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about 4 impactful experiences

2011-05-29T15:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I figure I owe myself writing this blog post capturing 4 very impactful experiences.

1. Meaningful Kenya

2. Marketing Academy Boot Camp

3. Marathon in Copenhagen

4. Bikram Yoga

Meaningful Kenya

Safari – pictures captures this experience better than any words possibly can: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150206554944273.331551.518259272. However, what I will remember from Masai Mara in some sentences are:

Will and Peter - awesome guides that quickly turned in to nice friends. Together we created an empowering environment where dreams were shared and learning took place.
Masai community – living in harmony with all aspects of society. Having the opportunity to spend a few hours with these amazing people was simply amazing. Sure, a bit touristic, but equally, very important for me to experience. Could I imagine changing my life so as to live like the Masai tribe? Not sure. I probably wouldn’t survive longer than a week…- that aside – living in a mutual beneficial relationship with nature is possibly the most important thing I have to learn – knowing that it is possible. Other practices of the masai tribe I found less impressive, e.g. polygamy – however I wasn’t there to judge – just learn and thus suspending my judgements was critical to really enjoy and immerse in the experience.
Close connection to nature and with the animals of course stood out. E.g. seeing lions showing compassion and love. Experiencing a leopard hunt was incredible and watching cheetahs chilling under a tree was so powerful.
Majken getting ill was less exciting, but she patiently recovered and was determined to enjoy the experience though being from the back of the car, waking up to take the amazing pictures that now shapes what we remember from the magical days in Masai Mara.

Kibera

Kibera – Caro took us to Kibera. It was a difficult meeting simply because never before have I seen so many difficult realities. I think I had a naïve aspiration coming to Kenya, trying to think about a systematic approach to at least in theory tackle extreme poverty. I left Kebera not knowing where to start. It moved me and then and there I knew that Kenya had moved me for live. Spending some hours playing football and reading with the children was amazing. On the surface it seems so small, i.e. to have a kindergarten that impacts 20 children every day, but having been there, actually experiencing it made me realize that these initiatives are so important and they really make a difference. They are absolutely critical.

Retreat

Retreat – from Kibera to retreat at a very nice hotel in mombasa. In the beginning a shock. How could we go from the slum to a luxury hotel? We were there to celebrate Majken’s big birthday, but felt confused. Seeing all western tourists exploiting beautiful Kenya felt un-real and wrong. Unfair, I know, but that was how we felt. We transformed our confusion to four very impactful days. We created a flow with meditation, powerful conversations, exercise, good food, healthy life and relaxation – amazing. Majken and I discussed our collective 2016 vision and also our individual visions within the scope of our collective vision. We are clear and it feels great – now we need to bring it to live!

Precious sisters

Precious sisters – spending time with a dear friend, hosting some sessions and participating as mentors at the precious sisters event in Nairobi was incredible. It probably gave me so much more than what I could give back to the girls and the organization. The precious sisters thought me about the power of a dream and that anything is possible with a bit of support from people that genuinely care. Precious sister will become the structured way in which I will come back again and again to Kenya. Sometimes in person, but always in my mind, heart and will.

I call this experience meaningful Kenya.

The Marketing Academy Boot Camp

The Marketing Academy Boot Camp – outstanding. Deserves a blog post on its own. The Programmes for life leadership development program combined with the thought leaders sharing their experiences and the amazing fellow students made me expand my leadership vision. It is now, clarity, compassion, choice and CONVICTION. Conviction being the addition. Having the fundamental belief, being convinced that you can be or do whatever you want is something that I believe great leaders embody. Gratitude the best word to describe how I feel about the boot camp. Anticipation is what I feel about the year ahead.

Marathon in Copenhagen

Marathon in Copenhagen – absolutely exhausting, but so much fun and an amazing catalyst for living a physically healthy life in 2011. I completed the race. A stretch, but so enjoyable. Will I do it again – most probably yes!

Bikram Yoga

To conclude this quite long Sunday post I felt like sharing about my bikram yoga class on Friday. I was super close to pass out several times doing yoga exercise in 40 degrees C. After the class I concluded I felt physically fit, but spiritually a bit tired and confused. 2011 has been an amazing year to date, but I also feel to need to ground myself again. Come back to my practices, but also visit my family in Sweden. I miss them and it doesn’t feel right knowing I haven’t been home yet this year.

This post was about celebrating the last few months to enable me to look ahead and move on. Thus writing has also been about thinking about what the nearest few months will be about. While enjoying the bank holiday weekend the emerging themes are:

Continue the momentum Majken and I have in our relationship
Become part my close family lives
Take my work through the nearest months with excellence and then gain clarity about my next professional challenge
Fully immerse myself with what the marketing academy has to offer – being clear that this is an experience for me to:

Critically evaluate the leader I want to be
Build my marketing philosophy

I think this is it for now. Time for bed as an early start with some golf on my bank holiday Monday in on the agenda tomorrow!

Until later

Emanuel

About 2010

2010-12-18T05:28:00.000-08:00

Breaking up constant

The year is coming to an end – our need to divide and break up constant is once again celebrated. I will join in the celebration and use this opportunity to reflect and learn from the past, hopefully enjoy a peaceful present, and find inspiration towards what I hope should be an amazing and incredible 2011!

Magical day – inspiration flowing through my body

Today is a magical day – I am in my flat in London and as I am looking out the window everything is white – it’s beautiful. I am inside, it is warm, I have lightened up candles – inspiration is flowing through my body. A light feeling of being here! I am also slightly nervousness about what this post will be about – I am currently writing within structuring my thinking about what to write – the theme is 2010 and 2011, that’s it! I am enjoying the journey! I feel slightly nervous seeing the beautiful snow as Majken is in NY and I hope to get her home! I am also keen to be flying out to Sthlm on Wednesday next week – I hope the things will have worked out until then. Hey – no need to worry about the future, when I instead can just appreciate and be amazed by this present moment.

Early days of 2010 – flawed thinking

In the beginning of 2010 I was obsessed by the idea that the year was supposed to be about doing what I do what I do better as opposed to introducing new elements and change in my life – I was thinking it would be a year of order, not chaos! Why the need? Not sure – but surprisingly the learning is something I thought I already knew – only putting up principles and goals that I can actually impact.

It started to love the my time when I realized that my year is about practices - not about ideal states that require things out of my control to converge – I deserve beauty when I attract it, but not when I am trying to control events or when events control how I feel about my life and overall situation – the early days was about flawed thinking, but it got better!

2010 in some key words

A year of practice…

I have had good practices in my life in 2010…

Regular physical practice– discovering that I enjoy jogging, ending up signing up for Copenhagen Marathon in 2011.

Regular spiritual practice – trying to focus on regularity instead of length, 5 min a day makes a difference for me to feel better equipped to be my best

Regular sleep, 6-8 hours a night – seeing the clear correlation between good sleep, performance, inspiration, willingness and drive my practices: physical and spiritual

Close relationship – discovering the power of a healthy energy giving relationship, where the whole is greater (sorry for cliché) than the sum of the parts…

Learning – the practice of learning is realizing that there is no end to learning, just learning and learning…

…reflecting on my leadership vision of clarity, compassion and choice, I conclude that I when I manage to practice my healthy practices I can stay true to my vision… a powerful realization and a comforting discovery for me!

I have also had some bad practices in 2010…

Drama – bringing in drama into my life on different levels; in my professional career, in some of my close relationships, in my mind, not always feeling comfortable about my abilities and overall direction…always convinced that I can be my best!

Tobacco – using my “snus” at times simply because I find it delicious, it is not a regular practice and a routine so I won’t punish myself for it, just trying to exchange the practice for a better practice…

At times being outside my integrity zone in some close relationships, without really shouldering the responsibility and really understanding my role

Powerful discovery – I have good and bad practices.

Challenge – not punish myself for my bad practices, just be aware of them, and try to exchange them for better practices…!

Temporary Conclusions – when life is about practices and the end goal is about learning, when I trust my discovery, I am accepting more what is and I can allow happiness for what it is…Running a marathon will be a good metaphor for the art of practice – I hope to practice the practice of capturing the experience, to further embody my discovery!

This is becoming a long post… doesn’t matter, I would love to be able to go back at it at the back end of 2011 and see how I feel then about how I feel now!

Thriving professionally…

I have had enormous support from my mentor and various coaches and leading thinkers within the field that I am in. I am humbled by my opportunity to learn and I feel so much gratitude for everyone playing a role in my development! Gratitude especially to my two managers that have guided my journey within the business during 2010 and gratitude towards my mentor!!! I find it hard to describe in words how important my mentor relationship has been for so many aspects of my life – helping me to stay positive, smile and thrive in areas I want to thrive!

Experiencing different places – travels I remember personally and professionally!

Personally I experienced the UK: Lake District, Wales, Bath, Devon and the south, beaches and surfing! I am growing to love the country. London is also growing in me the more time I spend in the city!

I also went to Sardinia and Turkey – both amazing trips that I absolutely enjoyed!

Easy to forget, but also very powerful – my trips to Bornholm and the Archipelago of Stockholm – my peaceful places in Scandinavia!

Professionally I went all over the place in Europe, mainly to Zurich and Vienna, but I also experienced Central and Eastern Europe, Boston and some other amazing places! All in all, exciting, but also a big stretch as all of these travels means a lot of preparation to deliver as per what I expect from myself!

Travel seems to be a constant in my life! As much as I love these experiences, it is also a big scarify to my life in London and also, travels makes it hard to practice some of my healthy practices…at the same time, there are new excuses, just good and bad practices, hence I need to exchange some of my bad practices while travelling to better practices!

My family and closest relationship

I feel an enormous gratitude for everyone in my family – they are all my biggest supporters, and it is hard to describe in words how much I love them!

My unique love to my closest relationship is growing, she inspires me and I am feeling so much respect for her and our love!

Friends

I feel so much gratitude for my close friends, some of which have celebrated their love, others entering the magical chronological age of 30, some thriving in their professions, some are physically very close to me, others are spiritually close, common for all – you are all very close to me and I give you so many thoughts all the time! I am very rarely around – but all of you means a lot to me.

2011

I feel very positive about the year ahead! I think magical things will happen! I open for what is.

2011 – I hope a year of more healthy than un-healthy practices!

I hope I will thrive my relationship – I will do everything I can be present in our space baby – I suggest a daily spiritual practice for us every time we are in our space!

I hope some of the themes of 2011 include…

…learning, both un-structured everyday learning and some more structured learning.

…professional surprise, excitement and fulfilment

…health and successful spiritual practice

…re-establishing late nights with leading thinkers...

…invest time to connect with leading thinkers influencing culture, trends and health of our society

2010 – a year of gratitude, thriving, practice and drama

2011 – a year of practice, gratitude, daring and of course clarity, compassion and choice!

__________________________

I just read this quote that I think is a nice way to conclude this post:

“If you create an act, you create a habit.

If you create a habit, you create character.

If you create a character, you create a destiny.”

André Maurois

Until next time

Emanuel

Free flowing

2010-10-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

At home.

Saturday night.

Don’t feel particularly energetic. I am not sure why, but will give a go at journaling about it.

Have had delicious food. A wonderful evening with my love. I am reflective. I don’t know how I feel about the last few weeks – they could be described as professionally enhancing. Personally enriching. Great learning. Experiential. Still not sure how I feel about the.

Loved last weekend as I did a running race – survival of the fittest. 12 k with hurdles – I finished in 1h 02 min+ something. Really enjoyed it, felt proud that I could push all the way through the race. Thinking of it – that is probably my highlight of the last few weeks. Great people around, cool atmosphere, great training! More of that!

As for work – I have been spending time in, the UK, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Czech republic, Switzerland and Austria and on Monday I am going to France – the travel agenda is immense at the moment, and in all of the travels and work my creativity and personality is very challenged. I am performing, I am doing well, but for some reasons I feel quite reflective about the number of hours I spend, where I channel my energy, the inspiration I give to it and the inspiration I get. What is important is that I am learning and the learning curve is almost beyond what I can cope with at the moment – everything from hard facilitation, and leading an agenda, to process and ways of working development, market selection and creative design development – the role stretches me and I am learning!!! Learning and energy giving activity and surrounding is critical. The learning is there – I have the drive, but I am also challenged by very late nights in dark hotel rooms where I am catching up work that I supposedly could have managed at an earlier hour.

What I love with the learning that I am going through at the moment is that some of the ways in which I do things that I have trusted to date needs to be re-evaluated in this new setting and context. I need to re-learn an approach or generally expand the ways in which I assume my role in different situations. I wonder when this happened before? It probably happens regularly for people, but I am not sure I have always been this conscious of it as I am now! In the past I have always tried to create a blue print for how things works and how I should behave to be efficient and achieve my goals. I think the last few years, my approach have been the same, but now I am in the process of expanding/evolving it – not throwing away my past ways of doing things – just adding new in my library. In the end – to be able to select “which golf club” to play, I need to sleep, train, spend time with family and friends and recognize that leadership for me will as I know it today be about clarity, compassion and choice – but the way I play on a day to day basis will vary on the situation – a situation I can only identify and see if I am present and show up – i.e. feeling and playing in the field.

Wow – sorry for mumbling – but these are very raw thoughts in an emotional feeling that isn’t great, but that already have some clarity around why its there!!!

I am learning, but my energy level is rather low – partly because of physical exhaustion, but also because of the fear of sitting my young years in empty dark hotel rooms doing serious stuff that I actually have the entire life of doing. If the learning wouldn’t be there, I would probably be doing something ells, but the learning is awesome, super intensive and very aligned to my personal objectives, so hey, I am a very fortunate person at the moment – yet just appreciating that I am quite challenged at the moment.

I appreciate impossible to follow, but meant a lot for me to write down.

Until later

Emanuel

Long time no blogging…

2010-10-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to write a blog post for a long while now, but I haven’t done it – I refuse to blame lack of time, so I guess the real reason is that I haven’t prioritized it…for some reason, I have felt that what i have been going through hasn't been appropriate to write about...but I guess the real reason is that writing is not a practice anymore, its not something I do… I love capturing and learning as a result, understanding the journey I am on, but haven’t felt like writing… blogging for me is like journaling, but slightly more daring…when I need journaling the most, I probably do it the least…same with blogging, when I need to sit down, reflect and capture my experience I rush, forget, run and move on… the idea of practice is that you practice, and improve, practice and improve.. as for my blogging, I am out of practice and thus this is not a post that I feel is flowing, instead, I am forcing myself to write something. Bear with me, I need to practice and learn again to see the value and enjoy capturing my experience!

The summer kicked off with two weeks holiday in Denmark and Sweden. Beautiful Bornholm in Denmark, reading, socializing, meditating, swimming and training, being with my energy Majken!

Archipelago in Stockholm – the place I love, my inspiration, my peace! Nature and activity, harmony and fun! Sweden always gives me mixed feelings - I was there last weekend as well! I love coming back, meeting family and friends, but at the same time if I decide to move back one day I need to come to peace with how I want to live my life there.

After kicking off the summer with two weeks of holiday it was back to work, confirming a new role in the new organization! It feels like I have worked for three organizations the last year: Legacy Cadbury, Cadbury-Kraft and Kraft Foods – the new role is a stretch, one of the toughest professional challenges that I have had, but also great fun and an enormous learning experience – really enjoying it actually! The weeks during the summer has been a lot about work, quite bad hours at the moment, but the weekends have been about experiencing the UK – the lake district, for hiking and the south coast for surfing and Bath for golf and nightclubbing! We also visited Sardinia, a beautiful island in the Mediterranean sea – celebration, good food and connecting with family and friends was what that trip was about. One of those when I didn’t feel that I needed a break, but nevertheless really nice!

The summer has come to an end, it has been amazing! I haven’t managed to play as much golf as I wanted, but still, that is a practice I want to carry with me! I am doing good, I enjoy life at the moment, not trying to challenge what I am doing, instead, practice, re-learn, be patient, trusting that the path is right for me at the moment!

Not a particularly inspiring post, but hey, I am back in the game, blogging again! I enjoyed it!

Until later

Emanuel

The post I should have written a long time ago…

2010-06-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

2010 to date has been a very interesting year for me! My thought for the year was to “do what I do better” as opposed challenge and change the fundamentals in life, i.e. where I live, what I do, who I meet, etc, etc…

Interestingly, Kraft bought Cadbury and my real estate agent, CEDAR ESTATE decided to increase the rent beyond what I wish to pay for the apartment where we where living and out of no where, my job is at risk and in two months we need to change apartment…

As for the apartment – we have moved and we love our new place! Today I am thankful that Cedar Estate behaved in the way they did and that we moved from their property, simply because we never knew when they decided to enter the apartment to do what they call “maintenance work” or when they without notifying decided to show the flat for new possible tenants. Not to mentioned the times when they left windows open after maintenance work, when their cleaners destroyed our table and refused to take responsibility or when they always left the apartment in a very bad condition after they had been there without our consent. I usually don’t write these kind of things, but Cedar Estate real estate agents in London is by far one of the most unpleasant relationship that I have had with a service provider of mine, ever. WATCH OUT FOR CEDAR ESTATE - is a line I have felt like writing for a long time.

Having written all of this, it so important to trust life, simply because as a result of the fact that they pushed us to move, we have now found an apartment that makes us calm and that we really enjoy spending time in. We have a little garden where we have managed to bbq 9 times since we moved in some weeks ago…

Apartment solved.

In terms of work – my journey since joining Cadbury has been incredible! My learning curve has been beyond expectation and my motto is to challenge myself NOT TO WORK, but see what I do as learning with clear accountabilities. If I would have been asked if I needed change at the time when Kraft bought Cadbury, I would probably have said no, but now as it is coming I am trying to embrace every single piece of it.

As I am writing this post I am going through consultation, i.e. my job is at risk and I need to either leave the company or negotiate a new role. I am quite excited about the emerging organization so if an opportunity comes up I am keen to join in. Lots of people have sensitively asked me how I am doing etc, and my answer is consistent. My heart is beating, I have legs and arms, I can walk and smile, thus, nothing really to feel sorry or bad about… having said that, the situation is rather stressful and I am keen to resolve it as soon as possible, without jumping into something which doesn’t feel right. One on the things I am happy about was that I established a worse case scenario, i.e. what is the worse thing that can happen in this process? For me it is not about loosing my job, but loosing myself by taking a job that is not me!

I will try to keep this space updated going forward – because I do feel that the intensity of these last few months needs to be processed. I feel with the start of the world cup that the wind is changing. I am excited to be in London, about my learning environment, my relationship, my family and friends – things are good!

Soon England first game in the world cup – really exciting! Football is religion in this country – the city is stopping and everything is about this game. Last time, back in 2006 I was having an AIESEC transition during World Cup – Its hard to imagine all the incredible things that have happened in my life the last four years! The world cup is super BIG and I cant wait, but to enjoy every second of it, every second of a tournament that unites the world and shows that everyone can WIN.

Until later

Emanuel

My experience in Istanbul: EuroExpro 2010

2010-03-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

It was indeed great to come back and visit an extraordinary organization AIESEC and to chair their biggest European conference of the year, EuroExpro 2010.

I did not go there to check up on the organization or to challenge or trying to shape its direction! I just came there to be myself, to reflect on my current situation and to understand if I am living within my integrity zone. Above all of that, I came there to facilitate an environment to enable the delivery of an amazing experience for everyone involved. Looking back, I feel that we did have an amazing time there and the kind of things I have heard after the conference really make warm inside and also feel comfortable that we had a magical, truly transformative week in Istanbul.

What I loved with the experience was that it wasn’t a pushed or a forced environment where everyone had to go beyond what’s reasonable to deliver. Instead, it was a systematically designed environment that was set up around a very clear vision for what we, i.e. every single person involved wanted to experience, combined with a great team environment, and some practices.

To use words that I have used before – our guiding idea was to experience our best AIESEC conference ever, our practices were regular faci meetings, morning breathing exercises, etc and our artefacts where clear principles for how we wanted to behave and a strong team built up by excellent individuals. Every single person involved did give that little extra in every situation, and that really made the experience extraordinary, but I believe that was possible because of our very solid and strong foundation.

Outside the flow of the conference, i.e. the nitty gritty content of the conference the words that comes to my mind about what this conference was about are the following:

Authenticity

Integrity

Clarity

Compassion

Choice

Transformative experiences

AIESEC

Guiding ideas

Practices

Artefacts

Stories

Conversations

and…

Inspiration

Thanks everyone who made this possible – it was an honour to Chair this environment that I hope was transformative for everyone involved!

Until next exchange

Emanuel

Post Copenhagen events

2010-02-21T04:27:00.000-08:00

I have had the opportunity to attend a number of post Copenhagen reflections the last few weeks... the first one was organized by Tällberg (http://www.tallbergfoundation.org/) and the other by the science museum.

Both these organizations have a tradition of organizing and host high quality and interesting conversation. So even this time! I guess I came there with the expectation to get a sense of what some thinkers on the topic of global governance and security had to say about what happened in Copenhagen and how the process and ultimately outcome can be improved in the future. I also wanted to understand the role of science versus the role science assumed in Copenhagen.

The role of science…

In the months leading up to Copenhagen science started to play a role as a communicator about the “truth” of the causes and the effects of climate change. I have always been in the space that we should communicate and view the indications from science as possible causes and effects, and accordingly pursue risk mitigation efforts in case the terrible scenarios they are suggesting could be a reality…why take the chance?! I feel very comfortable they are somewhat in the right space of where the world is likely to evolve, but I do understand that people are confused on what to believe at this stage…

To me, nothing has changed in terms of my views on science…What I hope though going forward is that leading scientist will learn about what they are best placed to do, and allow other people, better placed to do other things, do those things… (wow, a complicated sentence)… e.g. communicate and translate science and the conclusions that we can make especially around the science around climate change.

As science reached out receivers interpreted their messages as the “truths” of the world and that clearly provoked quite a few that then decided to make sure to challenge the validity of the scientific statements feeding the debate. An unfortunate situation, but maybe what we really needed to think about the way we assume the roles we are playing in the debate…

My reflection – everyone don’t need to be good at everything, but what we need to ensure and take responsibility for is that we are trying to do and live in spaces we are best placed to be in. science are great in the spaces of analyzing patters and defining scenarios, other people are better placed to interpret those and communicate the implications to a wider audience.

Science will still have an incredibly important role to play – their challenge, focus on what you are really good at and delegate the rest to someone ells!

The process…

As for the process aiming to create the most important consensus of our time it wont be fixed. I understand that people in the system are trying to fix it, but after having spent some hours simulating that Copenhagen process I have to conclude that nothing good will ever come out of that a process. It is a process defined forgetting that people will actually take part in it. It is set up for some to win and others to loose, i.e. in the end of the day, it is a zero sum game.

In terms of being well placed to do things. I doubt that the prime minister of Denmark was well placed a to manage a process like that – I feel sorry for the people who would expect that from a head of state. He is brilliant in many other way and thus should allow other people better placed to facilitate processes, do that! – the process wont be fixed by replacing the Danish prime minister…

There are people working full time with process work, and there are great processes e.g. the U-process, appreciative inquiry, open space technologies, that all are great processes to help articulate a new desired states – any of these would have achieved a better outcome that what we saw in Copenhagen, simple because they are trying to create a new desired state as opposed to set up a zero sum game.

As for the events that I attended…I listen and I listen and I was somewhat really challenged during most of the conversations simply because most participants never challenged the fundamentals of what really needs to happen. They were convinced that we need to try fixing something that is fundamentally flawed and most were incapable to see a new way of doing things implying a new way of living life! I felt challenged because of the inability to see a bright future, a future that at least I would want to be part of. They believe that we can act and achieve from a space of fear as opposed to from a space of opportunity and optimism.

There is something about the way we talk about generations these days that also challenge me quite a bit. I have never believed in the chronological way of measuring age – I think age as understood and measured from an emotional, intellectual, spiritual, physical and chronological perspective where we are currently only focused on the chronological perspective. The reason for that is because it is the easiest way of measuring age in the same way as profit is the easiest way of measuring the success of a business, or GDP growth for a nation and the number of cars we have as individuals. – dare to allow complexity, but don’t make it too complicated.

What became clear for me during these events though is that I will be very difficult for some who have dedicated their life to understand the current system learned current ways of doing things and living life to think about and practice new ways of doing things…we need to help each other!

As we are realizing and recognizing that some of the past ways in which we have lived our lives have been flawed we need to encourage all of us to trying to practice new ways of living lives. I came to these events with an expectation to get answers and that was really ignorant! It is not that easy anymore – we all need to explore new ways of doing things… some will work, share them and reapply them, others wont work so try not reapplying the... What makes this task really interesting though is that no one really knows how the world is likely to evolve and needs to look like so we all need to assume responsibility for the way forward – bearing in mind that we all will have different roles to play, ideally roles that we are best placed to play!

Until next exchange

Emanuel

What does it take to make a change in the 21st Century – My commitments

2010-01-31T07:40:00.000-08:00

The second out of hopefully many more “What does it take to make a change in the 21^st Century” event took place yesterday. The day was about our body and mind as opposed to only our minds. We danced as an expression for how we felt and we all felt really inspired by the more creative elements. The topics for discussion were. 1. Environment 2. Education 3. Personal change 4. Enlightened Businesses. I was in the enlightened businesses group and we attacked the issue from three dimensions. Entrepreneurial businesses, People and how existing businesses need to evolve. We all felt empowered to do what we can as individuals in business to try to shape our organizations, but we also recognized that the guiding principles of business needs to be re-evaluated and evolve. Not rocket science, but an important acceptance of the group, to really start exploring some solutions.

When we started to explore solutions we discussed individual actions that we can do to shape our environments. I loved that angle because that made most of us leaving the room committing to actions we all can take to really shape our businesses. Personally I committed to my practices of health (sleep, physical and spiritual health) cultivate close relationships and development, but also to empower super people to live a more healthy life. What this exactly means will be explored the nearest couple of months.

Thanks for organizing the event and for inspiring me to continue to live and learn.

Until next exchange

Emanuel

About Late Night With a Leading Thinker

2010-01-31T07:26:00.000-08:00

Our first London Late Night With a Leading Thinker gathered around 14 people in our home around the question of WHAT TO DO NOW? The last few years I always find myself discussing the big questions and more seldom than often I really challenge myself to go down to individual actions that I can do in my everyday life to really live more in harmony with myself and nature. As much as I really guard that dialogue because I really believe it is important to get it right, this week’s session was initially all about the actions we can all do every day to reduce our negative footprint on earth.

Catalyst, a network of passionate professionals set the scene by introducing their perspective on the issue and also their specific focus: FOOD. I loved their focus in the sense that FOOD is something that connects us all. All being ALL as opposed to only human beings. Their story was touching and helped us finding beauty in connecting with nature. All participants got to eat organic nibbles that one person from Catalyst had harvested from his home in the countryside of England. We also go invited to just walk around with our bear feet on earth helping harvesting some organic products that he is farming in his home.

After being challenged on the scale of the issue, there was a sense that we needed to empower each other to think and act from a space of optimism as opposed to from a space of fear. Sustaining Ability as opposed to sustainability was a manifestation of focusing on a vision of having a choice, i.e. sustaining our ability to chose how we want to live our life, as opposed to the more negative goals of sustainability which is more about sustaining a sinking ship.

As always, I left with more questions than answers, but also with inspiration to continue my journey of exploring how we ALL can live in harmony with earth.

Thanks Catalyst for coming and sharing your powerful story and thank you all participants, i.e. Leading Thinkers for showing up with your mind, hearths and wills to make the evening an inspiring one!

Until next exchange

Emanuel

About Spiral Dynamics

2010-01-31T07:01:00.000-08:00

I got a very vivid introduction to spiral dynamics in the beginning of this week: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Dynamics

Spiral Dynamics is about human development. It is an integral theory that helps us to understand the evolution of mankind. I had some transformative hours in the sense that it helped me to understand myself better, but also some of the tensions in today’s world. Some of the questions I have post allowing the theory and the worldview to sink in are if we have time to await the evolution to have its journey or if we need a revolution and also, is the theory applicable globally or is it more skewed towards a the vantage point of western societies?

The introduction made a very strong impression on me and I am keen to explore the implications further. I can feel that it is a worldview that can help me to understand the current state of the world better and in a more holistic way. As much as it helps me to understand where we are at, our challenge ahead is to understand how we move ahead from here. I think the rest of the week helped my explore that further. Partly through our first "Late Night With a Leading Thinker" here in London, but also from yesterday's session on "What does it take to make a change in the 21st Century.

Until next exchange

Emanuel

About my old lloyd shoes

2010-01-24T12:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I threw away my old brown lloyd shoes. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it so I just took them with me in an orange plastic bag and hanged them on the door of a second hand store. When I came back an hour later, they were gone. Hopefully in the hand of someone who disagreed with that the shoes had walked their last mile…

My brown lloyd shoes had on my feet walked their last mile and every time I throw away a pair of shoes I take the opportunity to think about where those shoes have taken me…For example I have celebrated in them and I have cried in them - I have experienced the world and life in them. I dare to say that my brown lloyd shoes have always been with me as I have experienced the world and some of the most transformative years of my life so far.

I had my brown shoes on me the 9th of September 2009 as I was entering the doors of my new learning environment in Cadbury. Last week the board of Cadbury recommended the shareowners of Cadbury to accepted a bid from Kraft Foods to acquire the company so my employer of choice will change ownership and there are strong reasons to believe that many others things will change as well! I would lie if I would say that I am not welcoming change as I really believe that the only thing that is really, “always constant in my life is change”, and most times change for me means expanding my worldview and learning new things! Having said that, I curious to see how Kraft can maintain what’s great with Cadbury as they are trying to improve the Cadbury-Kraft business. I do have hypotheses on some of the challenges, but also on some of the opportunities that await everyone involved in this process, but I do feel a need to allow the nearest future to enfold before speculating too much on what’s a reasonable and good ways forward.

The week ahead is about reviewing the past and gain inspiration for the nearest future. I am looking forward to explore spiral dynamics and to host the first “Late night with a leading thinker” here in London! Our first guest is Andrew from Catalyst! I shall look forward to this and a lot more!

As much as this blog post was about my brown shoes, it was about gratitude to life more than anything ells!

Until next exchange
Emanuel

a call for help - Haiti

2010-01-16T04:53:00.000-08:00

Friend --

On Tuesday, a catastrophic earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The full extent of the damage is still being assessed, but the death toll -- already in the thousands -- is climbing fast.

This is the worst earthquake to hit the area in more than 200 years. Entire communities have been ripped apart and as many as 3 million people have been directly affected, including tens of thousands of American citizens who are in Haiti.

Our neighbors in Haiti are racing to confront the enormous devastation -- and the OFA community can help.

Click here for more information about essential relief efforts and ways you can help today.

Footage is pouring in of homes collapsing, Haitians carrying injured family members, and hospitals being overrun in what was already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

I have directed my administration to respond with a swift, coordinated, and aggressive effort to save lives. Personnel from the United States and our partners in the international community are on the ground in damaged areas right now, working side by side with the Haitian people. They're providing much-needed food, water, and sanitation supplies, saving lives and helping local communities start to rebuild.

Despite the fact that we are experiencing tough times here at home, I encourage those who can to reach out and help. It's in times like these that we must show the kind of compassion and humanity that has defined the best of our national character for generations.

Click here to find out what you can do:

http://my.barackobama.com/Haiti

As this story continues to unfold, I hope you will continue to keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers, as well as the many Haitian-Americans who have done so much to enrich our country and who are worried about friends and loved ones in this time of need.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

The role of digital in the marketing mix - initial thinking

2010-01-13T14:07:00.000-08:00

Free flowing thoughts as I am learning about the role of digital in the marketing mix in an era of transition...

Digital marketing is NOT about re-learning everything that marketing is all about. In fact, they way we do most things will still be the same. Marketing in the digital era is still about segmentation, targeting and positioning, and the marketing tactics are largely the same as well. Digital marketing makes mass marketing very expensive and inefficient. Thus, we need to be clear on what is the role of digital in the overall marketing mix.

Digital is enabling us as marketers to do our jobs better.

The segmentation can be more precise and our targets can be more relevant. The way we develop products can be more informed and the way we price them can more reflect the specific target. The way our brands behave can be more targeted.

The way we distribute our products can evolve, but the idea behind where we chose to be is the same, i.e. where people are making purchases. The way we do promotion need to evolve, but what we are trying to achieve will be the same, i.e. building sustainable relationships with our consumers.

Digital is not about NOT doing TV advertising, but instead it enables us to see the responses of our actions that give us choices on how to respond and proceed.

Digital is enabling us as marketers to do our jobs better.

But it will require more from us.

As opposed to start and finish a campaign activation, we are always is campaign activation. As opposed to talk at our consumers, we need to get their permission to have a dialogue with us. If we decide to talk at them, we have the medium to understand their responses to what we have to say. As opposed to be the only source recording messages about our brands, we are one out of millions of people who openly share opinions in influential mediums.

Digital reminds us about our global world and it gives us a space to leverage resources for our global brands.

Digital enable us to behave more targeted and to be better marketers.

The challenge ahead is to understand the role of the different mediums and the role of digital in the marketing mix...How can mass and permission marketing synergize each other and who will be the best in leveraging the opportunity that has emerged through the digital revolution. The challenge ahead is about being timely and relevant to mitigate risk and leverage opportunities that emerge with the digital space. The consumer is informed, conscious and the queen...be good enough for her, him, earth, and us and you will thrive!

Until later

Emanuel

My 2009 in bullet points…

2009-12-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

2009 has as any other year been an incredible year for me. One of those years where I have experienced things that if I would have known how tough they would be I would probably not have dared to experienced them all, however, looking back it is with an enormous gratitude that
I remember 2009 and look forward to 2010!

What tied it all together was my close relationship to majken, my amazing family, some incredible friends and a profound love to nature!

• Finalizing my masters and releasing my second book
I was very pleased handing in my thesis in the beginning of year, a process that at times was really painful, but in the end a great learning experience and result! Key discovery: Its not done until its done!

I was pleased that VDM was keen to publish it for me and that I have my second book available for sales, a lot better than the first one! Find it here

• Aconcagua
Our inexperience became the experience – an extraordinary connection with nature and a memory for life! Key discovery: nature makes me calm, cities makes me stressed!

• Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia
South America by bus – key discovery: what ever happens is the best thing. If it happens to me, I am equipped to handle it.

• Learning Spanish
An initial love for language but also a reconnecting to basic learning! Key discovery: it is first when you dare to take a step back you really learn!

• Argentina & Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires, the third city I can say that I have lived in. Key discovery: Argentina has the best meat, wine and ice-cream and is a perfect mix of Europe and South America

• Geneva
Connecting with ambitious youth and reaching out to the world and the global humanitarian forum – the video from the conference is here! I have hesitated quite a lot to share this video, simply because I found it quite tough to see myself on the screen… with some distance though, the key is what learning I took out from seeing myself there and I feel content with what I could extract! Key Discovery: The power of guiding ideas

• Tallberg
Converging crises – complexity – solutions – very powerful and impactful four days! Sweden is beautiful. Key discovery: Welcome complexity!

• The Swedish Archipelago, Bornholm and vacation!
Two of the most beautiful places that I know of in the world – the Swedish archipelago and Bornholm! Every time I am there I feel so much hope, inspiration and compassion for what the world can look like! Key discovery: How a sustainable vacation can look like with sailing, swimming in the water, and being close to nature, family and friends!

• London
The fourth city I can say that I have lived in and currently actually really like to live in. Funny enough, my 2009 actually started in London. Key discovery: If you know what you want, you can find it here!

• Cadbury
My new learning environment and employer. Very promising, challenging and impactful start – I am keen to understand what’s emerging! Key discovery: interpersonal skills, v. e.g. marketing skills, very different, but mutually dependent!

• 2010
A new year, probably fewer events than during 2009, but I sense that I have an intense learning journey ahead of me! Important components as always: relationship, health, family, friends, learning and development!

Guiding ideas: Journey; Now; Choice; Within!

Happy Holiday!
Emanuel

About AIESEC – finally a well deserved good case practice

2009-12-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

When I was in AIESEC I always had the feeling that the organizations was in between 5-15 years ahead of time… being a proud alumni I still believe that is the case and that is why I am still keen to monitor what the organization is up to!

The last few weeks have been amazing and almost emotional because AIESEC has achieved enormous results and being aware of them! Back in 2005 the organization created a dream – not a random dream, but a dream that was based on real events. The method appreciative inquiry helped the organization understand: when the organization is at its best, how is it and how can what it is, be replicated, every day! (read again if difficult to understand)

From when the dream was created, generation after generation have had clarity, consistency, determination and measurement in place to understand health and success of the organization and that has enabled AIESEC to double its impact in 5 years!

How many organizations in the world can say that they actually over achieved a 5 year vision? Maybe a few! How many can say the same, after having changed leadership every year during those 5 years? Very few! This is not only a good case practice for AIESEC, but for any organization…clarity, determination, consistency, monitoring and measurement have had a profound impact!

I am the first to admit that I was one of the people who did challenge some of these goals two years back… I asked if they were too ambitious? If they were still motivating etc! I am glad that some of my peers fought back!!! Thank you for doing that and for proving me super wrong then and also now!

Congratulations AIESEC – spread the word, what you have done is amazing!

Thank you 61 generations of AIESECers, but in particular, Brodie, Dey, Gabiza, Juan and Aman!

A proud alumni and a big fan!

Emanuel

About the way we reward behaviours…

2009-12-19T16:42:00.000-08:00

Today we are rewarding un-sustainability… as a consumer it is always cheaper (in terms of what we actually monetary pay from our pockets) to buy un-sustainable products! How can we transform the way we reward companies aiming at sustaining ability?

It seems clear that our current way of doing is rewarding the wrong behaviour. Thus, what we really need to do is to transform the cost side of the production, i.e. ensuring that every single product contains cogs + real cost of production… if the cost side would fundamentally change it would be financially unwise for companies to produce unsustainable products…by rewarding the right behaviours, i.e. keeping social cost of production down, companies wouldn’t afford not to produce sustainable products…from a consumer point of view it would be cheaper to buy sustainable products and thus naturally the market would transform in the sense there would be no market for unsustainable products as it wouldn’t make financial sense to produce them… this seems super logical that this is how it ought to be, but its not…!

What an opportunity to change the guiding ideas for companies as they are innovating and developing on new products!

Rewarding desired behaviours, another piece in the puzzle…

Until next exchange

Emanuel

Are we living a prisoner’s dilemma?

2009-12-19T11:50:00.000-08:00

Prisoner’s dilemma is a fundamental problem in game theory and it is a good way to articulate why it is so difficult to cooperate even if it is in everyone’s interest to do so! Maybe the COP 15 meeting in Copenhagen was from the start to the end a prisoner’s dilemma?

Our current guiding idea is that if someone win, someone ells has to loose. I believe there are no situations that has to end in a win-loose situation! Some could argue I am naïve and maybe I am – but I would argue again, that it only comes back to our guiding ideas….! Having been a quite ambitions soccer player I was taught that for me to win someone has to loose and it is actually first now, years after I have stopped playing that I am realizing how destructive that was for me, for my team and for sport… sport should be about uniting through competition and in the end, simply the fact that sport is existing and that games are played is a win-win!

I do appreciate competing, but the element of winning is not about making sure someone ells loose, but instead making sure we all thrive in what we are doing.

In the context of the world we cannot afford to continue to have a win-lose guiding idea, simple because earth is one and need to be treaded as ONE and if we want to be here we need to be one team, humanity in nature together as ONE...Our opportunity as a collective – shape and create new guiding ideas, an opportunity of a lifetime and it has never been more important that it is right now! Lets not focus on talking about the failure in Copenhagen and nopenhagen or whatever, but instead start creating and shaping new guiding ideas.. it can start NOW! In everything that I do I will seek win-win, as my fundamental guiding idea recognizing that there has to be such outcome no matter what I do!

Until later

Emanuel

the most important consensus of our time

2009-12-19T05:02:00.000-08:00

the agreement (?)(framework convention on climate change) to be downloaded here

the last point emphasis 1.5 degrees C – which means according to 350.org 350ppm, i.e. the safer climate path, now what does it mean that it's not binding?

clearly it is just the beginning to what's needed in terms of a governing agreement, however, an agreement will never be enough and maybe not even the beginning! the people of the world came together the last few weeks and that can never be seen as a failure... in the end, our choice on what to do now will always come back to us and our guiding ideas for what it means to live a prosper life... is up to us and with that comes an enormous responsibility, but also an opportunity to shape the future guiding ideas of the world - i.e. the ideas that fosters our actions! It is an amazing time to be alive right now! we must grasp this opportunity because our situation really requires all of us to be great!

Making an impact in the 21st century - what does it take to make a difference?

2009-11-29T12:41:00.000-08:00

What is the role of work? How can you make a difference in 2010?

These were some of the questions fitting in the flow that I went through during yesterday (Saturday the 28^th of November. )Jarda, Emma and Maritna had kindly put together a wonderful space aiming at creating meaningful elaborations on the questions above both on an individual level, but also for us as collective.

The last three months have been about scaling down, building context and practicing the beginners mind in my current context. I learn, I have fun and I am challenged–I feel a lot of gratitude towards my current context. That aside, yesterday was for me a reconnection to some of the bigger questions that I continuously need to ask myself, but also that we as humanity need to ask ourselves.

Yesterday was an investment in myself. An opportunity to bread and listen to what’s emerging. It was also an opportunity for me to understand how the last three months have impacted the way I think. Yesterday meant a lot for me because the space helped me to show up, ask questions, explore answers, learn and ask more questions. I was also happy connecting to some old friends and meet some new.

The key discoveries include issues on three dimensions: World, Society, Individual.

As opposed to attacking the problems, we tried to understand the causes. The group working on the world dimension phrased their cause beautifully as a “sense of separation” - between earth and humanity, body and mind. Exploring our societal issues we talked about the importance of de-couple carbon and development, and consumption with happiness, we discussed the rapid nature of the way in which things happens, we distinguished between knowledge and wisdom, east and west and we also discussed guiding ideas. It is important to recognize the difference between ideas and guiding ideas, guiding ideas being ideas, leading to action. Someone said, logic help us draw conclusions, feelings makes us act, the same distinguishes ideas from guiding ideas.

It could be argued that today’s guiding ideas in terms of success on an individual level is the number of cars we own, on organizational level it is shareowner return and on national level it is GDP growth. These guiding ideas have helped us to achieve prosperity in some parts of the world, but they are also causing some of the most pressing issues of our time. If we accept that our guiding ideas are steering our action and that the power of guiding ideas have created the prosperity in the western world during the last 200 years, an enormous opportunity to attack our current pressing issues emerges.

Viewing guiding ideas on these different levels also help us recognize the important of different types of solutions on different levels. On national level, e.g. a new guiding idea could be happiness, if that would be our guiding idea, our actions would fundamentally be different and the countries that we would look up to would also be different… as opposed to understand the western world being the index, Colombia would be the most advance nation., recognizing that Colombia has the happiest people in the world…! This shows how incredibility important the upcoming meeting in Copenhagen is, because that is an opportunity to change our guiding ideas on a national level.

It took 50 years to build the global brand of coke, 3 years to build the global brand of Yahoo, 2 years for google and 1 year for youtube… the rapid nature in which ideas can be spread and reach mainstream is super quick and that is really what make me hopeful. Combining the opportunity of guiding ideas and the rapid way in which those can reach the world, it is possible to be hopeful... because if we can get it right, the speed in which change can happen is enormously fast….!

As we came to understand some of the underlying causes to today’s issues, we continued to understand the personal visions that were in the room. I had the opportunity to visit 2014 and my life at that time – a very powerful journey! The remaining work will be to put that vision into a painting that I will carry with me going forward! I feel that I have a big mandate and responsibility, but I also feel very clear on my present and future!

Hosts and participants of yesterday – thank you for being there and helping me to create clarity about my present and future and for giving me hope about the world!

This was a rushed post, because Sunday also means preparing for another week, however, I wanted to get some of these feelings and thoughts down and then hopefully revisit the post soon again to add some more thoughts at a later date!

Until next exchange

Emanuel

On patience, order, comfort and core…

2009-10-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

As I was walking around in town today, the word patience came to my mind!

Naturally I am an incredibly inpatient person, which is good and bad...it's good because I usually get a lot of things done in a fairly short period of time, both on a task basis, but also when it comes the journey I am on! However, it can be bad from the perspective that I sometimes I might not be allowing enough time to see my full potential emerging. I.e. I don’t allow myself to master whatever I am doing, because as soon as I feel comfortable I am moving on... comfort, doesn't mean mastering...! In all of this, I am trying to understand what is the core that follows me unconditionally what I am doing? Fortunately for me, I am realizing that I am patient around my core, i.e. when it comes to my core, i.e. my values system, my struggles, my development areas on areas that fundamentally defines who I am, I do allow myself to continuously thrive and learn. These areas are the aspects of my personality that I can carry with me, unconditionally what I am doing! The question I am asking myself is if I want to expand my core, i.e. allowing some of the things that I am doing to be part of my core...i.e. becoming a specialist in marketing for example. Being a marketer becomes something that defines part of who I am, i.e. an area where I am patient, allowing my full potential to emerge...! I admire people who do make such a choice, i.e. on the question on who they are, they expand who they are do what they do, i.e. that have made a choice on what they do, and then naturally what they don't do!

When am I ready to make such a choice? IS it my role to make such a choice, or is my calling different…Thus, will I ever make such a choice? Being general, is easy and difficult, it is easy because I can thrive and make what I do a passion no matter what I do, but it is also difficult because it doesn't naturally delimited or direct me in to a secure path...! I guess it comes down to what Ken Wilber will refer to as the balance between order and chaos…a balance between a large defined core, i.e. a very directing core, and everything that comes with that, (order), or a rather smaller core, and everything that comes with that (chaos)…my general take in the past, intimacy with nature, love, family and health, enables my personality to allow more chaos…!

I guess, part of why am exploring this topic today is part of what I will be doing in my new role is to understand the core of something. Unconditionally if we in the past have been conscious of it or not, or understood why what we have done, what we have done, I hope to understand what choices we have made, I.e. what has been the core of what we have done... as we are conscious of our core, we can start to choose a course of action...! Expand our core, from that order, i.e. allow chaos, or magic to emerge out of a clarity.. maybe, clarity is what enables chaos, i.e. order is the ultimate enabler or chaos…!?

My concluding thought: Balance!

Balance between patience and impatience, between order and chaos, and direction and non direction. Our level of comfort is what defines our level of uncomfort. Our challenge – keep pushing the barriers of where we feel comfortable so that we consciously are allowing ourselves to thrive!

Until next time

Emanuel

Obama's response

2009-10-10T02:11:00.000-07:00

Friend --

This morning, Michelle and I awoke to some surprising and humbling news. At 6 a.m., we received word that I'd been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize -- men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it's also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.

That is why I've said that I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations and all peoples to confront the common challenges of the 21st century. These challenges won't all be met during my presidency, or even my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it's recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone.

This award -- and the call to action that comes with it -- does not belong simply to me or my administration; it belongs to all people around the world who have fought for justice and for peace. And most of all, it belongs to you, the men and women of America, who have dared to hope and have worked so hard to make our world a little better.

So today we humbly recommit to the important work that we've begun together. I'm grateful that you've stood with me thus far, and I'm honored to continue our vital work in the years to come.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

about building context and practising the beginners mind

2009-09-19T04:28:00.000-07:00

I have completed the 2nd week in my new learning environment. I call this period: Building context and practising the beginners mind. Building context is about building relevance in my ideas and reflections and practising the beginners mind is about re-emphasizing for myself that I can learn something from everyone around me, all the time. It's also about pushing myself a Little extra to engage in every single opportunity to connect with a new person...!

I have also started to follow inspiring marketeers on Twitter and subscribed to a number of newsletters - a new world is opening up! This week various forums launched the 100 most valuable brands. I keep asking myself the question, how would that map look like if or when rather those brands or companies need to carry all the cost of their production...i.e. the cost of production as we know it today and the cost of production as we will get to know it tomorrow, i.e. inc the social costs...as the companies carries those costs their products will be more expensive and the question we need to ask ourselves - are we willing to pay for that or will we modify the selection of products we consider as important to live a prosper life in the future? Thus, forcing some of the power companies of our generation to fundamentally re-evaluate why they exists...I guess the car industry is the first industry seeing the consequences of this shift, but I believe there are many more to come...Thus, I believe the map will look very differently in not too long time period ahead...

until next time
emanuel

about the most important consensus of our time

2009-08-30T06:18:00.000-07:00

...and the demands of of the youth of the world...

The Copenhagen Manifesto

During the last afternoon of the Youth Forum 2009 the participants drafted in a common effort the Copenhagen Manifesto, a document stating the young adults’ demands and expectations towards the representatives of their home countries at the COP 15. Expressing the participants’ concerns and hopes about the high-level meeting, the Youth Forum 2009’s Copenhagen Manifesto should be received as a legacy of the Youth Forum 2009.

We the young adults demand, that:

1. The leaders of nations and organizations no longer justify emissions caused by their acts, but act for the benefit of all

2. Developed countries have to support developing countries to adapt to the impacts of climate change and must create an effective renewable energy development fund

3. Climate refugees must be given the same legal status as any other refugee

4. Climate awareness must be a part of every school curriculum

5. Negotiations should be viewed through collaborative online media, to create complete transparency and openness

6. It be a human right not to suffer from climate change related disasters

7. There be pressure on countries to meet their Kyoto commitments and that the Copenhagen agreement should drive fundamental systemic change

8. The Copenhagen conference must result in an agreement that addresses the needs of all

9. We all move beyond self-interested concepts of nationalism to an integrated vision of one system: earth

I can't in words express how concerned I am about the current state of the world. The COP 15 meeting is one part of the solution. However, the most important part of the solution is to be found within us all...!

Until later

Emanuel

about my new city

2009-08-20T03:58:00.000-07:00

Two days back I arrived to London, the city where I will be living the period ahead. I will be joining Cadbury, a happiness factory, working for the global office. I am very inspired by the opportunity and the challenge ahead of me and very pleased with my choice of company... i left for argentina confused, tired and socially exhausted, but i am coming back clear, fresh and ready to take on new challenges... a really nice feeling, though the path there at times were very challenging...! for those of you who fear to take a step out from a perceived flow to insecurity and uncertainty, dare to do it sometimes, as i discovered that it is first when you allow space for new discoveries to emerge they (the discoveries) dare to emerge...

on the agenda the nearest couple of days is to find a comfortable place to say and get ready to take on my new challenge!

more updates to come as i am writing on a new chapter of my life)

until later
emanuel

about incredible june and july

2009-08-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

after more than a month in silence i am back in front of my computer and a lot of things have happened... as opposed to start updating on some of my experiences the past month i thought that I ll be posting an interview that helps articulating some of my discoveries after having participated in the Global Humanitarian Forum Youth Forum, The Global Humanitarian Forum, the Tällberg Forum and after having spent a wonderful vacation in the Swedish archipelago with my love, my family and close friends...! I have had a fantastic time and I am so excited about my recent past, present and future!

* Conference themes always mean something more to the participants than others who just see and read the name. What was the theme really about?

The theme really was about understanding the current state of the world, when it comes to our planet, the economy, technology, learning/education and building on these four, governance. What tied it all together was an understanding of the world as one system, the key to be able to comprehend the scale and opportunity that comes as we recognizing converging crises in a time of diverging interests. Towards the end the theme helped defining the need for an integrated approach on solutions to the defining issue of our time, climate change.

* (Assuming the theme is really about sustainability and climate change, the global crisis being the climate one) What are the underlying issues of this global crisis?

As articulated above, we are currently operatin g in a world with converging crises. We have a financial crisis, an economic crisis, natural systemic crises within all our ecological sub-systems, we have a health crisis, a food crisis, a water crisis and humanitarian crises. All of these crises seen as separate events are to fundamentally misunderstand the problem, thus also the possible solutions.

From one perspective the body works really well to articulate this point. We can live our life as we want until our body indicates that we are not living in harmony with it. We might get fever or feel stressed. These crises are just symptoms of a lifestyle which clearly has not been in harmony with all aspects of our personality. Sometimes, we just get a cold, a signal from the body that something is wrong, our actions on that symptom will ultimately determine if we will recover fast or becoming even sicker. It is really from this perspective I have come to understand the for example the issue of climate change. Our nature is indicating that it has fever. The sickness of the nature is articulated through natural disasters, e.g. flooding, hurricanes etc,. The symptoms of our natural fever are causing humanitarian disastrous, such as poverty, starvation and a rising food prices just to mention a few. Thus, the key challenge to approach a solution is really to listening to the feedback on our actions. All these crises gives us the feedback we need to approach a solution.

* So in short, the underlying issue of climate change is our inability to balance all aspects of society?

Yes and no. Yes because it is true, no because there is not a one liner to articulate this complex issue. I do believe metaphors are incredibly powerful support tools to help articulating problems as such, however, as we start seeking solutions or even speaking about solutions, we must become tangible again. Thus, move away from metaphors and use simple commonly used language. Bottom line, we, meaning all of us, fundamentally need to change the way we live our lives. We can choose to see this change as a step back, or we can see it as a forward roll, as i have chosen to see it here: http://vimeo.com/5378535. Allow me to share for you about the past two weeks of my life. I decided to have my vacation in the Swedish archipelago.
At the place were I lived there were no water so we cleaned ourselves by swimming in the sea. One of the highlights of the two weeks was my sailing trip in between some of the beautiful island in the archipelago. My day activities were about reading, meditating, training and spending quality time with my family and friends. In short, I used maybe a litre of water a day on average and my carbon footprint was heavily reduced compared to a life in the city. My conclusion, my vacation was incredible, a forward roll as opposed to a step back. Imagine the impact if I would have chosen a vacation across oceans instead...

* What were some of your favorite solutions proposed at the end?
As we recognize the connection between our guiding ideas and our actions we are approaching a solution. We need to change our guiding ideas because as we have changed our guiding ideas our actions fundamentally will change as well. As opposed to be driven by ego, greed and consumption, we need to be driven by clarity, compassion and choice. As opposed to have GDP growth, profit growth and the number of cars as su ccess indicators, as guiding ideas, on national, organizational and individual levels, we need to re-invent the way we understand these objectives. An important component for this to happen is that we achieve a deal in Copenhagen, not any deal, a good deal, meaning that it is good enough for planet earth to be able to contain humans on it. Bottom line, earth will survive, the question is if it will be able to safely have human living on it. The experts tells me that for us to be able to continue to live here safely in harmony with nature, we, i.e. all of us, meaning every single one of us, need to achieve 350 parts per million as a global roof for carbon emissions, on top of stop destroying our forest and over eat and drink our natural re-sources. The negotiators in Copenhagen in December need to agree upon what should be the framework that help ensures that. Some would argue that what we need to do now is a step backwards, but I would see it as a step forward. It is time fo r humanity to reconnect to what it means to be a human being.

*I understand that this is a critical solution but I do not see it as realistic. Do you think an agreement at Copenhagen will be reached? What was the consensus on that question at Tällberg?

My short answer to your question. It has to be. The most important consensus in our history needs to be agreed upon in Copenhagen at Cop 15, the number we all need to dream about and remember is 350. To read up on it, please visit: http://www.350.org/.

Realistic or not, the nature of the challenge we are facing are starting to fade out all realistic solutions available, thus, we need to dare to think big about what we as humanity can do and will do. I believe we deserve to be saved.

* Share with us some of the most interesting conversations you found yourself in?
A very tough question as I found myself in so many interesting and what I call shifting conversations. With shifting conversations I mean conversations that you leave feeling somewhat different. You feel, see or view something differently after you have had the conversation. Amongst the one standing out happened during a lunch that I had with Richard Barret. He is a values based leadership guru and he was asked by the nation of Iceland to analyze the current state of the country. He made a values review of Iceland in September, concluding that if Iceland would be a company they would be bankrupt as of that date. We all know the path that Iceland took after September until today. I shifted during this conversation because I realized that there are new ways of measuring how we are doing as na tions that are non financials, yet credible and effective. Thus, Barret represent the new way of thinking, the new era where we have expanded the way we understand growth and success on national, organizational and individual level.

* The youth contingent at forums such as these are usually small, how many young adults were present? Two questions on youth: What was their unique contribution to the forum, what made them valued to the forum? And what were they saying in the talks, what were their perspectives?

The youth representation at Tällberg was made through an organization called YES. I am not sure on their views and perspectives, so I wont comment them, however, when it comes to the agenda as such, I do believe there was an underrepresentation of youth, a dangerous mistakes as today’s youth are key players in the solution. For next years forum, I hope to meet many AIESEC participants that takes part in the agenda.

until later
emanuel

Geneva Forum Young Adults 4 new results- Reflections after day 1,

2009-06-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

It's late, thus, I ll keep this post short! I wanted to capture something today because it was a meaningful day, yet I am looking forward to write a consolidated post on my dominating impression fro the forum here in Geneva when its over.

The forum, Young Adults 4 new results, http://www.youthforum2009.org/ has so far over exceeded my expectations. The highlights from the meeting today here in Geneva was the UNFCCC Simulation and the interactive session with Mr. Kofi Annan! My reflections from both these powerful experiences will come shortly, for now I just have one question, or statement rather: there have to be a better way to enable meaningful and important conversations than the UNFCCC model. It all turned out well and it was an incredibly interesting process, yet, it doesn't enable engagement and learning about the real issues, thus, there has to be a better model! More elaboration shortly! as for the session with Mr. Kofi Annan, truly inspiring to get the opportunity to meet and listen to a person who is embodying a role modeling leadership!

Until next exchange
Emanuel

I have a dream

2009-06-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

today i had the opportunity to visit Martin Luther King Jr.s memorial, it was special.

to honor him as a person and as a leader I felt like posting his so inspiring speech: I have a dream. The youtube video can be found here.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

About excellence and cultural shock

2009-06-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

Today's run was special because it happened at the Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia! as I was running I took a few moments to think about some the extraordinary achievements that happened here 13 years back. There were two runs that stood out, both performed by an extraordinary individual Michael Johnson. As I was thinking back watching his 200 and 400 m world records in Atlanta I realized that there are achievements that one doesn't need to be an expert to appreciate or an expert to tell that they are extraordinary. Michael Johnson achievements in Atlanta 13 years back are of that nature. Please press this link to watch his run again, I just did. What made these moments super special were that they happened during Olympics. An incredibly good example for how the world is coming together through competition, that is really the paradox pf sport, that it unites through competition. I believe Olympics is an incredible event and organization, but my mind keeps asking the question: what could the role of Olympic also be? It is not of the scope of this post to elaborate on that question, but as it is recurrent in my life, I will come back to it.

Sports helps articulate excellence... other examples of the same nature as Michel Johnson are, Sergey Bubka, Jonathan Edwards...it inspires me to watch these performances because they are all examples of how excellence is supposed to be looking like. Now, these are all examples from the sport world, but the question we all needs to ask ourselves is what we can learn from these, I believe a lot!

My day in Atlanta was about reconnecting to Excellence, but also respecting the work President Obama has ahead of him. After having been shocked by the size and the amounts of cars, I started to ask a few Americans about their thoughts on global warming. The answers I got, was "there is something like global warming going on that they are trying to fix"...? what about green cars, could you think of driving such? "green cars, what do you mean with green cars?" This is my first time in the US,and it happen to be my 40th country I am working in or visiting. Even though I didn't expect, but i did experience a cultural shock here today and I will try to allow it to sink it and see if i can put words on it during the days to come.

Until next exchange
emanuel

"Building Consensus - How Individuals Influence Groups" - my new book is launched

2009-05-30T13:43:00.000-07:00

I am very glad to announce that my new book is now available for sales. Please find it by clicking here.

The title of the book is “Building Consensus – How Individuals Influence groups”.

This book emerged out of our ambition to reflect upon our collective experiences in leadership development, teamwork and group facilitation. Throughout the last few years we have had the opportunity to meet and work with other youth leaders in over 40 countries. We have listened to and learned from many extraordinary individuals and one of our key realizations has been that the individual plays a central role in the formation of the world. We have come to believe that it is the actions of individuals that create the world. As creators of the world, individuals are responsible for what they create, but they also have the power to change the world.

This book provides a window to the processes that we use to create collective opinions, and more specifically it provides a look at the acts that constitute those processes. We hope that this book will help individuals to raise awareness of how they themselves contribute to peer pressure, groupthink and other social phenomena of which they are part. If this book can be the slightest support for individuals seeking to elevate themselves from their circumstances and observe how they contribute to what is going on around them, then we have succeeded. Towards this end, we provide practical tools that might be used by individuals and groups to more actively expose the processes that create consensus, and thus bringing about the ability to actively influence them.

The cover text is the following:
The processes through which we construct consensus are important, since they can contribute both to destructive groupthink, as well as rationally justified consensus. Taking Searle’s speech act theory and Habermas’ theory on communicative action as a starting point this study explores how individuals contribute to the construction of consensus. In addition, practical tools, which can be used to help individuals become aware of their contribution to consensus as well as to create rationally justified consensus are provided. Our account of these processes is developed through a case study on a Swedish non- governmental organization: AIESEC Sweden. This book provides insights for anyone interested in learning more about team dynamics, opinion creation and the ways in which individuals attempt to influence the construction of consensus in a team setting.
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The common theme in my two books, beyond that they are addressing the role and responsibility of the individual in the context she is part of, they seek to combine practically relevant issues in an academically relevant way. As opposed to be speculating on what our findings can mean for the world, “Building Consensus – How Individuals Influence Groups” make claims on what our re-search has shown. Thus, we allow and require of the reader to apply our findings in the context applicable for them.

This book should be considered as a work in progress. Should you have any questions or reflections, feel free to contact Aron Lindberg at aron.lindberg@gmail.com or me at emanuel.gavert@gmail.com.

Emanuel

the restaurants we will remember

2009-05-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

majken and myself discussed the food and drinks experiences we have had here in buenos aires and we conclude that the below are the ones standing out:
Crizia - a universe and a new way of presenting food and wine
Olsen - a Scandinavian alternative with Argentina touch, also incredible.
La Cabrera - Argentinian meat, super bien, however, because of a lonely planet note, very touristic!
Hare Krishna - Palermo and no address here, but again like entering a new universe.
La Vaca in Puerto Madero - meat, meat, meat, all you can eat! 50 pesos inc a bottle of wine/person:-)
Meditation center restaurant in Palermo - (I do realize that I am bad a names) - sitting on the roof after a nice meditation hour and just eat some delicious healthy food is too good to be true.
The French restaurant - again a garden simply standing out...!

Cafe's that we will remember includes the following:
Tea Connection - super nice and productive environment, healthy fruit drinks!
Freddo - the best icre cream in the worl
Café Torini

Bar - the area around palermo, simple incredible. It is impossible to not be inspired by the creativity you encounter around the area of Plaza Serano, Palermo.

These were just few of our highlights to be remembered!

Emanuel & Majken

about one week left - cultivate the moment

2009-05-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

The experiment of when I am not doing anything, what do I do is coming to an end? Argentina and South America will be in my heart forever and I know I will come back here. The best ice cream, meat and wine did leave an impression on my, but as always I came to love the people. I came here quite socially exhausted after an intense half a year in Stockholm. I haven’t felt the need really to meet too many new people and friends here, yet, the ones I have met, have all played an important role in shaping this experience to what it became.

As I arrived I wanted to be alone. I wanted to understand that if I don’t need to do anything, what do I do? If I don’t keep running, what is coming up? If I am in a learning environment that I am creating, how does it look like? If I don’t receive any inputs on how things are supposed to be, how are they? Now I few months later, I have answers to these questions and in addition a new energy. These questions might appear as basic, but for me at this point in my life they were crucial. If I arrived here emotionally, intellectually, physically and spiritually quite exhausted, I am leaving with a feeling of being ready again. I want to take on new challenges and I want to meet and be around people again! I have deep respect for the people and the experiences that have contributed to this sense of calmness again. Eckert Tolle writes in the Power of Now that you will enter periods of not feeling peaceful, the real challenge is how you can minimize those periods, not avoid them.

This journey has been about trusting. Trusting that whatever happens is the best. That whatever I encounter I am equipped to handle. Whatever that comes up from within I welcome. At times I have been confused and lacked clarity, but nature, important relationships and myself have made those periods short, discovering and empowering…I am leaving Argentina in a week from today with clarity about what this journey has meant to me, i.e. the recent past. I also leave this trip with flow feeling of not escaping from the now, but just trying to cultivate and love that moment, whatever is there. In addition I have clarity about my future. My immediate future in the sense that I am looking forward to go to Geneva for the Youth Forum (http://www.youthforum2009.org/) and then to Tallberg (http://www.tallbergfoundation.org/) but also to know what I want should happen in a little longer time perspective…! I am not sure it will happen, but what I can impact is knowing what I want, and I do. Having said that I don’t intend to run there, just focus on what I can impact, every moment.

This journey has also been about further developing my compassion. Compassion towards myself in the sense that I am allowing time every day to physical and spiritual growth and also towards my closest relationships. I have also developed compassion towards nature, discovered that nature makes me calm and cities makes me stressed. My nature discovery is not new, but this journey, because of my travels and experiences has deepened this relationship. I am connected on a spiritual, emotional, physical and also intellectual level. It is incredible how much nature have to teach us about how it organizes itself, its warning signals and beauty. Some of the strongest memories that I am taking with me is the Aconcagua expedition, the untouched grounds in Peru and Bolivia, "Bonito-Bonito", my volcano climbs in Colombia and of course Pantanal in Brazil.

This journey has also been about choice. Everything I have done here has been done because of my choice. At first a choice impacted by how I was supposed to feel and relate to the experience, but today a choice that is mine. How many times during the day do we forget our choice? How many times do we ask ourselves why these things happen to me? How many times a day do we complain about others, forgetting that we have a choice for how to relate to others, life and ourselves? I have great respect for people denying their choice because it is hard to every moment realize that you have a choice. The responsibility can be overwhelming. Some moments just doesn’t feel good so why I am choosing not to feel good? Probably because there are things that needs to come up for processing…as they come up, there is no need to try to shut them down, because they will come back, what is important is that you recognize that you choose to feel that way. As the choice is recognized you have discovered that you can impact the situation and you chose to process what needs to be processed. Though I am writing about myself in third person here, all of these are my struggles, struggles that I am proud to recognize because I learn from them.

It is hard to believe that I only have one week left.

Until next exchange
Emanuel

gratitude...

2009-05-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

...that is the one word helping me articulating how happy I was for all my birthday wishes...! life is good and I love you all!!!!!!

my day was celebrated by walking the streets of Buenos Aires and concluded with an incredible dinner with lost of surprises together with my love...!

gratitude, gratitude, gratitude... that is what I feel!

Emanuel

about discovering distraction

2009-05-12T10:44:00.000-07:00

"So we get distracted, but at some point we become aware that we haven’t been aware. In other words we regain our awareness."..."...Now we’re aware again. Now we’re no longer being driven by our habits. We have freedom again. We can decide that we don’t want to re-enter the world of distractedness. We have choice. We can choose to exercise being aware rather than be dominated by our habitual distracted states of mind. We have an opportunity to cultivate awareness by maintaining our mindfulness of the breath. When we realize we’ve been distracted we can take our awareness back to the breath." (Wildmind)

BsAs Urban photo competition - our image of Buenos Aires

2009-05-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

This week we concluded a urban photo competition that we initiated here in Buenos Aires. The purpose was to capture the image of Buenos Aires. The winning pictures will be posted on the walls of the participants apartments.

the categories of the competition were the following:

happiness
food and drinks

holding hands

architecture

pollution

taxi driver

a typical person
black and white
underground

the park

poverty

tango

a bus

sport, e.g. running, soccer
2 photos of your choice - use your Creativity

To view the winning pictures and the participants image of Buenos Aires please click here!

until next time
Emanuel

Latin America - the place to be!

2009-05-05T05:52:00.000-07:00

Today the Economist is writing about something that I sensed ever since I arrived here. Latin America is the place to be from a financial perspective going forward. "...Latin America will be its engine of growth in the next few years"

Because of a non-existing financial system in many of the countries here, there was nothing that could crash when the western/north American system crashed. The countries are clearly and naturally impacted by the crises, however, indirect. There are less people having money to go on vacation, there are fewer companies able to invest in Latin America and that can buy products from the Latin America companies, however, the safe financial markets are intact.

The financial system here is a discussion in itself. In short, it is not really possible to borrow money from the banks. The role of the banks is to store money, not to functioning as an engine in driving the development of the countries. A few months back I would probably had been very critical about such a system, however, today it is hard to deliver such a criticism.

Looking at the Latin American system in contrast to the western system, the two probably represents two extremes. The best and possibly the new balance will be a system placing itself somehow in between these two extremes. I doubt the Latin system would move towards the middle, thus, the major change naturally will happen in the western system.

To read the entire article, please click here!

A short personal update is that I am in Buenos Aires. I enjoy every day, which typically consists of studies, training and good food. In the weekend I went to Tigre, around 45 min with train from where I live. Tigre is an incredible part of the city. In a sense that trip became a Latin re-connection to the Netherlands, simply because of the extraordinary scenery with the canals and the nature. The day was about hiking and just feeling relaxed again in a non-city context. Beautiful!

Until next time
Emanuel

About Important days in Copenhagen

2009-04-27T06:48:00.000-07:00

4 questions - 12 days!!!

1. How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases?

2. How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions?

3. How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed?

4. How is that money going to be managed?

I will be going to Geneva in June this year to discuss these questions and simulate the negotiation that will take place in Copenhagen 2009. For more info about the meeting, please visit: http://www.youthforum2009.org/TheCompetition/tabid/164/Default.aspx

About a good day...

2009-04-27T05:28:00.000-07:00

Today was a quite incredible day in Buenos Aires. Being a Swede, the weather context is important and yesterday it was around 23 degrees and sun all day, thus, like a very good Swedish summer day. A few days back I signed up to run the "Azucar Maraton" - a 8 KM run that happened yesterday. My time, 36.02 minutes was OK and according to expectation. I did push myself, but I do believe I should be able to run the KM's in around 4 min as opposed to 4.30 min and that would help improve my time quite significantly. Bottom line, it was an amazing start of a beautiful day in Buenos Aires. After the run, I had a quick lunch to regain energy and to be ready for my first ever "Polo Game". I clearly did not participate myself, but I was amazed by what I saw - a seamless connection between a human and a animal forms a fantastic show. I am not sure when I will be watching a "Polo Game" again, however, seeing Argentina winning against Brazil, and the rest of the world against England is probably a memory for life.

The night was about dining with friends and love as well as watching the incredible movie "La Tierra"/"Earth". It is by far one of the strongest movie I have seen in a long while. The scenery and the pictures that are presented should not be described in words and in addition, the message was crystal clear - why are we fu*king with our beautiful nature? That will also be my questions for today!

Tomorrow I initiate the final course of my masters. I should look forward to that!

Until next time
Emanuel

About concluding an experience,

2009-04-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

I am back in Buenos Aires after an intense month of nature, beauty, frustration, happiness, loneliness, friendship and perspectives from 4 new countries…!

A wise person once taught me about the importance of processing an experience. He said: “the outcome of an experience will ultimately be determined of how you chose to process that experience…” Thus, an experience, bad to its nature can turn out really good, and a good experience can turn out really bad, all depending on how you process it. I want to use this space to try to consolidate some of my dominating thoughts around the issues I encountered, the beauty I experienced and the people I met. In all of this, I’ll try to reflect upon some of my emerging transformations as a result of the trip…in short, I will try to process a very intense experience, good to its nature, to determine its permanent outcome to be good…

How the issues came together in one city…

I was touching upon some of the issues I encountered in one specific city in an earlier post. With some distance to my experience, my perception is that many of the issues of the northern part South America came together in that one specific city…!
Here are some examples of how I experienced the issues of corruption, poor leadership, education, global warming and poverty in one of the cities I visited. The issue of corruption was articulated through the reversed roles in the prison a few blocks away from the governmental palace. The issues of education and poor leadership are articulated by the corrupt leader of the country, who is making a thing of the fact that he managed to become a president without education. The issue of global warming is articulated through the fact that it is hard to breath while walking on the streets. Poverty is always around the corner and articulated through crimes and child labour. I got to channel some of my frustrations and thoughts around these issues a I arrived to Bogota, that was useful, but I am still eager to understand more about where to start and how to transform the country and the issues.

Its important to recognize that some countries are doing a lot better than others and also that I didn’t encountered all of these issues in every country I visited. However, as a consolidated picture, the above description helps me to remember some of the pressing issues of the continent as a whole. It also gives me an understanding of the issues in relation to each other. All of these are concrete, tangible and real. How to prioritize and where to start tackling them? I don’t know, however, what I do know is that they are all connected. Poor leadership feeds corruption, lack on education diminishes development, climate change is causing poverty, poverty is causing crimes, and so one… thus, without articulating specific thoughts on a solution, an integrated approach is needed. In addition, some issues are local, others global. For both the global and the local issues, my current paradigm limits my imagination of a solution, however, I do believe, governance is one of the most important components in starting moving to something that could be about “living in harmony with all aspects of our society…”

Me in all of this…

As I was mentioning before, I received the opportunity of chairing the Colombian AIESEC conference with gratitude. That became an important aspect to channel the energy around the issues described above, but also to offset my footprint discovering the continent…!
This trip taught me about trust. In order to contain myself during the trip I was forced to trust and embody a comfort that “whatever happens, is the best thing that could ever happen…”, that whatever challenges I encounter, are just precisely what I can handle at that specific time(a learning from my mum), and that the people that I meet are there to support the success of my trip. At first embody this trust and comfort was incredible tough, especially when the car broke down in the mountains of Bolivia, or when I felt followed in central La Paz, however, as the journey progressed I learned how to embody that comfort, a comfort I hope can stay with me for a long time…

Another transformative discovery is the calming effect nature has on me. Nature makes me calm and peaceful and cities make me think – a key discovery! South America has endless natural beauty… and also opportunity, not only to interact with the nature, but really to live with the nature…looking back, my natural experiences at this trip is what will leave the lasting impression on me and also a discovery that will feed as inputs for some of my future decisions about life…

I am still discovering how my increased ownership for South America is shaping up, however, what I do know is that I will come back here. What I will do, time will tell, but I will be doing something, small or big…!

Off flow, but shortly about the hike to 5132 m…

Parque Nacional Los Nevados, approx a 5132 m high hike in Colombia was just an incredible way to conclude my hiking experiences in South America for this time. Before climbing this volcano, the highest climb I had in my back pack was at around 4500 m. These additional 632 made a huge difference in terms of the physical pressure on the body. As I reached 5000 m could feel a huge difference in terms of the efforts I needed to put in to move my body. Many people got sick of the altitude, but even though I went there after an AIESEC conference and 4 hrs sleep, my body coped really well and I experienced no signs of sickness. As I reached the 5132 m I was just sitting breathing and listening to the silence for around 30 min, a super comfortable feeling.

Until next time
Emanuel

Thank you Colombia

2009-04-10T18:21:00.000-07:00

I have a connecting flight from Lima in around 30 min, however, before continuing my journey, I felt the burning need to just write off a few of my thoughts around my 10 days in Colombia. I came there to channel my energy after my South America trip and look for beauty. I found beauty, challenge and the happiest people in the world!

I am looking forward to consolidate my experience at this space. Some upcoming topics include the AIESEC conference that I had the pleasure to chair, the 5132 meters hike I enjoyed, and some of my buirning questions going forward.

Now, I am just going to enjoy the now. Around 20 more hrs of travel if everything goes as planned with the end destination of San Rafael, Argentina.

At this post I didnt want to say much - just thanking Colombia, the people I had the pleaure to meet and of course, an extended gratitude to my friends there.
Emanuel

About the best youth leadership development platform in the world

2009-04-03T17:18:00.000-07:00

Its good to be back. After assuming the role as an AIESEC alumni, I am now back in an AIESEC context again to chair a Leadership Development Congress in Colombia, yet another powerful experience enabled to me, through the best youth leadership development platform that I know in this world.

A few months back I realized, that the role of AIESEC, really, becomes the responsibility of its alumni. I am not fulfilling my responsibility as alumni here, simply because AIESEC doesnt need me anymore, though, I chose to be here, without the expectation of fulfilling my responsibility, and I enjoy the experience. It again becomes clear that I can only fulfill me responsibility as an AIESEC alumni, by assuming a responsibility for the prosperity of the world, not by thinking that I am helping AIESEC by for instance chairing an AIESE conference. Having said,I really think its great doing it, both for AIESEC and myself, but my way of giving back to AIESEC need to be different. Having said that, being here to chair this conference is a great way for me to regain some energy and comfort that in a few years a few more AIESECers will be ready to assume the responsibility as an AIESEC alumni and join all the other change agents out there to address some of the most pressing issues of our time.

I just closed the pre meeting today by a wish for leadership, it seems to always have the power to inspire me..

The dominating thought today...How do we contain ourselves in relation to the world?and also, its good to not travel for a few days, but have the opportunity to have the morning jogs, sleep well, eat well, breeth...in short, balance ambition and change with all aspects of my personality...!

About South America,

2009-04-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

My goal was to cross South America by bus, from Buenos Aires to Bogota in about 15 days. As I am writing this, it sound all planned out, but it wasn't, though, as I started my journey, the more I traveled, the more curious I became, and from there, the goal felt cristal clear, as it was there all the time. Yesterday, after having been traveling by bus from Argentina, through Brazil, Bolivia and Peru, I had to catch a flight to arrive here in Bogota in time, thus, I didn't managed to achieve my goal, but that doesn't matter now, because the trip has given me more than I could have ever imagined. Yesterday I had to witness Colombia losing against Venezuela in Football and I also allowed some time and space to digest this incredible travel up to here. As I am writing this post, I am not sure how this trip have impacted me. Partly because it is not over, but mainly because the more I experience the more questions I have, but also the more challenged I am on some of my fundamental beliefs about the world.

At times I have been sitting alone, watching the Andes, trying to listen to the silence and just be there to inhale all the beauty there is, many times I have got tears in my eyes, which has been the way for my body to express something which can not be expressed in words or in thought, just in tears. Throughout the journey I have met incredible people, the Goldman guy, how quited his job to find meaning, the architect who is in search for meaning before starting a new era of his life, the PHD couple from Turkey, UK and Barcelona who assumed responsibility for me to be amazed by the Incas, the girls who took my to the hostel in Cusco when all I needed was some food and a bed, the 7 Bolivians who took me from Santa Cruz to La Paz, these are few of the people that I have used to channel some of these impressions, but also experience some of this beauty. I wanted to start this post be articulating the beauty, simply because I believe the beauty is the dominating expression from this trip. However, or but, or hey, that's not all there is.

In one of the cities I visited, three blocks from the governmental building is a prison. The prison is famous amongst tourists because these bribes the polices to be let in to witness how the prisoners have taken over the prison, turned it in to a coca factory to live there with their families by utilizing a corrupt system. Political leaders in some of these countries are expressing their background and excellence by sharing how they have reached to this position without any education. More or less in all these cities I have experienced the worst pollution I have ever experienced in the 35+ countries I have visited, the poverty is always around the corner and so are the crimes. I have so many friends from these countries, some, which are the brightest people and thought leaders that I know, the common denominator, they are not living in their country of origin. I am not putting any responsibilities on on my friends to move back to their home and improve the state of their country, but by knowing these, I know there is hope for development and change. The tricky part, it needs to be a development within all aspect of our society and currently, the world lack role modeling such development, even though it is emerging. Without exhausting examples which are causing some of my questions, I am curious to understand how this experience is impacting me as a person and I am keen to be discussing with the people who have put in thought to some of these questions. It is clear that Europe has played an historical role, the influence of the US is obvious, but, how can these influences (not only bad) be forgiven and forgotten and seen as a start for something new? How can the beauty, just be beauty without the but. I am aware that I come out quite naive as I am writing this, but for know, I'd like to use this naive window to keep asking questions around these things I am not yet ready to comprehend.

Before I started this trip and received some words of wisdom from a dear friend, and even though she doesn't know it, a mentor of mine, the message was clear, go with the flow and enjoy the experience. The nature of the experience so far has been quite intense, thus, it hasn't been too challenging to stay present. But what I am discovering as I am travelling is that the nature makes me calm and peaceful and the cities makes me think. this in itself is not a new discovery, but it has been a super clear realization the last few weeks. As soon as I have time to spare, I escape to experience nature and just enjoy walks and silence.

So, as I mentioned above, I am in Bogota, Colombia. I am very excited to meet up with a few friends, although I am concluding that most of them are not here, but in general I am very excited to get to know the country and the people. I will also for the first time after becoming an AIESEC Alumni attend an AIESEC meeting here. I am very happy that I accepted to chair the conference because after having travelled throughout South America in this particular way I have again re-realized the need, relevance and role of AIESEC, thus getting the opportunity to channel some of that energy is something I am looking forward to.

Until next time
Emanuel

About bonito Bonito and bonito Bolivia,

2009-03-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

So before heading to Bolivia, I got to spend a fantastic day with a dear friend of mine in Bonito, Brazil! We went to Rio Da Prata.which for the second year a row was ranked as Brazil's best attraction.Not having experienced all the rest, I wouldn't be the right person to tell, but my spontaneous feeling after having been dropped into an aquarium, with colorful fishes,anacondas *(we didn't see one), Caymans, and other animals, and on top of that flow in a stream was an incredible experience. I am a diver and usually when I get the question on the difference between diving and snorkeling, I tell myself and others that the real beauty with diving is that you get to become one with the underwater world, as opposed to when you are snorkeling, then you get to visit the under water world. I still feel the same around this specific question,however,the experience in Bonito was very diving like,because of the shallow water. Thus, the Bonito experience was incredible because I got to become one with the underwater world once again, in the same was as the Pantanal experience was incredible because we got to live in the jungle for a few days,as opposed to just visit the animals at a zoo.

After a late night, I took the morning bus to Corumba to cross the border to Bolivia. Reaching there, there were no train tickets which is from what I have heard the best way of experiencing the travel from the south of Bolivia to Santa Cruz, thus, my mean of transpiration became a bus. It was by far the most challenging bus ride so far in South America, partly because of the condition of the bus, but mainly because of the roads,which were muddy, slippery, and at times covered with lots of water. Without going into details about the specific events,they were enough to lack some sleep for the upcoming day in Santa Cruz. Following the news about the Dengue fever, which currently is draining the city, I was keen on enter and leaving the city. Even though I had gathered information that the situation had improved, I wouldn't like to risk to get ill. Read more about Dengue fever here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_fever and specifically for Bolivia, here http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/08/content_10968448.htm. Unfortunately, this specific day, there were no buses to La Paz (world highest capital). In the past, it was common in Bolivia to block villages in protest for different things, often politically related, but today it is a lot less common, thus, a rather unfortunate event. Recognizing a tight deadline to reach to Bogota (I am planned to be there the 31st of March), I was keen on progressing, especially, since no one really knew for how long the blockade would last. My option became to join a Bolivian group of 7, who together jumped into a car, which assumed a different rout to La Paz, across the mountains. The road conditions were, again very bad, but what a fantastic country!!! I was amazed by the nature and the scenery, so the light hours of the trip just disappeared in humbleness. However, the darkness came and so did issues with the car. The steering broke down, which delayed us a few hours, however, after around 40 hrs of non stop traveling I arrived to La Paz this morning. The day here has been incredible. I am amazed by the country, and I have respects for its challenges. There is a burning need for positive leadership here. I haven't for a second regretted the decision of crossing the continent over land, absolutely amazing!

Tomorrow, I am heading to Peru, I shall look forward to that. For now, I am just very peaceful, loving the beauty of Bolivia and the world, also, I look forward to some sleep!

About Pantanal...Braizil!

2009-03-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

So I am guessing everyone who gets to experience the Pantanal find it hard to express the beauty that unfolds as you are travelling deep in to the jungle of Pantanal, Brazil:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantanal

I am online briefly after three days in the jungle where I got see "hundreds of Caimans", Piranha, incredible birds and just getting the opportunity to live with the nature and visit the most impressive wildlife I have ever seen in my entire life. I I hope to revisit this experience in a later post, but as for now, I just wanted to capture a few words and feelings before entering a new intense experience, in Benito, also, Brazil!

Currently I am tired, happy, and excited. I realizing that the common theme of my travels in South America is to find the nature and experience it. Being in the nature calms me and amazes, it it gives me a doze of compassion, compassion towards everything - ts, my overriding feeling is compassion! Seeing the nature and hove beautifully it words makes me curious and humble.

Combining with these feelings I am also planning the continuation of my trip to Colombia! My plan is to enjoy the Cristal clear water in Bonito tomorrow, and the day after catch the morning bus to Corumba, where I hope to cross the border to Bolivia. In Bolivia, I will take a train to Santa Cruz, (a city recently challenged with the worse denge fever outbreak in 20 years), however, based on my current sources, it should be OK to enter the city without too high of a risk of getting the fever. If this status change, I will have to reconsider my path.

didnt want to capture much, but capture something...! The journey continues!

About Iguazu...!

2009-03-19T14:50:00.000-07:00

So, today was all about Iguazu! I had one of those days that I know will be standing out during the rest of my life!

I will be uploading some personal pictures shortly, however, here is a snap shot about the falls: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Iguazu&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=gr7CSZ6AO4SPmQecltXlCw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title

My trip up north in South America has started and I couldnt have wished for a better start!

Soon, Asado at the Hostel!

Sobre Carne, Asado y Helado, termino la clase en espanol, disfruta Cordoba y Buenos Aires y el dia de las mujeres,

2009-03-09T12:23:00.003-07:00

The last few weeks have been about completing my Spanish course, visiting Cordoba and seriously starting to enjoy the city of Buenos Aires.

La clase de español termino hace mas de una semana. El proyecto final fue sobre la dictatura militar en argentina entre 1976-1983…el parte de me, especialmente fue sobre la Guerra sucia (the dirty war). La Guerra es una parte de la historia muy negra durante de la dictadura militar. Consecuencias general de la guerra es de aproximadamente 13 000 personas fueron "desaparición forzada," y 30 000 persones fueron asesinadas durante el período. Porfavor visitar esta dirección por mas información: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War(I am getting closer to a post completely in Spanish)

Straight after finishing the Spanish course, we head off to Cordoba to spend time with a family of a friend of mine over the weekend. In dept understanding of “La crisis 2001-2003 was gained through speaking (in Spanish) with the father of the family, a chilled asado and pileta fiesta (bbq & pool party) was enjoyed and a new friendship with the Argentinean way of enjoying a summer Saturday was formed! The night was about party and the Sunday about visiting mountains and swimming in a lagugune. All in all, the weekend was fantastic and memorable. Not necessarily for having the opportunity to experience yet another city in Argentina, but really because of the opportunity to live, act and be Argentinean for a few days and to experience absolutely fantastic nature. Thanks Marcello + Family for enabling that experience!

Coming back to Buenos Aires have been about regaining energy, enjoying nice company, reflecting about the future and eating excellent food. The food culture in Argentina is specially designed for me! I love meat, bbq and ice-cream, these components combined are too good to be true…! Yesterday we experienced the celebration of the international women’s day here in Buenos Aires, the city really put in efforts in recognizing the significance of the day, which I believe is very encouraging. I am also asking myself the question what the role is of days like the one yesterday…

As I am writing this post I am realizing that the last few weeks and days haven’t been so much about reflecting, but just experience…indeed an interesting realization!

Going forward I am planning a trip up north in South America. I shall look forward to the planning and execution of that trip!

About La Bomba de Tiempo, shared leadership and listening

2009-02-24T14:01:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I was here: http://www.ciudadculturalkonex.org/web/actividades.php?codigo=29 and I am not sure where to start to express the excitement I feel after having been amazed by “La Bomba de Tiempo” yesterday. In short, the group consists of around 15 guys, they are playing drums and they are awesome! The beauty was that it was all improvised, invented and created on the spot. What amazed me was that all happened as the leadership was rotating. Thus, a very practical application of shared leadership. As the leadership was rotating, every individual where contributing their creativity as they where leading, but also assuming responsibility to follow as they were following. Shared leadership is “not about not” having a direction, it is just about having different people assuming different roles at different times, but all assuming the responsibility for the whole. The application of when these dynamics really works where articulated beautifully yesterday.

It always amazes me how well music, sport or other similar articulations serves as brilliant metaphors for how organizations and societies could work more creatively. About a year ago, I was attending a conference in Ireland where the highlight was a Danish conductor using conducting as a leadership development tool. As you were conducting you got feedback on the way you were leading musicians’ based on how it sounded. The key message was around the importance to listen to the responses of the organization as you are leading it. The metaphor was brilliant because you got the feedback incredibly fast. In real life it is important to recognize the delay effect the feedback has, but the key learning is really to remember to listen and follow the effects of your actions even though they are distant in time.

From one perspective the body works really well to articulate the same point. We can live our life as we want until our body indicates that we are not living in harmony with it. We might get fever or feel stressed. These are just symptoms of a lifestyle which clearly has not been in harmony with all aspects of our personality. Sometimes, we just get a cold, a signal from the body that something is wrong, our actions on that symptom will ultimately determine if we will recover fast or becoming even sicker. It is really from this perspective I have come to understand the for example the issue of climate change. Our nature is indicating that it has fever. The sickness of the nature is articulated through natural disasters, e.g. flooding, hurricanes etc,. The symptoms of our natural fever are causing humanitarian disastrous, such as poverty, starvation and a rising food prices just to mention a few. I believe using the metaphor of our body, something everyone can relate to, as a tool to explain the issue of climate change in combination with the importance of listening to the feedback on our actions, immediately helps me to understand the issue and how it connects to me, the “La Bomba de Tiempo” helped me to understand the role I need to play.

I realize I disappeared in a larger conversation here, however, after the concert we went for a classical Argentinean asado (bbq) as we had enjoyed the food we came to realize that we didn’t have money enough to cover the bill. The Spanish got a test and the restaurant eventually allowed us to come back tomorrow to pay. Amazing and for sure unique for the environment here. As I wanted to leave my driving licenses as a proof that I actually would come back the person just said he trusted my to return today, which I certainly will!

Tonight I shall look forward to be playing football. 9 Argentineans and me☺

About starting School in Spanish, re-connecting to Buenos Aires, Tango and transportation!

2009-02-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

So, a few days have passed and some of the dominating thoughts are around the beauty and the pain of Buenos Aires, the challenge of studying in Spanish and the phenomena Tango.

Without being entirely sure if I understood the history of Tango correctly, Tango, as I understood it based on my current level of Spanish, origins from Argentina. Influenced by “El Lunfardo”, the language, Italians and many different cultures the dance was borne here to later disappear from Argentina. The components of language, “amor” and cultures got expressed in a dance, which was considered to “vulgar” to be respected in Argentina. Thus, it disappeared to France and other European countries to later return and be super popular again here in Argentina. It is really incredible to view the beauty of the dance. People are dancing it everywhere and yesterday I appeared on a tango class. Divided by the feeling of being nervous and excited for trying it prior, I have to conclude after, that it is a challenge, however, looks harder than it is and definitely easier than salsa, at least on the beginner level. What amaze me is how it connects people to enjoy, perform and learn around an expression which carries such an interesting history. Understanding the history of Tango, other types of expressions amazes me as well, such as art, other dances, sculptures, and music. All these are just different types of expressions of something which more often than seldom carries a great dept which it becomes interesting to understand. I know, not rocket science, but a bit of a realization these last few days.

Buenos Aires got 37 000 taxi cars!!!! The cost of getting around here is very affordable. I travel by bus, metro and taxi. The people working with getting people around typically work 12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. If they can afford it they get max 2 weeks vacation annually. However, the infrastructure is very ineffective. I have not yet decided what I think about this, however, something happens within me every time I am listing to the stories of the taxi and bus drivers, recognizing that the service they provide works really bad because of the traffic situation, however, they are dedicating their lives to it. Having touched upon the humanitarian issue, I leaving out the issue of the pollution it is causing due to old cars and buses and the amounts of these. I have the feeling that this will be a recurrent theme because it is somehow bothering me quite a bit.

Initiating on a rather critical note about the city, I must continue sharing the gratitude I feel getting to know and live here. Buenos Aires is a mix of a top modern western city and a poor Latin city. It never sleeps for the good and the bad, but the people here are really extraordinary nice. Seeing these both sides of life, all the time, every day, creates a feeling of gratitude for what I have, but also a feeling of frustration, not being able to do more for the prosperity of Argentina.

I have also started school at Universidad Di Tella. Tomorrow I am about to enjoy my first presentation in Spanish. I shall look forward to that. Generally, the learning of the Spanish has accelerated, but I am still challenged and that is super exciting! I am about to become legal in this country and it is almost, almost, that I have enjoyed organizing the practical details around my stay here because it is yet an opportunity to learn the language!

Tonight, Louise, a very dear friend of mine and the sister to the girl I love is arriving - I am looking forward to that!

About Obama, a hero or an enabler?

2009-02-13T10:52:00.000-08:00

As I have been following the debate and excitement around the inauguration speech of Obama I am asking myself if we are having the right expectations on him as a person, leader and president. I am currently reading the book, “letters to my father” by Obama. Obama is a personal inspiration for me and I do believe it is hard to imagine what his presidency can do for the world. There is a burning need in the world for his leadership but are we expecting Obama to save us, or activate us? What I admire with Obama is that he has managed to connect people around a vision larger than us. Lets say he has made us connect around an opportunity of living in a world in harmony with all aspects of “its” personality. A world where the natural and the financial systems are cured from its current fever, poverty is reduced and more people are empowered and enabled to be great. A healthy world with healthy people where no one has to loose for another to win, where the “whole is greater than the sum of the parts”. (Obama during the election campaign)– this dream is incredible. Now, the question is, will Obama’s presidency make this happen? It could. But for which reason? Will Obama heal the world in a heroic manner, or does it require the awakening of the leader within us? As I am writing I recognize that my language is appearing a bit arrogant, that is not my purpose. It is just that whenever I am having a conversation about Obama I am always leaving it with a bittersweet aftertaste. At one hand I am happy and inspired that the people are appreciating the thoughts and opinions of a person I personally find incredibly inspiring, on the other hand I feel disappointed because I feel that Obama has somehow been misunderstood. Obama is not there to do the work for us, but hopefully empower us to be great!

I believe there is a shift in the world. My dear friend Jarda usually refers to this as a “global movement” where individuals engage in the co-creation of a new future, which is “not dependent on where we are today…” What Obama can enable is for this movement to accelerate, however, I do not believe he is the hero, that will make it happen. I believe a paradigm shift has already taken place, from heroic, “one man”, leadership to a more co-creative leadership. The role of the leader becomes to enable an environment where leaders can thrive. As opposed to dictate how followers should behave and act, the role of the leader becomes as a facilitator. Thus, let us capitalize on a paradigm shift, which in parts of the world already have taken place, cultivate that movement and see the role of Obama as an enabler for people to connect around similarities, learn from each others differences and allowing more people to be great. The victory of Obama must not bring us back in time, but must active the leader within us to take actions larger than ourselves. To conclude, Obama is not the hero appearing in the world, but he is inviting the people, a generation, needing to be great, to be great. Thus, as opposed to be a hero that will change the world, Obama is an enabler of people, individuals, you and me to be great so that we together can change the world.

Obama, Obama, Obama!!!! Now I feel happy screaming his name again, relieved after having written my thoughts on his presidency. Supporting Obama from my perspective means to take responsibility beyond myself and enable as many as possible in my surrounding to be great.

Acerca de Chile, Valparaiso, Vina Del Mar, Santiago y Rapel

2009-02-09T15:20:00.001-08:00

I am not yet ready to post in Spanish, however I am getting there, so for now, a heading in Spanish is what is representing my current comfort and level of the language.
So, an incredible travel has come to an end. After having been stretched emotionally and physically on my way towards Aconcagua, my wishes for Chile was to recover, relax and recharge. Said and done, the last week was about discovering Chile, Valparaiso, Vina Del Mar, Santiago and Rapel.

Valparaiso, by some articulated to be one of the most dangerous cities in the world by night (Based on my experience I do not echo that statement): One of the most impressive cities I have experienced so far in South America, partly because of its importance for Chile, and Argentina, being a port for important and export, but mainly because of what I will remember, i.e. watching the national dance of Chile, "Esquinazo", walking down the streets, being amazed by the structure of the city, its people. Being lost after having eaten dinner and being saved by a “micro”, a bus, which took us to safer grounds. Adrenaline, and curiosity are the key words I will take with me.

Vina Del Mar, a vacation paradise for Chilenians and the last few days for me and my love. Beaches, swimming in cold water, cooking good food, being, walking, caring and running were some of the components of the experience. A general feeling of being content and just enjoying were some of the dominating thoughts which shaped the experience.

Santiago, a city which needs to be rediscovered due to lack of time, however, what amazed me during my short time there was as opposed to other major cities in South America, the incapacity and the lack of structure around the bus terminal. Chile as a country is one of the most developed in South America but the bus terminal had the worse structure I have seen so far. Maybe that is significant for some of the countries here. Without drawing conclusions, I am recognizing that parts of the countries are incredibly well developed and working really well, but there is always something in the vivid picture, far from details, which is a challenge for the country and thus holds it back. The bus terminal in Santiago is just and example of this, there are many more. My question is, when the first country in Latin America will get all the determining details into place to be an inspiring and role modelling country for the region as a whole? I do recognize that this is a very generalizing question and not fair because of my lack of experience in the region, however, these are some of the thoughts and questions emerging as the day passes by.

Rapel – Francesco and Carlos, the lagune, the “moto”, the open arms of the family, the inspiration, the good food, the warm water and the relaxing atmosphere are some of the important components of my experience there. The very fortunate is Chile gathered around a laugune, which appears to be the paradise on earth. It was indeed and I am grateful towards the family who invited us to their home and made us feel like we were home. The stay there also reflexes the gap currently existing in the country, but also that in the calmest water it is possible to find quite dirty fishes. During a “city tour” by boat I saw incredible wealth and so in the middle of everything – the mafia house and drug producer. Everyone knew about it, but nothing to do about it, just be amazed by the house, the warning system built up and the general knowledge about the neighbors of how to deal with them. Indeed very interesting!

To wrap it up – the past week was really about recover, relax and recharge in a very different country compared to Uruguay and Argentina. The coming week will be about starting school, in Spanish and reconnect with Buenos Aires. I shall look forward to that.

About handing in my master thesis - Acts that influence Consensus - a study on speech acts that individuals use to influence consensus

2009-02-04T08:09:00.000-08:00

The beginning of my Latin experience became the end of writing master thesis experience. I wrote together with a dear friend of mine, Aron Lindberg and looking back at the process, it was painful at times, but in the end we really managed to hand it a paper worth putting our names on. We involved many people in the writing process and we received their harsh feedback and encouragement with gratitude and it really help lifting the thesis. For everyone contributing to the thesis, weather you know it or not, thank you very much!

Below, find the abstract: Acts that influence Consensus - a study on speech acts that individuals use to influence consensus

Groupthink and peer pressure are phenomena involving consensus that influence individuals to act against the best of their knowledge. The bankruptcy of Enron in 2001 is an example of the consequences of groupthink and peer pressure. Through understanding how individuals contribute to the creation of consensus, individuals are enabled to take responsibility for their contribution to social phenomena. A theoretical framework consisting of theory on mental models, dialogue and communicative action is developed in order enable analysis of empirical data using perspectives that are supported by previous research. A focus group with AIESEC Sweden's management team, which was conducted to ground our research in empirical data, is described. The focus group transcription is analyzed through qualitative content analysis and application of the theoretical framework. Seven (7) categories of speech acts are identified and analyzed according to which modes of dialogue they involve: externalization and/or combination. The speech acts that constitute each category are interpreted as either communicative or strategic action, using Habermas' distinction. This study strengthens the case for intentionally designed dialogue processes through which individuals can emancipate themselves from social structures imposed on them. Further research is recommended on specific principles and processes of dialogue that enable communicative action.

After minor adjustments the thesis will soon be available here.

About Climbing towards Aconcagua -our inexperience became the experience

2009-02-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

I am writing this time from an Internet Cafe close to the beach at Viña Del Mar, Chile. Thus, after having taken a night bus from Mendoza, my new destination is Chile. Two days have passed after returning from the three days expedition towards Aconcagua, I conclude that it has been one of the toughest but also greatest experiences of its kind in my life...

I want to use this space to write about some of the learnings, personal and practical going forward. The overall theme I guess is that our inexperience contributed greatly to the experience!

Climbing mountains is very similar to living life- you have up and downs, but below are some of the key discoveries the mountains gave me this time...

Appreciate the journey, but make sure to reach your destination. One of the things I am working on in my life is to always appreciate the journey, trusting that by mastering every single aspect of the journey, it will help me to reach the best destination. The mountains helped me to tell a new story, which I guess I have lived by in the past as well, but it was very clear up there - every step is important and matters greatly, however, never give up until you have reached your destination. Thus, the key discovery here is really the balance between the journey and the destination, trusting that each are equally important. In my case, as I reached the destination the first day, I collapsed, not being able to move in 4 hours because of complete exhaustion The reason for my collapse was too heavy luggage in combination with a stomach problem leading up to the trip. The collapse wasn't at all dramatic, however a physical strecth which I haven't experienced before. The air up there is so thin and dry so it really requires a fit body to at all cope in those conditions. A key learning - Every kilo counts, "keep it simple or light" . The food we brought was almost as heavy as a person travelling for 14 days towards the top of Aconcagua.
The Now - being present. One of the things I am working on every day is to connect my heart, mind and will in the space of the now. I do believe life is about balancing the past, the present and the future, where I try to learn from the past, live and act in the present because that is the only thing I can impact and get inspired by the future. However, I have never experienced a better learning environment for practicing the power of now, than in the mountains. Every time my mental space was disconnected to my physical space, I twisted my foot or was close to fall. I did injure my knee and hip a bit (nothing serious), only because of few disconnections between my mental and physical space. Coming home, I was physically exhausted, but so refreshed. It was three days of presence, one of the strongest and longest experiences in my life in that space, incredible.The question I ask myself now is how I can recreate such a powerful learning environment, every day in my life. Without going through my practices, I will follow up on this point going forward at this space.

Power from within and the beauty of my relationship - another learning is the balance of finding strenght, power and clarity from within, but also be strong as two withins. Many people go up there alone, I had the pleasure of having my love enriching the experience. Activating strenght within yourself will only support 50 percent, in order to succeed you need to become one with your surrounding in my case with the nature and my relationship and then activate the power from within. My relationship thrived through this experience. The experience tied us stronger than ever before and it is with gratitude and respect I am looking back at this experience together.

The nature and the Stars - Incredible!!!! When I articulated above that this expedition is one of the strongest of its kind I am relating it to other strong natural experiences I have had. I am a regular skier, I love scuba diving, I have hiked in the alps and in general I love doing sports connected with the nature, but I have never experienced a stronger and more powerful scenery than up in Aconcagua. The heaven at night can only be compared with an experience I had in Milan where I visited an artificially created sky, thus, of course incomparable. I will upload a few picture of the general scenery in a few days, however, picture cant capture the beauty, it has to be experienced. There is an opportunity to visit Aconcagua, take the picture but not being in the nature over night etc. I believe that could be compared to the difference between snorkeling and scuba diving. As you snorkel, you look at something, a new world, the underwater world, however, when you dive, you become one with that world. It is the same here, as you visit the part you can look at the top of Aconcagua, however, in order to be one with the scenery and the nature, you need to hike towards it. Recognizing our experience, these three days where enough, even though I am looking forward to at some point returning to reach even higher.

It is with great respect I got to know climbers and how they care about the nature which has been created to what it is today for 1000s of years. People living for these and similar experiences. It was amazing to visit your life for three days and be truly inspired by your journeys. Also, it is with gratitude I am seeing how well you have treated the nature around Aconcagua. It is also with gratitude I want to thank Marcello, a man who could be a story himself. I chose to call him, "the mountain man". In short, he prepared a great dinner for us as the wind took our risotto.

Love the choice - All in all, every aspect of this experience is a choice and it has to be. For example, the water in confluencia, the first base, caused bad stomachs. Having a bad stomach as I arrived there, but being forced to drink 4-5 liters of water which taste really bad and is causing more stomach pain was a stretch, however, I had to chose to drink it, recognizing that it was key to at all cope up there. In the end of the day, it all comes down to the beauty of your choice. Or that the temperature at night became minus degrees and I had a sleeping bag managing 12 degrees plus, where just two examples where I could have chosen to give up and fly a helicopter back, but had to decide to live it through. A choice I have not regretted for a second, not at that time and not now...!

Above, some of the learning's from my hike towards Aconcagua under the theme of "our inexperience became the experience". After having taken the night bus to Chile from Argentina and spent 3 hours by the border, I ask myself, what consequences does it have for the relationship between Chile and Argentina that it takes three hours to cross the border? It is not in frustration I am asking this question, but out of curiosity.

Emanuel

About the dominating thoughts shaping my day and the questions we ask ourselves...

2009-01-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

As I was checking my emails a final time before leaving for a 3 days expedition to Aconcagua I asked myself, what the dominating thoughts were that shaped my day? At first, nothing came to my mind and that made me happy because that some how indicates a day of presence. However, as I allowed some space, three dominating themes shaped my day: appreciation, gratitude and preparation. Appreciation for having the opportunity to plan a very small, yet special expedition, since it is the first of its kind for me recognizing a very challenging environment. Gratitude for allowing myself the space to at all experience what I am experience these days. Preparation, from having the vision of hiking on 4000 m altitude to what that means in terms of the details that needs to be in place before leaving. As I am writing this post on an Internet cafe in central Mendoza I feel comfortable that we are set to go.

The other realization I have as I am writing this post is the power of the questions we ask ourselves. How a day is being remembered really depends which questions we chose to ask ourselves about that specific day. The power of asking questions will have to be a recurring post because now the time is running out. Aconcagua, here we come!

Emanuel

about adventures in Mendoza, the people I meet and excitement to visit "the roof of south America"...

2009-01-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

As the trip up north in Argentina is starting I conclude that the first few days have been quite incredible when it comes to adventures. Yesterday, I for the first time in life did paragliding and enjoyed an argentianian asado (bbq). Today I explored the "rio mendoza" by rafting in it. Tomorrow the plan is to taste the wines of Mendoza, which by some is argued to be some of the best in the world. These days have been about settling in and realizing vacation and exploring mode. The trips above have been through organized tours. These are great in the sense that you in a fairly cost and in a very time efficient manner gets to experience adrenaline and see beautiful nature, however, an edge needs to be added going forward. I believe the edge will be that the nature and the travel itself is what is, as oppose to focus on the the specific activity I do...The day after tomorrow, we (myself and my love) are planning an expedition to Aconcagua, "the roof of south America". a three day hike where we will leave our, minds, hearts and will to the nature. I shall look forward to that challenge and I will keep posting some of the reflections of the experience at this blog.

Another dominating theme is the reflection that the people you meet generates in you. For example, yesterday we had dinner with two travelers from the Netherlands and Germany. 10 years back they started a motorbike journey from LA in the US with the ambition to travel to the Southeast part of Argentina and the world (Ushuaia) prior to Antarctic. The concept is that they travel as far as they can during their vacation, then they parc their bikes no matter where they are and then they come back the year after. As we met them they were determined to reach their destination, as they had arranged for a 3,5 months vacation. What was incredible was their choice of lifestylein what could be called a "second career". They were 55 plus and the career ambitions didn't excite them any more, but the drive to learn, explore, thrive and see new places where stunning and quite inspiring to listen two - it is incredible what you can experience on the road, but also the kind of choices you can make. As you recognize that you have a choice, only the imaginations are the limits for what you can do with your life. I wish Ben and Elmhult good luck as they continue their journey - thanks for a very interesting dinner!

Until later/emanuel

About Clarity, Compassion and Choice…

2009-01-25T09:16:00.000-08:00

As I want this blog to be a space where I share some of my thoughts, discoveries, securities and insecurities, about myself and the world I wanted to initiate with a post on a quite important resent discovery of mine.

As I had the opportunity of spending a few months in Stockholm, before leaving to Argentina, AIESEC Sweden really enabled me to process part of my AIESEC Experience through engaging me in different activities of theirs. One incredible inspiring realization, was on the question on the role of AIESEC. As for now, I understand the role of AIESEC “as the responsibility of its alumni”. It helps me to understand how I can relate to an organization, which for many years have meant so much to me. Another important realization of mine came as I was preparing for the AIESEC Sweden 60th Anniversary a few months back I reflected on some of the central themes of how I have come to understand leadership. I want to capture it here they are reoccurring in how I strive to relate to my trip in South America. Three central themes emerged and those were clarity, compassion and choice.

These themes are important for me because they inspire me on a daily basis. Everyday, I want to strive towards being clear about my role in the world. Every day I want to recognize and feel responsible that I have a choice and with that, choose to see the best in people, choose to learn from the past, live and act in the present and be inspired by the future. Every day I want to dare to be compassionate towards myself, my peers and to the world.

Having said that, as I am posting this I am preparing for a two weeks trip in the mountains of Mendoza, Argentina. The trip will be about experiencing nature, hike, speak Spanish and be in my relationship. Another way of articulating what these weeks will be about is to practice compassion towards myself, my love and the nature. I shall look forward to capture some of the experience here.

About learning a new language…

2009-01-25T07:57:00.000-08:00

As I am learning a new language I am experiencing that what I know and do is very often articulated through linguistic means. Learning a new language, is in a sense like becoming a child again, and I am experiencing that I am growing in the pace I am improving my capacity to express my linguistic intentions. Having said that, it is with great admiration and respect that I appreciate other means of communication than the spoken. The beauty of learning a language, is the every day tangible learning process I go through and the intimacy through which I get to connect to the people and the culture of the country I am in. Every day I get to talk with people I most probable wouldn't have talked to unless I was not discovering a new language, their language and every day I get to add new words to my vocabulary. It has been incredible to experience the willingness of people to help. My ambition of learning their language becomes their mission. The Spanish language is still a stranger to me and I am still a disaster in speaking it, but I am learning and that is beautiful. Sooner than later I hope to leave a Spanish post on this space.

Correr

2009-01-25T06:48:00.000-08:00

Correr is Spanish and means "to run" - Running has been a central theme the first couple of weeks here in Argentina. Running could be exhausting and avoiding, but it can also be refreshing and a tool to discovery. One of my wishes as I was coming here was to stop running, however, as everything in life, there are always at least two sides of the coin and what I have realized as I have spent the first few weeks here is that running has been a central theme to discovery. This blog is a space for me to articulate some of the discoveries I have as I am running around in South America.