None of us is as smart as all of us
The Value of Community
I am writing this note at a leadership camp with 12 learner from Altmont Technical High School in Soweto and 3 of their educators. This particular leadership model is based on the premise that we cannot put greatness in humanity, but our role as practitioners is to elicit it for greatness is already there as was said by John Buchan. This programme is currently championed by Columba 1400 South Africa and it is closely linked to its mother organization in Scotland Columba 1400.
Through this initiatives young people get to interrogate certain pro-social values with the hope of internalizing them in order to foster healthy, striving and successful schools and communities. Most importantly this process is about the individual young person. It is about assisting young people identify their mission in life and clarify their values and allow these to be an internal navigational system that will help them when faced with complicated circumstances.
In every academy, we highlight the importance of living in a more cohesive society. And in order to live in such a society, we need to be willing, as individuals, to embrace community values like co-operation , peace, love and above all Ubuntu, which an African value that simply means I am because you are. The crux of this value is that we cannot claim individual success while compromising the survival of the community. In my opinion, the survival of our schools, communities, societies, and country depends on all our willingness to come to terms with the fact that None of us is as smart as all of us.
Just thinking
Olefile
In : Leadership
Olefile is a creative communicator, strategist and facilitator with an enormous experience in working with people of diverse backgrounds. He is part of Young & Able’s Dynamic Team of speakers and consultants. He started his people development career with Youth For Christ in 1995, where he traveled throughout South Africa doing lifeskills in schools, using creative mediums such as drama and dance. Olefile was also part of a very successful International Musical Band, Khanyisa touring USA and Slovakia in 2001. He has worked with The Salvation Army where he assisted in training teams and youth leaders in creative communication. He currently works with Young & Able as a consultant.
He is involved in leadership development and is an excellent facilitator of creative concepts for strategy development and personal creativity. As a speaker he has dynamic stage presence and an ability to relate to big and small crowds.
