Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Hi there.
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So this is my Emma approach reflection, let's get started.
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So what three aspects of Emma resonate with me and
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I had to say definitely the self regulation in the
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self awareness, the reflect portion from learn, reflect, decide and
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act. I find that self awareness and reflecting the self
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is one of the most important aspects of a Emma,
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just because how we perceive the world can definitely be
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part of or can be affected by our insecurities or
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parts of ourselves that we haven't quite addressed and when
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we're in situations like for example, in the humanitarian sector
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where we're dealing with really intense crisis or conflict situations,
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being able to understand what's happening for ourselves, can better
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help us in regards to how we treat others.
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A second part is of course the learning, the participatory
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assessment opportunity that bringing in information information that may have
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maybe years old, maybe in current events just yesterday, but
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bringing that information in and being open to that learning
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to me, I find so refreshing as a leader, I
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really want to make sure that I am doing that
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for myself, but also when I'm in a team where
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the leader is doing that, I feel so much more
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open, so much more encouraged or empowered to be able
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to do the work at hand and then of course
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the idea of readjusting or redefining the problem and I
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kind of put this either under decider act, I think
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maybe even decide would be more so, but the readjusting
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to redefining the problem really helps too.
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Cut the crisis or conflict up into manageable bite size
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bits. So of course, if we look at a huge
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problem, like, oh, you know, the civil unrest in Afghanistan
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right now, Well, that's huge.
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But if we can redefine the problem, okay, we're looking
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at gender violence specifically right now, or maybe this is
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also part of, you know, looking at boundaries and working
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with boundaries that we have.
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But that redefine really helps to make small manageable options
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for uh for leaders or for a leader, like I
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hope to be Moving Forward.
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What three Humanitarian Principles or Standards Resonate with me.
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And for me, I first said the first principle is
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humanity. And of course actors shouldn't intervene without should intervene
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without seeking advantage.
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Um and I think that's such a huge part because
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when you think about humanity for myself, I really think
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about, you know, human human connection, you know, the connection
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of the heart, the fact that we're all here together
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and when we can look to each other for collective
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assistance or aid or community, that's really how we're going
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to move for world forward as a civilization.
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And so for me, coming back to that core principle,
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that first principle of humanity continues to inspire me in
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regards to my work.
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And it can even be a sort of a reminder,
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um even on small scales or large scales that at
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the end of the day, what matters most is one
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another. And I'm also part of that equation, but I'm
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also just a part of that equation.
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Um, and then moving on to humanitarian standard five, so
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complaints are welcomed and address.
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So this is a huge one.
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Um, if you've ever been on a team where the
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leader is not open to, to feed back up or
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of any kind, let alone a complaint, um, you might
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know how stagnant that energy can be and how difficult
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it is and how many workarounds or the way you
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have to talk to somebody and you know, these little
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sort of so political kind of office politics kind of
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dynamics can be so arduous and they can directly impact
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the project as we all know.
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And so really coming back to complaints are welcome to
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address and of course it can be in a humanitarian
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situation where you're having the community members on the ground,
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they actually, you know what, this isn't going to work
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with the water delivery, we needed to be this day
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or we needed to be this way or whatever it
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is. You know, that's also really important because at the
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end of the day, we're coming back to the principle
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of humanity.
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We're coming back to the fact that they matter just
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as much as I matter and they need to be
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treated with the same respect and dignity that I am
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already receiving.
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And so complaint isn't necessarily disrespect complaint is something that
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can be moved or can help move everyone forward.
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And so how we see complaints really matters.
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The last standard that really resonated with me of course,
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was was the humanitarian standard eight which his staff are
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supported to do their job effectively and are treated fairly
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and equitably.
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Again, this is a really, really, really, I would say
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far more pointed standard than possibly any of the other
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standards including the core standards because again, the team that
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is delivering the personnel that are operational Izing a project
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or program and putting it on the ground, they need
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to be supported to do their job effectively, as the
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standard says.
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And if we have poor leadership, if we are not
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really keeping them safe or if we are, you know,
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dealing with issues of prejudice within the team, beat racism,
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sexism, or you know, any of those really bad ISMs
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that's going to affect performance.
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And if if the team is affected, you know, if
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if if the if the team is not functioning at
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its highest level of efficiency and capacity, it's affecting the
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performance which affects lives, right?
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And so again, coming back to that standard, I think
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it is often overlooked, but I think it's an extremely
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important one.
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If a team is not, you know, is not working
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well together, that's going to have dire consequences for the
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communities that are in need next, how might I use
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this knowledge, the knowledge of am I right?
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The learn reflect, decide the act, looking at the humanitarian
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standards, looking at the minimum standards of protection principles are
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so many wonderful um, bodies of work in regards to
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how to deliver really meaningful projects or programmes in ways
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that are needed.
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And so for me, I said any group work dynamic,
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this doesn't have to just be in the humanitarian sector
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which can be used professionally.
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But any group work dynamic, it could be that you
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are planning a could even be something like planning a
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family trip where everybody lives in different parts of the
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country, you know, checking in is there room for assessment?
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You know, someone wants to go really putting their foot
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down, wants to go particular place.
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Like is there a way to sort of navigate that
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or in casual conflict tension?
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Sorry, that might be a good example of a couple
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of friends are arguing about vaccine passports.
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Well, you know, utilizing information and being able to use
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it on the micro is fascinating to me.
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You know, the adaptive management approach where if we say
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for example, we our dance school and the vaccine passports
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have come out.
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Do we Say 12 plus need their vaccine passports?
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Or do we keep to the welcome back protocols where
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all students are allowed to participate in physical activities without
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mask on up until the age of their adulthood.
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So there's these questions that come up and again, you
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know, this knowledge can be used more existing systematically and
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practically. But the idea of reflection of redefining the problem
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and then acting can literally work anywhere in your life
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truly. Um, and so coming over to troubleshooting.
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So I was able to sort of test out some
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of the Emma tactics or techniques during this course, which
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I found extremely valuable mostly because it showed me what
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the cost is of doing an am approach.
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So one thing was resources, the amount of times we
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met, right?
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And of course for us, there was no money in
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regards to making having us meet for classwork or whatever.
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But if this was ours, if this was office hours,
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if we had a certain amount of budget, you know,
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there's money there, that that that's that's something that comes
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up and can be a huge stressor on groups and
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teams and then of course the capacity to do so.
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So psychologically speaking again, coming back to self reflection, self
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awareness, and self regulation, how well or how good are
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you at being able to regulate yourself in order to
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be open and understanding and receptive to the rest of
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the group.
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And you know, for us, we were all just, you
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know, students doing a masters in Canada right, that kind
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of stress though, there is stress is very different than
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being on the ground.
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There is active bombing in the area, you're trying to
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get water to people, you're trying to get food to
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people that is a very different type of psychological stress
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And so how can we keep ourselves open, keep ourselves
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open to learning and being actively reflecting on ourselves and
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assessing and engaging participants when we are So at the
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cusp of violence.
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So that's a sort of a question that I sort
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of sit with.
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And I think it's an interesting one.
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Again, tension and group and abandoning ship.
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So this kind of comes back to tension.
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So again, in regards to this class, you know, we
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were able to meet once a week.
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Some people weren't able to meet every every week.
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But what I found quite interesting is the people who
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couldn't meet each time we met Started to get antsy
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or more stress coming to the deadline of assignment number
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two. And they said, well, you know what, we don't
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need to do this actually, we don't need to do
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this part of the assignment.
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You know what?
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I think we're doing too much by creating the Haiti
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example or you know, I don't think we need to
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include all nine standards, you know, and sort of these
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aspects of them taking aspects of leadership or struggling for
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leadership um to try to hold it because they weren't
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feeling comfortable or confident in the trajectory of the of
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us getting it done for the deadline and trying to
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hold that space where your understanding to those members, but
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also then trying to continue to steer the project close
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back to what we had discussed as groups and meetings
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and to you know cross that deadline across that finish
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line in the way that we had sort of originally
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conceptualized and so troubleshooting I found so interesting.
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And again the difference between here we are, we're in
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a domestic situation, it's not life or death.
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You know, we're wanting to get this masters and we
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wanted to do well in the course but we never
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really met each other before.
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We might not really meet each other again after this,
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we're not sure.
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Um and how different it is from wanting to get
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a good grade to trying to save hundreds of people's
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lives. Right?
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So again the troubleshooting is I think the approach is
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a phenomenal approach.
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But that question of how can we keep it up
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um in in an environment where there is so much
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violence or or psychological stress and physical stress and I
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think that it really does.
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You do have to be a Masters and you do
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have to be an expert and I would say that
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as you do it you become better and better at
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anticipating what might happen before.
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And again, coming back to that, I am a approach,
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what have we learned so far already.
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What can we apply to this situation already?
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How do we really define this problem?
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How do we start this team?
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We've just landed in South Sudan, what do we do
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from here?
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How where do we go, who are we collaborating with
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other other I N G.
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O. S all the way to you know, deciding, okay
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this is what we're going to do and and then
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acting on it and acting on it efficiently.
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Any whom I really hope you've enjoyed my reflection.
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Um Here are some references that of course I've pulled
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on and of course I've been pulling from other readings
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in the course as well.
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But these were ones that I think were directly related
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to the things I've spoken about.
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Um and it was so nice to have uh have
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this course with you, David and thank you so much.