speech. Sooner or later, the Chinese government will have to loosen up the firewall. Chinese people are becoming increasingly better educated, and more capable of critical thinking. If this system is going to continue functioning, then the Chinese people will need to realize for themselves that they are better off in this system.

And now, back to the trip. From Shanghai, I flew with a group of friends to Guilin, a 1.3 million-citizen city in South China. Guilin was our base for some of the most amazing daily excursions of my life. The second day of our stay, we took a 3-hour boat cruise down the beautiful Li River, gazing at the strangely shaped rocks that make this river so unique. We then spent a few hours in and around the beautiful town of Yangshuo, visiting numerous breath-taking sites, including the Moon Hill. The next day, we took a 2.5-hour bus ride to a remote village called Dazhai. From there, we hiked for four hours to the village Pingan, traversing numerous mountains of rice terraces. Along the hike, we met several local villagers from the Zhuang minority, who were transporting goods on their backs from one village to the next. While we enjoyed our strenuous hike between the rice terraces, we also spent some relaxing time in the villages enjoying the local cuisine.

After three days of immersion in rural China, we went back to the urban and modern life. And what can be more urban and modern than Hong Kong? We enjoyed our evenings spent in Soho and Lan Kwai Fong, two small “quartiers” in the north of Hong Kong Island that are famous for their restaurants, bars and busy night life. During one of the three days in Hong Kong, we also explored the south part of the island, which is more residential. We stopped to discover the small communities of Aberdeen, Repulse Bay and Stanley, and went swimming in the Tai Tam Bay, near Stanley (the temperature was 28°C).

"Shadow-boxing"

Yesterday evening, I attended a football match in Skopje, between the national teams of Macedonia and Iceland, and I was seated alongside many, truly committed, Macedonian football fans. One of them was particularly passionate about the game, and was continuously shouting and swearing at the referees and at the players of the opposing team. At one point, a bald-headed player on the Iceland team committed a flagrant foul, after which this Macedonian fan (who was equally bald to the skin) yelled at him: “You bald-headed prick!” At first, I thought he was joking, but after seeing the angry expression on his face, I realized that he was dead serious – the fan was actually belittling someone for a physical characteristic he had himself, without being aware at all of the absurdity of his action.

In his recent book titled Integral Spirituality, Ken Wilber claims that “90% of the things in the world that most disturb and upset us about others are actually our own shadow qualities”, which we unconsciously disown (because we can’t accept them as part of us) and then project them in others. Although Wilber doesn’t quote any evidence for the 90% claim, he is right to claim that we tend to ascribe our own “faults” to others. He does refer to some very interesting research in support of this phenomenon:

“You might have seen the recent studies where men who were anti-gay-pornography crusaders, and who had dedicated a large portion of their lives to aggressively fighting homosexual porn, were tested for their levels of sexual arousal when shown photos of gay sexual scenes. The crusaders evidenced substantially more sexual arousal than other males. In other words, they themselves were attracted to gay sex but, finding that unacceptable in themselves, spent their lives trying to eradicate it in others, while claiming they had no such nasty desires themselves. Yet all they were really doing was projecting their own despised shadows onto others, then scapegoating them. (p.120-121)”.

It’s amazing just how often we act like this ourselves, being completely unaware of it…

Designing the Future

About a month ago, I came across a very interesting e-book called “Designing the Future”, written by Jacque Fresco – a forward-thinking sociologist, who has crafted a very concise vision of a new and better world order.

Fresco begins by giving an overview of the world we’re living in today, accentuating:

• - global warming, climate change, pollution, water scarcity, energy shortages…
• - further widening of the rich&poor gap
• - fewer corporations owning more and more companies
• - the media can’t be trusted anymore as it’s owned by corporations, etc.
  

What does he believe to be the underlying cause for the undeniable state of the world described just above?

Well, according to Fresco, greed and crime are considered by many people an integral part of human nature, whereas he finds greed to be the mere by-product of scarcity.

Scarcity in turn, is the outcome of the monetary system that keeps people, organizations and countries in a perpetual state of debt, and is responsible for the negative consequences of globalization: outsourcing-caused unemployment, environmental degradation, etc.

Fresco calls for a new vision, postulating the concept of a resource-based economy. He argues that the world is rich enough in natural resources and energy, and that solely by using technology we can meet the needs of the entire global population.

In a resource-based economy, “there would be no need for patents or proprietary information since the end goal is not to make money in order to continue working, but to achieve results that are freely and quickly available to the planet’s entire population.”

What else is new in a resource-based economy?

• - Money is no longer the medium of exchange and profit is not the measure of value
• - There is no need for advertising, as all goods and services are freely available to the population
• - Social and environmental responsibility is no longer an outcome of governmental regulation. If people and organizations have resources available to them without a price, then they have no reason to act in a socially or environmentally irresponsible way
  

This vision might sound to some of us utopian, alien or simply “a nice, but an unrealistic idea”. The reason behind may be that we have adhered to the social values of the monetary system for so long, that we are now afraid to question its very fundamentals.

I have no doubt in my mind that a resource-based economy is what mankind should be striving to create in the future.

The most important questions however still remain unanswered:

• How do we shift from the monetary system to the resource-based economy?
• What are the revolutionary and evolutionary changes that need to be brought about, in order for human civilization to move towards this new society?
• And finally, what is our role in this process as individuals – what can we do?
  

What do you think?

It’s interesting that Fresco had most of this vision already designed as back as 35 years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVOPkGAtt48

For more on Jacque’s work, see: http://www.thevenusproject.com/.

If you want to read the book, click here: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/DesigningtheFuture.pdf

Day at the bank

After patiently waiting in line for half an hour, Eji was received by the old lady who was managing client relations for the credit card department. He had formally requested a renewal of his credit card some time ago and came today to pick it up. He gave his name details to the lady, who then went off in the back office to look for the credit card.

While he was waiting, Eji looked around to see the faces of the people who were now waiting in line. “Hey there suckers, he thought cynically, with the speed of this client service, you’ll be waiting having breakfast here tomorrow morning!” And they were about to wait for even longer, because the lady took 10 minutes to come back to Eji and tell him:

“I’m sorry young man, but I just can’t seem to find your card. Are you sure you made your request for renewal at this desk?”
“Of course I did”, said Eji in a very upset and insulted manner. “I can even give you the date I made the request: 04.07.2007”
“Oh, alright then, let me look for it again.”

And so she went again to the back office to look for the card. Eji was beginning to get impatient. There he was, waiting already for 40 minutes, and the bank couldn’t even find his card! He looked behind him, only to find the faces of the other people who were waiting in line – very encouraging! He looked next to him and felt jealous of the two clients who had just been serviced at the desk next to him.

After 10 minutes, the old lady returned:

“Well, I found your credit card, but the problem is that we haven’t issued a PIN code for the new card. The credit card department has re-issued the code for your old card, which is no longer valid, instead of issuing a PIN code for the new one.”
“But how can you let this happen!” Eji was becoming furious now. “I’ve been waiting here for an hour now, and you’re telling me that you haven’t done your job well enough! Well, it seems to me that I am a victim of your unprofessional and ineffective customer service. This is your problem, fix it now, I want to leave with my credit card from here!”
“Sir, please don’t yell at me! I am just temporarily helping a colleague in this role and I am quite old, so please don’t be rude with me. We will take a few days to issue the PIN code. Why don’t you call us in a couple of days and we’ll tell you if you can come and pick up your card?”
“You want me to call you?! What kind of customer service is that? This is your mistake, and you will make an effort to fix it!” replied Eji angrily. “I will be expecting your call in the next few days! In the meanwhile, I would like to draw cash from the account connected to the credit card.”
“In that case, you need to go to the cashier desk”, said the old lady.
“And what, wait in line for another half an hour? I wouldn’t have needed the cash register if you gave me my credit card! I demand that I am seen by the cashier immediately, so I can draw my money ASAP!”

The woman mumbled something about people whining for preferential treatment and unwillingly responded: “OK then, I’ll take you to the cashier”

After a brief walk to the other side of the bank, Eji and old lady arrived at the cashier desk. She just said something to the cashier and left without saying good bye.

The cashier asked: “How much money would you like to draw, sir?
“18.200”, said Eji.

As the cashier was counting the money, all Eji could think about was grabbing the money and getting the hell out of that bank!

“There you go, sir! Have a nice day!”

“Thank you for the service”, replied Eji ironically, grabbed the money and went towards the exit. Just before opening the door, he stopped to count the money… 18.700, 500 more than he was supposed to get!

“Oh, damn”, he thought, “the guy gave me more money. What should I do now? Should I take them or return them? These people were awful to me, they made me feel impatient, victimized, jealous, angry and frustrated – they deserve to pay the price, and I deserve to be compensated for my suffering… But wait, didn’t I do that to myself, am I not myself responsible for the suffering I went through in the last hour, he thought self-critically for the first time.”

He took a deep breath, returned to the cashier and handed back a 500 bill.

“You gave me more money than I deserve”, said Eji and smiled to the cashier.

Drinks'n'drugs and Integrity

A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to briefly reconnect with a brilliant leader. He is a person who has inspired me in tremendous ways.

We were at a party. As we were sharing some of our recent personal discoveries and developments, he realized that I was drinking water, and NOT alcohol, as most of the people at the party.

“Why are you drinking water?”, he asked.
“I capped my beer intake for tonight, man – I’ve had enough of alcohol.”
“And where do you place your limit?”
“Well, after having a couple of beers, I stop drinking, as I don’t want to be drunk.”
“But why, Meto? Tell me why you are afraid of being drunk?”
“Well, you see… I have realized that when I am drunk, I often act in ways that are not coherent with what I believe in. For example, I don’t pay enough attention to people’s thoughts, ideas and concerns; I am careless and don’t assume responsibility over the consequences of my decisions and actions; I am tempted to be dishonest and disloyal – well, in short, I am very selfish and self-centered as a result of the physiological state I am in!”
“But that’s who you are Meto! Deep down, under your alleged value-driven behavior, you have a dark side in you, just like all of us do. Your craving for drinks, drugs, sex or whatever gets you High is there to Balance your positive values and emotions such as love, compassion and servitude. It’s like Yin and Yang – two opposing, but yet complementary sides of the real You. Only when you recognize both and let them manifest themselves, will you be able to become Whole.”

This is where I realized that the two of us have a fundamentally different view on what Integrity actually means. For me, integrity is being able to contiuously keep the promises that I make to myself and others. It’s about choosing to decide and act in a way that is consistent with what I believe in, and doing so in EVERY SINGLE MOMENT OF MY LIFE. I know that it’s very difficult, as I am not fully integral in this aspect myself. But I believe in the perfection of human character and in the continuous rafinement of divine qualities.

Reflections

A few days ago, I returned from the last national conference of my term in AIESEC in France. It was a chance for my team and I to see the impact of our contribution to this organization – to meet and speak with the people who will lead AIESEC in France in the next few years. It was also a chance to reflect on the experiences that we have been through: the decisions we have collectively taken, the strategies we have sought to implement, but also the more fun part – the laughs we’ve had, the trips we’ve made and the special moments that we’ve shared as a team.

For me, this entire year has been a wealth of mind-opening discoveries and realizations. It’s in these last 10 months that I truly began to develop as a spiritual being, as a person who is constantly searching the Truth, continuously seeking to connect with something greater than himself. And what I realized is that my spiritual development would have never Been, if it hadn’t been for this year in AIESEC.

Buddhism is based on three fundamental beliefs.

1) All things are interdependent – there is no single thing in this world that can exist independently and isolated from the Whole, i.e. all things are in certain cause-effect relationships with each other.

I will never forget the reason why I joined AIESEC so late (in the 4^th year of my studies) – it was because I thought I could do everything by mySelf. I wasn’t able to see beyond my self-centeredness and realize the potential of a collective learning-oriented community, in this case AIESEC. The one time I gave AIESEC a chance is when I gave myself a chance – I applied for VP People Development of AIESEC Skopje. I remember clearly that day when I saw the spam in my mailbox: “VP PD applications are now re-opened!!!”. That e-mail changed my life – it cut my karma right across and took my life into a completely different direction.

But who I am today is not only a result of the decisions I have taken in the past – I’m also an outcome of the interactions I have had with others. Numerous people have had a tremendous impact on my development in these last 10 months and I am immensely grateful for their contribution.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my team for the most intensive team experience of my life. It is with these people that I learned the value of practicing open and sincere communication, nurturing trust and interdependence, and developing a shared vision.

I would like to thank the numerous members of AIESEC France who shared our vision of a different organization, and who made that vision a reality by activating leadership in themselves and in the people they area leading in their local committees.

I would like to thank the numerous friends I have made during the international conferences, for their unique contribution to our meaningful conversations that have so profoundly challenged my way of Thinking and Being.

All of these people and many more have overwhelmingly influenced my development. How could I then not realize that All is Interdependent and that I am but a small part of one Great Interdependent Whole.

2) All things are impermanent – everything is in a perpetual movement and change, there is not a single thing that preserves its state over time. The concept is also familiar as “Panta Rei” in Greek philosophy, and can be exemplified with a quote from Aristotle: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man”, not the same being a result of the man and the river changing over time. But then why does our mind look at the world as something permanent and stable and has a tendency to attach itself to previously conceived ways of perceiving reality?

The first time I realized this was in the context of my organizational experience. I came to France from a developing country – Macedonia is a 15-year old democracy with a transitionary economy that is still undergoing structural reforms. In this reality, AIESEC was and still is very relevant to the Macedonian society, because it is the strongest provider of positive leaders among youth. France was quite the opposite: a leading economy with a well developed educational system that has itself set out to develop the leaders of tomorrow. At the beginning of our term, I found myself caught up in the idea of bringing AIESEC France to the level of development, recognition and relevance of AIESEC Macedonia – I was indeed attached to my preconceived ways of what the organization should do and how it should work. It took some time to realize the need of suspending past assumptions and focusing entirely on what is real, here and now, in order to develop the strategic agenda that is applicable to the reality and create the organization that will find its own place and relevance in French society.

This story and many others have rendered me acutely aware of the need of letting go of our past and fully immersing in the present, in order to be the change agent that is needed in that particular reality.

3) All things are deprived of ego – there is no such thing as Me, Self, Ego. By looking inwardly for the Source of our Being, we can realize that there is no Self, there is no difference between the subject (he who sees) and the object (that what is seen), i.e. that we are One with the universe (non-dualism).

Long way to go – I knowJ But some of us have started, and we are already on the Path to this realization.

This year has been a complete redefinition of what AIESEC means to me. At the very beginning, AIESEC meant a platform for my personal development, a way for me to discover and develop my human potential. As I progressed, I began to realize the growing impact of my decisions and actions on the development of others. And with that impact, came a great level of responsibility to foster the human development of the people that I am leading.

That is when I redefined the kind of leaders that AIESEC develops. I realized that that this organization develops servant leaders, people who will put their entire potential in the service of others and will enable them to create the results they truly desire. And why does AIESEC develop servant leaders better than any other organization?

Well, take any average company for example. The manager needs to first and foremost meet the expectations of the shareholders for profit and then spend his time on the development of his employees. It is true that today’s leading companies are investing in talent development, because they are aware of the impact of this investment on the long term competitiveness and sustainability of the business. Many companies are adopting “servant leadership” to a certain extent, but it is true that the principal reason behind it (not the only one!) is to generate large, sustainable returns on their investment.

What about AIESEC? What is AIESEC’s bottom line? It’s the people! As an AIESECer in a leadership position, who is your principal customer, whom do you need to serve? It’s the people that you are leading!

And how is servant leadership connected with spirituality? Choosing to serve connects us to something larger than ourselves and gives us a purpose in life. This in turn renders us less self-absorbed and brings us closer to realizing the absence of our Ego/Self.

This year has been a tremendous learning experience for me. It has enabled me to discover my highest future potential, given me the motivation to further re-discover it and to look for ways in which I want to put that potential in the service of others. I would like to thank all those whom I was able to serve during this year, because they have enabled me to grow as a leader and to become the person I am today.

Religious education?

Even though I originate from a Christian Orthodox family, I was never really asked by my parents to practice the Christian religion. I was therefore given the freedom (or rather I assumed responsibility) to choose my own religion.

Why didn’t I become a Christian? Well for starters, I was never baptized. Then, I didn’t have any religious education, neither at home, nor at school. My parents were both raised in communist Yugoslavia, where religion was a taboo. Throughout my adolescence, I don’t remember meeting a single fervent Christian, who believed in Jesus Christ and was committed to living a life in the service of others. I don’t have a single friend who goes to Church more than twice a year (for Easter and Christmas, when every “Christian” goes to church). Jesus Christ was not mentioned in any history book or work of literature that I studied in Macedonia.

This is wrong and very frightening! How can we create a benevolent society, when people don’t believe in anything greater than the pursuit of their own self-interest?!

As an answer then, should religion be integrated in education and if yes, when? I believe that religious education is incredibly important, but it’s also important to know when is the right age for it to be introduced to children. In my opinion, elementary school is way too early. Teaching religion to 8-year olds is brainwashing. It should come at a later age, when children develop responsibility for their own personal development and the wellbeing of others.

But then the next questions that come to my mind are: What religion should be taught to students? Should it be Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, or all of them? Should it be facultative or compulsory? Should it be central to the education or just a peripheral course? Should it be taught in the form of mere philosophy and theory, or should it involve practice as well?

I guess the most important question is: Should children choose their own religious education or should their parents choose it for them?

In my opinion, every individual should be given the freedom to choose the religion that would enable him to connect to something larger than himself and to put himself in service of that larger whole. People who are given this freedom are grateful for that freedom and respectful and appreciative toward other religions. They reach beyond shere inter-religious tolerance to truly understand and embrace the diversity of traditions, habits, norms and values of the different religions.

If every person should have the freedom to choose the religion that fits him, then it is absurd and selfish to insist on having one religion. There are so many different religions in the world, but they all share the same purpose: bring meaning to mankind. There are however two different types of religions depending on the relationship between Man and God. On one side, we have all the religions that believe that God is a separate entity from Man, an Absolute Ruler and Seer of the world, whom we need to obey and serve if we want to go to heaven. On the other side, we have all the religions that believe that God and Man are One and that every person should be looking for God inside of himself. I personally practice a religion of the latter type, but I believe that every person should have the right to choose between looking for a transcendental God and awakening the God inside of him.

Living Egypt

After the study tour in Cairo and Alexandria, I met up with my Egyptian friend Adham, whom I met during the International Congress in Poland, last September. The first night, he took me to a hill in Cairo, where we enjoyed a beautiful panorama of the city. We were speaking about the different religions and how they have helped men and women find meaning in their lives and believe in something greater than their own being. I asked Adham many questions about different Islamic traditions, habits and customs in order to understand better what Muslims believe in and why. The conversation helped me break any assumptions and prejudices I may have had about Muslims and enabled me gain a moderate understanding of Islam. We took our conversation forward over dinner in an Egyptian restaurant and savoured the tastefulness of falafel, foul and lentil soup:)

The next day, Adham picked us up from our hotel for a “surprise”. After a 40-minute drive, I found myself together with Alis (Romania), Elisabeth (Guatemala), Dalia and Adham (Egypt) at the outskirts of Cairo and the beginning of the desert. The dirty road lead us into a stable that cares for more than 350 horses. Yes, we went horseback riding in the desert! It took us around 25 minutes riding to get to the highest hill in the desert, overlooking Cairo and the pyramids of Giza. We drank tee there, enjoyed the beautiful sunset and returned riding in the night, under the full moon… I was so ecstatic throughout the experience – the adrenaline rush that I felt when galloping in the desert made me discover another passion, and the beautiful view during the sunset reminded me just how fortunate I am to be here and how grateful I am to all those people who have impacted me in one way or another and have enabled me to enjoy that experience at that very moment…

In the next two days, I had many other opportunities to better understand the reality of Egyptian people. Dalia took us in the Cairo slums, at the outskirts of the City of the Dead – a vast neighbourhood in the midst of Cairo, where around 1 million people live in small houses that are built among and on top of graves of people who have died and have been buried there nearly a century ago. We visited a small artisan shop where four people were blowing glass and creating magnificent figures of coloured glass… Then we visited a very beautiful mosque, as well as a house that is over 350 years old, has 150 rooms in it and belonged to one of the richest families of Egypt. Now property of the government, this house is a very authentic representation of the life of Egyptian Muslims from the 17th to the 20th century… After dinner, we finished our day and our stay in Egypt with an hour-long cruise down the Nile.

My last few days in Egypt only confirmed my conviction that the only way you can truly embody a foreign culture is if you get directly immersed into it. The less time you spend thinking about “how it is done back home” and the more time you spend living the mentality and practicing the habits of the people there, the faster you will be able to understand the foreign culture. I also realized that the speed with which we adapt to a foreign culture depends on our ability to be present, here and now. We need to forget about our past cultural experiences and refrain ourselves from using them as a reference point in comparing our present cultural experience. Don’t try to adapt to the new culture, just be one with it… Easier said than done, right:)?

Visiting Egypt

Sitting in an internet cafe in Cairo, feeling completely happy and grateful for the amazing 2-day study tour that was organized by the Congress Committee of IPM.

Wednesday morning, we began our study tour with a visit of the pyramids in Giza. Our stay in Giza was complemented with a back-aching visit of the tomb of Chephren's (we had to walk up and down a corridor inside the pyramid that was one meter high!), an elegant camel ride and a beautiful view of Chephren's Great Sphynx of Giza. After lunch, we visited the Old City of Cairo, historically inhabited predominantly by Christian Orthodox Egyptians (Copts). In the Old City we visited one the oldest orthodox churches in Egypt that was built in the 4th century. From there, the tour moved to the National Museum of Egypt, where we enjoyed various collections of Egypt's cultural patrimony, dating from the pre-historic era to the Greco-Romain period. Then we went to Khen Halili bazaar, where we were bargaining over prices on clothes and souvenirs and where our negotiating skills were no match for the street smarts of the local traders. The day finished with a dinner and a cruise down the river Nile, spiced up with a belly dancing show (you can see my friend Bakhtijar from Azerbeidjan trying to run off from the belly dancer):)

The next morning, we left for Alexandria, one of the most beautiful cities on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This city has something to show alright: a juxtaposition of old architecture(Qaitbay's Citadel) and modern architecture (the New Alexandria Library), a blend of the traditional Egyptian cuisine and delicious sea food specialties and the difference between the generous hospitality of Egyptians and the growing demands and expectations of tourists! Alexandria amazed me with its clear air, fresh breeze and beautiful beaches that are yet to be discovered! Definitely a place I would like to go back to for vacations:)

In the next three days, I will be discovering the culture and traditions of Egyptians further in depth with the guidance of few of my local friends. Can't wait to see what does Egypt have in store for me...

Live from the International Presidents Meeting

One place... one world... 200 youth leaders coming from 100 different countries... talking about a macrocosm in a nutshell. The International Presidents Meeting (IPM) is the most relevant global conference of AIESEC, during which the global plenary will select the new team of AIESEC International.

The official opening took place on Sunday. After the usual speeches, the host of the opening ceremony facilitated an hour-and-a-half panel discussion on the topic 'freedom of speech', and invited prominent leaders from the civil sector as well as the AIESEC members to share their opinions about the topic. The most beautiful thing about the discussion was that the delegates were able to suspend the mental models that they have developed as a result of their social and cultural background and speak not on behalf of their countries, but on behalf of themselves as individuals and citizens of a truly global society.

After the opening, we moved to the Global Village. It was a great experience to see the local denizens of Cairo going from one country stand to another, tasting traditional food, asking questions about the culture and being genuinely interested in the diversity of our organization.

From the Global Village, we moved to the conference site, the beautiful Palmera Beach resort, situated about a two-hour drive from Cairo on the coast of the Red Sea. The site is absolutely mind-blowing - fantastic food, smiling and welcoming staff, swimming pools, sand beach, see...

The content of the conference itself is something that has never been facilitated before. The flow of the conference is based on the Theory U developed by Otto Scharmer, which I discovered for the first time reading Presence, a book about that speaks about facilitating a profound change process in individuals, groups and collectives, not by learning from the past, but by listening to the emerging future. One of the objectives of the conference is to co-create a transformation map toward our organizational vision AIESEC 2010 and this map will be an outcome of the conversations that we will have in the groups. There is no expected outcome from the process, as the U-flow is a generative process that aims to bring into being the highest future potential of the organization, so no one really how will we change at the end of this process.

Parallel to this process of organizational development and change, we are selecting the new team of AIESEC International. Several hours from now, we will have the new president of AIESEC International. Four amazing individuals are running for this position, each of whom is capable of delivering a unique contribution to the role and vision of our organization.

In the past year, I have began to apprehend the great inter-connectedness of the world and have internalized the belief that everything in this world happens for a reason. Therefore, every person who gets selected for any position, is the right person for the organization...

Dinner time, have to move...

Ouhou!!!!

The work of the mind

This post is entirely inspired by a lecture I attended last night on the theme “Le Mental et la Voie” in the Zen center in Paris. The lecture was given by Gerard Pilet, one of the closest disciples of Roshi Taisen Deshimaru, who brought Zen Buddhism to Europe for the first time in the late 1960s.

The lecture focused on the way that our mind is influencing the way that we perceive reality. We are already familiar with the idea that humans have an innate tendency to interpret the reality and thus create certain mental models, certain paradigms of how the world actually looks like. We often see what we WANT to see, rather than what actually IS, or as Stephen Covey puts it in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People “The way we see the problem is the problem”. This is the mind at work, preventing us to see what is real.

The mind is also making us judgmental, meaning it is enabling us to critique reality and to distinguish between good and bad, pretty and ugly, right and wrong. Now being judgmental is something that we definitely need in order to make decisions, but it is also compelling us to see the world as made up of two entities: things that we want to associate with and things that we don’t want to associate with. This tendency of seeing the world as black and white is opening the door to dualism and preventing us from connecting to the larger whole.

The mind is also enabling us to make comparisons between two things that are seemingly similar to each other. After going through an amazing experience, a person is taking this experience as a reference and compares it with future experiences, preventing him to fully enjoy the uniqueness and specificity of the new experience. For example, imagine that the best vacation of your life was the one you spent on the Caribbean islands, being surrounded with your best friends and having beautiful girls serving you exotic cocktails. If you take that vacation as a reference and compare your future vacations with it, you will never be satisfied with what you have in the VERY MOMENT.

But why do we want to compare things? Because the mind wants to create shortcuts and make it easier for itself to view reality. And why shouldn’t we compare? For two very simple reasons: first, nature is impermanent and in continuous, perpetual movement. The person you were when you started reading this post is not same person looking at this dot right now. And second, everything is different and unique: there are no two things in this universe that are completely identical to each other. Taking these two absolute truths into account, there is no valid reason to compare two things to each other. Comparison is only preventing us from living and enjoying the present experience.

This proves that our mind has a tendency to look at the world as something compact, fixed and permanent. We have a tendency to attach ourselves to this fixed image of the world, which renders us frustrated when we realize that the image is actually changing. In a relationship for example, we have a tendency to attach ourselves to certain feelings that we have developed, believing that they are permanent and will be there forever. And when things start going bad and the relationship begins to nose-dive, it is very difficult for us to let go of these feelings. This is again the work of the mind, and its tendency to look at the world as permanent and fixed.

Finally, the mind is what renders us self-absorbed, consumed with “me”. It’s the mind that says: “I want this”, “I feel like that” and “I crave for these things”, preventing us to see our connection to the whole. Or as Sakyong Mypham simply puts it: “The moment we have split the world into self and other, we are caught in the wind of “samsara”, purposelessly trying to make things work out for “me”…”

It is the mind that is splitting the world into self and other, a level of consciousness known as dualism. Non-dualism would then be our full connection with the larger whole, understanding that there is essentially no barrier between the self (the subject that perceives) and other (the object that is being perceived). That level of consciousness is the enlightenment, the l’éveil, the true nature of Buddha.

How do we get there? How do we transcend our mind and profoundly realize the impermanent and non-dualist character of the universe?
The answer to that question is not something we can understand by reading a book on Buddhism or listening to a lecture given by a highly enlightened individual. It is something we have to live and experience by ourselves

Self-awareness

Just recently, I wrote this words to a friend of mine. I want to share them with others as well.

"In my opinion, every person should continually reflect on four central questions:
1. Who am I?
2. Where am I going?
3. Where am I now?
4. What is my purpose in life?

Who am I?
A starting point in personal discovery is understanding the things, ideas, concepts, relationships that we value as an individual. Just google "my values" and you will find numerous exercises that will enable you to discover your personal values.

Where am I going?
Once we know our values, it's time to think about where we want to go. What is our personal vision? What do we want to create of ourselves and the world around us? Google "personal visioning exercise" and you will find many tools that will help you with this. I personally use this one: http://www.solonline.org/pra/tool/drawing.html

Where am I now?
After we have discovered our personal vision, we need to assess our current reality. Where do we stand right now in terms of our strengths and weaknesses? A personal SWOT analysis might be helpful: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05_1.htm
The gap between where we want to go (personal vision) and where we stand right now (current reality) is called "creative tension" - the generative force in life that tells us what we want to change in ourselves. The idea of generating and holding creative tension is called "personal mastery". See Peter Senge's “Fifth Discipline” for more on personal mastery.

What is my purpose in life?
Now this is the most difficult and most important question ahead of us. It is the most difficult because there is no exercise, no tool, no easy way of discovering the answer to this question. Knowing the purpose of our life is about discovering the unique contribution that we want to create in this world. Why are we here? What is our mission in life?
In this question lies the answer to your question: "How do I discover the next steps in my life?" By connecting ourselves to our deeper sense of purpose, we simply KNOW what are we supposed to do, because we listen to the needs of the emerging future. We know the reason why we are here, so we never make decisions about our future, we listen to the future and follow its path.
This connectedness to our inner purpose comes as a result of a continual pursuit of our own spiritual experience, a continuous effort to become part of the large web of our inter-connected world, breaking the barrier between the "I" and the rest of the world and becoming a servant of the larger whole.
This is a question I have just recently began to discover and I have already realized that it will take me years, “voir” decades before I find the answer. Then again, maybe it's not about finding the answer, but more about asking and contemplating on this question.
If you are interested in this concept, you may find "Presence" a very interesting book - http://www.presence.net/.

By asking these four questions to ourselves, we are consciously raising our level of self-awareness."

Future steps...

Where to begin? The morning of November the 22nd, I left Paris for a two day conference in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The conference connected 28 young leaders who are managing the external relations of more than 20 AIESEC countries in Europe. I learnt quite a few things during the summit, but what what truly made the experience a special one was the time I spent with my colleagues from so many different countries. After 2-days of sessions and working groups in Utrecht, we went for a day long excursion in Amsterdam that was just mind-blowing.

Monday early in the morning I came back to Paris, re-packed my luggage and met up with one my best friends – Toni, the President of AIESEC Macedonia. After catching up on old times, we took the train together to Bern, Switzerland for the pre-meeting of DO-IT, the largest international conferences organized by AIESEC in Switzerland.

What an amazing experience!!! I am incredibly grateful for being part of a team of 26 facilitators coming from 20 different countries, who prepared the content of a conference for more than 200 delegates. Within this larger team, I was part of a smaller team of 11 facilitators, with whom we delivered sessions and workshops for new members.

The people in this team became very special to me because of a deep collective learning process that we went through near the end of the conference... At the last night of DO-IT, we decided we wanted to celebrate our team performance and have a few drinks together, as a team, before we join the party. We decided that we would like to share some of our learning points as well as the feelings we had at the end of this conference.

As we began to share our feelings, we embarked on a deep reflection process. Each person in the group was realizing things about himself while he was sharing his experience. It all began when one girl in the group shared that, before the conference, she feared that she did not have the necessary experience to be part of the team. Only after truly rocking the conference and sharing it with us, did she realize that the only thing she feared was her level of self-confidence. Another member of the team discovered that the very small things that he does and that give him so much pleasure are not part of his true identity, but rather an attachment to the idea of living up to someone else’s expectations and way of life.

As the reflection was deepening and we were letting go of our most innate fears, prejudices and attachments, we were slowly becoming aware that what was happening was a very unusual and magical experience. During these three hours, every person spoke several times for as long as he needed. Every other person was incredibly present in the conversation and empathically attentive to the words of the person who shared. We were all shedding tears as we were sharing our stories and the stories of of others.

In this conversation, there were no limits, no time constraints and no feedback.

This conversation was a special one for me as well, because in enabled me to connect to my purpose in life and reclarify my personal vision. Before DO-IT, I was hesitating between applying for MCP of AIESEC France and applying for AIESEC International. Although I felt called by the future to stay in AIESEC France and ensure its growth and sustainability, I realized that the interest of the organization shouldn't come before my personal development.

Application for AI seems like a bold challenge ahead of me...

IPM '07, here I come:)

Business as an Agent of World Benefit (BAWB)

I am back from BAWB, incredibly motivated and inspired from what is widely considered to be the most relevant global forum on sustainable development.

The flow of the forum was designed by Dr. David Cooperrider, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Organizational Behavior at the Case Weatherhead School of Management. Today, David is widely known as the co-creator of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) - the leading organizational development process that focuses on leveraging on the strengths and positive aspects of the organization. Throughout the forum, BAWB was referred to as “David’s baby”, as he originated the idea of bringing together the business, non-corporate and academic leaders of today’s world and use AI in an effort to develop innovative ways of using business for the sustainable benefit of the entire world.

Prior to the start of the forum, business and NGO leaders of all around the world were interviewed on their success stories of implementing responsible business and societal practices (discovery phase). The forum itself began with presentations of leading organizations that have proven that “doing good” (responsible and sustainable business) and “doing well” (bottom line – profit) can and should go hand in hand. This part included plenary sessions delivered by C.K Prahalad, Honorary Co-Chair of the Global Forum and writer of the widely acclaimed “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”, as well as the CEOs and Chairmen of large multinationals such as Unilever, Lafarge, McKinsey and others.

The dream phase was done in groups the next day, where each table developed a news story of how sustainable development is done in the year 2020. I absolutely loved this part, as it brought forth the creativity, passion and commitment of the participants for a better world.

The design and destiny phase were merged in the last day, where the participants joined an action-oriented dialogue based on their personal interests. I joined the working group “State of the Art Curriculum Advancement”, which focused on developing cutting-edge curricula that would support the integration of sustainable development in higher education. In the brainstorming phase, we explored the idea of integrating sessions on personal discovery, systems thinking, value-based leadership, spirituality and diversity in the curricula of sustainable development.

Apart from the sessions, panels and working groups that took place in the plenary, I also participated in two amazing workshops. The first one, called “The AI Sustainability Summit” focused on presenting pioneering work in using Appreciative Inquiry to orient an entire organization toward sustainable development. The workshop was delivered by David Cooperrider, Chris Lazlo, consultant and owner of Sustainable Value Partners and author of The Sustainable Company, and Jenniffer Deckard, CFO of Fairmount Minerals. Together with Jennifer and other executives from Fairmount, David and Chris facilitated AI to completely reorient and commit Fairmount to sustainable development.

The second workshop I participated in was delivered by Mike Morrison, Dean and Vice President of the University of Toyota. This guy has a fantastic and charismatic personality and in the last few years, he has been leading Toyota toward becoming a real learning organization. At the end of his workshop, he signed me his latest book “The Other Side of the Card” that I look forward to reading very soon.

All in all, BAWB was a fantastic learning experience. I had an opportunity to meet some amazing agents of positive change who are truly shaping the course of development of their organizations and society at large. These people are aware that the future of sustainable development lies in the strengths of the organizations who can do well by doing good. Several months before Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, had passed away, David Cooperrider had the opportunity to have an appreciative inquiry interview with him on the future of our society. When David asked Peter Drucker to summarize the biggest challenge that the leadership of the 21^st century will have to face, Drucker simply replied: “The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths… making a system’s weaknesses irrevelant.”

India in Lille

I am in the office of the AIESEC Local Committee Lille, where I just finished my first visit. It was a quite challenging visit, as I realized from the very beginning that there were a lot of things to be changed and even more to be created from scratch. I led the local induction seminar for around 15 new members and got them all excited about taking ownership of their personal development.

Induction and LC development were fun, but there were even crazier aspects of this visit – the opening of Lille 3000 Mille, a three-month festival that celebrates foreign history and culture every two years. This year, the theme was India!!!



During these three months, the citizens of Lille will see a true metamorphosis of their city and enjoy artists’ installations, exhibitions, cinema, performances and parades, tastes of Bangalore, Bombay (Mumbai) and other Indian cities. Lille 3000 Mille was opened this Saturday with an amazing all-night event called Bombaysers de Lille.

The main part of the opening was the Parade that celebrated the meeting of the cultures of France and India. Starting at the Lille Flandres train station, Indian elephants provided the decor of rue Faidherbe – the main street of the parade. Dozens of Indian and French bands and orchestras played music and hundreds of dancers performed and entertained the crowd while marching down rue Faidherbe. After the parade, there were concerts and live performances on three stages on the three main squares of Lille. Later on, Indian and French DJs mounted on different trucks across the city center played some wicked tribal music with live oriental percussions and drum’n’bass with jungle beats – absolutely amazing!!!

A socially responsible citizen

One of the things I am grateful to AIESEC about is that it truly developed my social awareness and sense of commitment to making a positive contribution to my society, regardless of where my home might be at a particular moment. But it’s not just about being socially responsible, it’s more about being able to ACTIVATE that social responsibility in the people you are leading.

This was one of the predominant objectives of our first national conference that ended just a few days ago. One full day of the agenda was dedicated to developing the awareness and encouraging the learning of our members in the area of sustainable development and social responsibility. For that purpose we organized Sustainability Day – a one day learning event where corporate and non-corporate organizations delivered plenary sessions and interactive workshops in the field of social responsibility and social entrepreneurship. We had organizations such as Société Générale, Alcatel, Microsoft, European Bahai Business Forum and few others develop and deliver workshops to our membership. We had some amazing speakers, among which the Director of Sustainable Development of the Group Société Générale - Philip Laget.

The event was quite successful but it wasn’t a goal in itself, but rather a means for something much more important. The purpose of the event was for our members to see how are other organizations contributing to our society and to question the role that AIESEC France is currently playing in that society. The following day focused on empowering our local committees to make their own contribution by introducing the concept of projects based on exchange and facilitating project planning. All that’s left now is to see how we are going to follow up on this empowerment and translate the good intentions into ground-level action.

The whole conference and Sustainability Day in particular, was incredibly important for me, because it reminded me of the importance of our role to activate leadership in people and to empower them to make the change they want to see. Furthermore, the concept and importance of sustainable development is incredibly fascinating and it is definitely something I would like to learn more about.

For that reason, I am incredibly fortunate to participate in the Business as an Agent of World Benefit – the largest global forum on corporate social responsibility that will aim to develop innovative ways of developing business as a leader of positive change, by bringing together some of the most relevant corporate and non-corporate leaders of today’s world. The forum is convened by the UN Global Compact, the Academy of Management and the Case Weatherhead School of Management. One of the speakers and facilitators of the conference is David Cooperrider, inventor of today’s leading change management technique Appreciative Inquiry that will be used to facilitate the workshops in the forum.

I will be a part of the organizing committee of the event. I am incredibly excited about taking part in the event and meeting so many people who are truly shaping their local and global communities by doing their business in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Integrating Science and Religion

Why does science deny religion? Why is our modern world incapable of embracing spirituality? How do we integrate the objectivity and empiricism of science with the spirituality and divinity of religion?

In “The Marriage of Sense and Soul”, Ken Wilber, arguably the most ingenious thinker of the 20^th century in the field of consciousness, addresses these questions by drawing from the work of numerous scholars and philosophers while offering his own brilliant solution for integrating science and religion.

Trying to put his ingenious work in a one-page summary is a slaughter, and for that I owe you my apology. I still however feel obliged to recapitulate what I learned from one of the most complex and yet straight-to-the-point books I have ever read.

In terms of the relationship between science and religion, Wilber splits history in three periods: pre-modernity, modernity and post-modernity. Pre-modernity, present in all of the great religions including Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, is characterized by the universal worldview that reality is composed of several hierarchal levels of consciousness, called the Great Chain of Being. In Wilber’s hierarchy, the Great Chain of Being is composed of matter, body, mind, soul and spirit, where each higher level encompasses the preceding level (includes) and adds new value and meaning (transcends). The only way to reach the level of Spirit is by experiencing direct spiritual enlightenment. This means that the higher you go up the ladder, the more inwardly and strenuously you need to look to discover the meaning of life. Pre-modernity thus clearly gives advantage to religion over science.

Modernity, on the other hand, is characterized by the differentiation of the “cultural value spheres”, meaning the differentiation of art (self-expressive and subjective “I”), morals (societal “We”) and science (objective “it”). Thanks to the differentiation of the objective science from the societal morals, society saw breakthrough discoveries in the area of science and technology that drove the development in the last five centuries. And thanks to the differentiation of art (ability to self-express) and morals (socially imposed norms of behavior), people were finally able to practice freedom of speech and enjoy equality and justice, which marked the naissance of liberal democracy.

However, the differentiation was too strong and turned into dissociation, where the development paths of each of the three value spheres (art, morals and science) became excessively divergent. Science grew at a disproportionably faster rate and soon began to negate the existence of art and morals: “The entire interior dimensions – of morals, artistic expression, introspection, spirituality, contemplative awareness – were dismissed by monological science, because none of them could be registered by empirical science”. So just because they couldn’t be measured, art and morals were completely annulated by the aggressive science.

This total negation of mind, soul and spirit gave rise to the reactionist postmodernism that sought to reinstitute the appreciation and commitment to spirituality. Wilber recognizes four major postmodern attempts at reintegration of religion (prevalent in premodernism) and science (prevalent in modernism): romanticism, idealism, extreme postmodernism and integralism. However important these attempts were for their period, by drawing from the works of many authors, Wilber convincingly proves their setbacks and reasons for their failure.

Finally, Wilber proposes his unique and holistic approach for the reconciliation of science and religion by integrating the core of pre-modern religion (the Great Chain of Being) with the essence of modernity (the differentiation of art, morals and science). In the end, Wilber stresses the importance of reaching a certain level of political awareness as a pre-requisite for a successful and all-encompassing integration of science and religion.

This book addresses the world but it also addresses the individual. It is not only in society that we must seek to reconcile science and religion, but within ourselves as well.

I remember that just until a year ago, I was the greatest atheist the world has ever seen, negating the existence of anything that cannot be seen with the eye of flesh (my senses) or the eye of the mind (my logic). However, the more focused I was on my intellectual development and the results I was getting from it, the more aware I was becoming that I am missing something far greater than pure intellect. It was a little voice inside that kept telling me that I should embark on my quest for spiritual development.

And so I did…

Are you aware of your energy?

I just came back from TEAM DAYS – a 4-day intensive team experience that we used to review our plan, set our priorities and further build the spirit and identity of the team. For the purpose of detaching ourselves from our reality in Paris, we travelled, no more and no less than 711 km. to the far south of France, to a small village near the city of Gap. We stayed in a beautiful house on the top of a hill that was overlooking mountains as high as 2000m. The magnificent views inspired me to lengthen my zazen in the morning and connect with the nature.

During these team days, I managed to finish another book that deepened my commitment to spiritual and moral development. La Prophétie des Andes or The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield, took me through an adventurous discovery of the nine “revelations” of the Manuscript that outline the changes in human understanding and behaviour that will cause the evolutionary change of humanity from the current material to a spiritual culture.

One of the fundamental changes in human perception is that the entire physical universe is consisted of a limited amount of energy and that people have the ability to influence their level of energy and those of others by investing in and appreciating their personal relationships. For example, by appreciating the way of expression and behaviour of the people and enabling them to surface their emotions and way of thinking, we are transmitting our energy to them and receiving their energy in return. By identifying and eliciting the beauty of the people around us, we are transmitting our energy and enabling them to radiate their energy on others.

However, the prophecy says that humans are in a continuous fight for the energy of others. Unable to generate energy from the universe, people are entering conflicts with the sole purpose of depriving others from their energy and using it for their own purpose. Through practical examples involving the main character of the story, Redfield describes four different methods for domination of other people with the intention of snatching their energy. These examples made me more aware of my own modes of domination and their impact on the energy level of others.

Probably the most interesting example of fighting over the energy of others is the fight between people who are in love. When two people fall in love with each other, they are giving energy to each other beyond their imagination. However, when one of them starts to expect that the energy should come from the other half of the couple, instead from the entire universe, the fight over energy begins.

According to the Manuscript, each man must get in touch with his feminine side, and each woman with her masculine side, in order to maintain a balance within his/her life. People who are unable to find the opposite sex within them are incomplete and are constantly looking for people from the opposite sex in order to become a whole. However, when two incomplete people come together they are like a body with two heads, they become one person with two different egos. This leads the couple to a fight over energy, manifested in jealousy, envy, quarrels and finally breaking up.

This is why we all need to find our internal balance BY OURSELVES, balance our connection with the universe and become a whole as individuals before we fall in love. And when two WHOLE people come together, a result is a couple that is in complete harmony and with an ultimate level of energy.

If you are currently in a relationship that depriving you from you your energy, you are either not with the right person, or you and/or your partner are not WHOLE enough to be in that relationship. To come out of that vicious cycle of energy deprival, you need to reactivate your most profound motivations and discover your unique purpose in life. You need to inquire yourself in an effort to re-clarify your personal vision and become aware of the person that you want to become. Or as James Redfield simply puts it:

“Life is not about getting answers, but about asking yourself the right questions. The right question will always find its right answer.”

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Facis dancing with delegates

The facilitators from ABN Amro and Cadbiury are performing their roll call, joined by the delegates.

Developing Leaders Day

Developing Leaders Day (DLD) is a one-day leadership development seminar within the AIESEC International Congress that enables the delegates to acquire cutting edge leadership skills from top managers of ABN Amro and Cadbury Schwepps, the two Developing Leaders Partners of AIESEC. These two companies are partners of DLD as of 2000, meaning that this was the 7th time that their managers were working together with the delegates of the International Congress.

DLD is without doubt the most expensive product of the International Congress, because it offers the two companies a unique opportunity to train their high potential managers in facilitation skills and position themselves as an employer of choice among the AIESEC leaders. The entire program is coordinated by the Global HR Managers of ABN Amro and Cadbury Schwepps, and the facilitators are coming from the different subsidiaries of these companies. Apart from the substantial financial investment of these companies in DLD, ABN Amro and Cadbury are committed to bringing their best people to IC. In order to do so, they organized an internal selection process that resulted in the selection of 32 top managers from all over the globe. What’s very interesting is that 4 people from each company (the 8-member “faculty”) are meeting with AI three months in advance to decide on the theme of DLD, the content and the profile of the facilitators. The facilitators themselves are coming 4 days before DLD and go through an intensive Train the Trainer (TtT) seminar in order to prepare for delivering the sessions to the AIESEC delegates.

I was in a group of around 25 people and two facis, one from ABN Amro and one from Cadbury. The theme of DLD was “Leading from Within”, meaning that the focus of the sessions was on our own leadership behaviour and its impact on others. After we got to know each other and shared our expectations, we went into a personal assessment test that aimed to discover our “drivers” – our deeply entrenched behaviour styles that shape our relationships with others. After discovering more about ourselves, we investigated the impact that our drivers have on others and hence the things that we need to be careful about when practicing our leadership roles. We then role played an amazingly complex case study (part of the INSEAD MBA curriculum) that set out to challenge our mental models and encourage our systems thinking. We then looked at the “ladder of inference” and used advocacy and inquiry as tools for discovering the reasons that were underlying our assumptions in the previous role play. In the end, we had a debrief and a great wrap up by Fred Machado from ABN Amro.

Thanks to DLD, I learned that I still need to work on actively listening and understanding the feelings, needs and interests of the people around me, i.e. being more empathic. Furthermore, I need to pay close attention to what my team members love doing and what are they great at doing. Their strengths can become our common competitive advantage only when I partner with them and invite them to contribute their strengths to the areas where I have realized that I am lacking the competence and expertise. In the end, I confirmed by conviction that leadership is not something we can learn by reading books, but rather something we develop on a day-to-day by applying our learning points from the past and unearthing and unleashing the potential of the people we are working with.