Courage 💪🙌😍

I skimmed this question earlier, and now it came back to me while I was listening to the audiobook of Active Hope by Joanna Macy. She uses the image of synergy where geese fly in a V-formation: the birds in front carry the heaviest load, so they naturally take turns leading. Leading not as status or identity, but as a temporary, more demanding role that circulates for the benefit of the whole, allowing both contribution and rest. Considering how mandates are installed in many leadership positions, maybe we didn’t fail at leadership because the idea was wrong — but because we asked humans to "behave like geese" without creating the conditions geese have: exchange without blame, without power hoarding, and with real collective support behind those who step to the front?

Cool idea. I am at the end of December, so also Capricorn 😊

It is integrity for me too, defined as the constant calibration between what I learn, what I know, and how I live, with lot of trial and errors along the way 😅

@Nadene Canning In my personal view, I’d just add a nuance to the idea of “being right.” Integrity is about continuously trying to be right, while knowing I never fully am because of the limits of my perspective. That’s why, for me, integrity also includes regularly updating my viewpoints and actions as my understanding evolves.

This brings back memories 😍. In 2018 I took part in a 10-day accelerated UNLEASH Innovation Lab in Singapore, where 1,000 young people from over 100 countries worked on SDG solutions. I was in the SDG6 track. The process was intense and pretty sleepless — problem framing, ideation, prototyping, testing, implementation… and honestly, most of us spent most of the time just trying to truly understand and frame the problem 🤦‍♀️ Back then, fresh out of my PhD, I was so focused on things being “technical and solvable” that the mindfulness elements our facilitators brought in felt unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and (I’ll admit 🙈) like they were “wasting time” I thought should go to solutions. Looking back now, especially after the last couple of years of diving deeply into inner development, I can really see how essential that was — and how much of an opportunity I missed back then. The way you’re integrating inner development and SDGs feels so powerful and so needed. If I’d had mentors like the two of you back then, I might have started that journey much earlier ❤️💪 Wishing you and the students a meaningful and inspiring experience!