PAI - a woman!

The AIESEC International President was elected. And for the 4th time since 1948, it's a woman! Her name is Gabriela (this name rocks ;o)), she is Romanian and is certainly receiving the best wishes from all of us.

Congratulations, Gabiza!

Compliments at work

A good think also happened last year was the evaluation made with my boss. Although I don't really feel I'm doing a fantastic job, the evaluation was extremely positive, the company is very happy and even invited me to stay longer. They are particularly happy with the ability to see and proactively solve problems, do admin work and easily shift to strategic jobs. Good stuff!

See you around the world, my friends!

Last week, 3 of the AIESEC interns left Sydney: Alenka, Augusto and Jerry, who were working for GE in the last 18 months.

To be honest, it was quite strange, because these guys have been around since I arrived and were quite part of my Australian experience. I'm certainly going to change Alenka's energy, Jerry's chili and Augusto's sense of humor a lot!

Besides saying goodbye, the other strange feeling that arises is for the fact that it's been almost 7 months that I'm here already, therefore in the middle of my experience. Time flies...

Poems and quotes #3 - Mother Theresa

You cannot do great things. You can only do small things with great love.

Mother Theresa

Arts and the new emerging paradigm

Some days ago I went to a beautiful, beautiful dance show, inserted into the Chinese New Year's celebrations and performed by awards winners chinese dancers.

As I was watching and sensing the show, I started connected it to what I've been studying recèntly. Many of the great authors I've been reading - Capra, Senge, Wheatly, etc - relate the newest organisational learning theories with science, especially biology, and nature, generally referring to the non-human aspects of it.

As I saw the chinese dance - and remember my times dancing in a high quality dance group, I figured out that humans also understand what that interdepence and holistic view mean, and constantly express that through art. That's nothing more interdependent than a great dance group: for being successful, it needs a great group of musicians (already depending on each other) and a good amount of dancers, each one with a specific role to play, with no space
for individualism, in the name of harmony and beauty.

It seems like we have a lot to learn with our culture, emotions and intuition. Maybe we should dance more often...

Convergence

Talking about the book (Presence), it's not only fanstastic, but its magic involved me since I touched the book. Look at the story I wrote to AIESEC International recently, for the purpose of a case study.

"This last week I had the opportunity to witness a fantastic moment of convergence. Everything started when I discovered a new great library in Sydney and borrowed a book related to sustainability and learning organisations, subjects I've been studying deeply since a certain point of my AIESEC experience.

From the library, I went directly to the house of the Romanian intern, Salma, who was hosting a Russian night, organised by another intern, Marina.

Arriving there, I met some members of the sustainability learning group we created here in Sydney, who automatically got interested in the book, as well as Mel and Ausra from the national committee of AIESEC in Australia, who recently looked for theoretical references about organisational development, read the book and got absolutely excited about it.

On the next day, Cornelia, the AIESEC International leader of the virtual corporate responsibility team I'm part of, sent us a website as inspiration for our next steps in engaging AIESEC leaders in the initiative, which was based in the exact same concepts.

Breathless with the coincidence, I sent the book recommendation to my Brazilian AIESEC mates, as well as to the CSR Directors of ERM and Philips in Latin American, with whom I worked last year as External Relations Director and who were absolutely thrilled about receiving the indication. They responded right away, asking for a conceptual discussion and for more news from my side.

I guess this little story, happened in 2 days-time, represents a bit what AIESEC has been to me: a fantastic space to discover myself and the world, and especially a place where I can find extraordinary people, who are converging to build something beautiful!

PS: Just as I finish writing this story, I receive a post card from Henrique, alumnus currently in Denmark, inviting me to start a practical entrepreneurial initiative about learning organisations in Brazil. Apparently the building phase has already started!"

Presence, by Peter Senge

I recently started reading a book that is seriously one of the most amazing I've read. Especially because it's connects so well with my moment: integrating sustainability, learning organisations, community impact, spirituality and a search for some sort of way out.

Some quotations about the book:

If you form and hold your intent strongly enough, it becomes true.
Srikumar

Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margared Mead

If you know what's right, you don't need to make decisions. If you know what's right, it's just for you, and you do it.
Ackerman

Do you think you can take over
the universe and improve upon it?
You cannot improve it.
In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired.
In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped.
Less and less is done
Until non-action is achieved.
Tao abides in non-action,
Yet nothing is left undone.
Lao Tzu

And my favorites:

Our capacity for democracy grows from our connection with nature. As we lose that connection, isolation, fear, and the need to control grow - and democracy inevitably deteriorates.

When people who are actually creating a system start to see themselves as the source of their problems, they invariably discover a new capacity to create results they truly desire.
Peter Senge

My new toy

Yes, I finally bought my laptop. It's cute, isn't it?

Curious #4 – chewing gum ban

Did you know that chewing gum was prohibited in Singapore from 1992 to 2004? Apparently the reason is because it brought too many problems, especially in the super modern subway doors, which wouldn’t open and close properly because of the chewed gum left over the sensors.