VCIL Travel School 2022 - Ladakh

 Our lovely memories from Ladakh, India (made by Huy Pavel).  💖 Thank you and love you all. 💗

Reflection on Module 4 - Global Peace Practice

What is the one thing that concerns you the most when you think about global peace? 

- One thing that concerns me the most about global peace is the separative mindset which discriminates what is mine and what is yours in the names of religions, nations...

What is the one thing that makes you hopeful when you think about global peace? 

- One thing that makes me hopeful about global peace is the increasingly realization of Oneness.

REFLECTION ON MODULE 4 - GLOBAL PEACE PRACTICES

I’ve learned that, as an alternative to simple linear thinking, we have systems thinking which helps us to better understand the complexity, making effective decisions and find holistic solutions to problems. Systems thinking is network-thinking, ecosystem-thinking, process-thinking, causal-thinking, thinking in terms of relationships, spaces, environment, connections and platform that affect the whole. 

Systems thinking highlights the interconnectedness of all, recognizing the dynamic causality and feedback loops. Applied in peace building, this mindset helps us understand the relationship and dynamics of a system, view and understand complexity, mobilizing existing internal resources and promote social change. Interventions should start with “listening to the systems” through seeing patterns through observing and reflecting on behaviors over time. By identifying where change is already happening in the system, that change can be nurtured towards a more peaceful society.

Daily systems thinking practices involve a strong commitment to developing our awareness, mindfulness, asking different questions, noticing the systems around us, and experiencing time differently by extending our sense of “now”, by slowing down (therefore helping us grasp interconnections that we may not have seen before). As real insights come in the company of others, we can integrate collaborative learning  through forming learning communities, reading club…

As leverage for system change, network development relates to the concept of emergence, which is changes that begin as local actions, then spring up simultaneously in many different areas. That emergence only happens through connection and is used to scale-up social innovations. We have to find and build “social yeast”, who are a few strategically connected people that have greater potential for creating social growth of a process/idea than large numbers of people who think alike. 

I’ve learned about leadership as a collective process, where network leadership is collective, distributed, bottom-up, facilitative, emergent, role-based, versus the conventional, organisational leadership, which is position-based, authority, individual, directive, top-down… With the rise of the web and the greater capacity for people, resources and ideas to self-organize, new forms of organizing are becoming possible. This web-approach offers greater openness, transparency, decentralized decision-making, and distributed action, thus entails better adaptability to changing environments and responses to crises. 

Reflection on Module 3 - Community Peace

I believe that AHIMSA (literally means "do no harm"), the philosophy that advocates nonviolence and respect for life of every living being, is the key principle if we want to have peace at all levels. As a philosophy of Integral Peace, Ahimsa doesn't just stand for "not killing" but also for not causing physical or emotional pain to any living being, either through thoughts, words, or actions. Mahatma Gandhi said "True Ahimsa should mean a complete freedom from ill-will, anger, hate and an overflowing love for all."

Regarding community peace and leadership, again, I would like to quote here the saying from Mahatma Gandhi: "A sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have but how many leaders you create." Real power comes by empowering people, thus, "leaders become great not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others". 

Trust is empowerment. Connection and trust are the foundation of any relationship, as well as leadership and building community. I've learned that building trust, building community is a 2-way process of mutual respect, active listening, compassion, inclusive walk and communication, sincerity, transparency, even opening to vulnerability, keeping one's integrity, constructing safe place for sharing, holding space for dialogue, sharing meals, embracing diversity, story telling, togetherness...

I've learned that being model is important. We have to be what we want our community to be. And building community is like constructing a garden. We should be patient, have adaptive leadership and smart flexibility. Community is evolved along the journey, organically. We hold space for emergence. We do our best, our job is planting seeds, no forcing and let time ripen them.

I've learned about collective leadership - diverse and inclusive leadership at all levels of the ecosystem versus individual leadership. It is a shift from "leader of followers" to "self leader", from setting vision and directing to aligning purpose and action, from control and planning to adaptive action learning, from exercising power to transparent power sharing, from leadership hierarchy to relational shared leadership, from centralized decision making to collective input and process, from personal claim or blame to group reflection and learning, from individual responsibility to group accountability, from individual intelligence to group creativity and wisdom. Collective leadership can take advantage from the gifts of all members in the community. I guess this collective leadership model will be more and more popular in the new age, as public awareness is more and more enhanced.