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Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? Well, for those who don’t know let me share a quick summary:
The parable of the Good Samaritan is told by Jesus in Luke 10:25–37. It is about a Jewish man who was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was stripped of his clothing, beaten, and left half dead alongside the road. First a priest and then a Levite comes by, but both avoid the man. Finally, a Samaritan saw the man and felt compassion for him. Samaritans and Jews generally despised each other, but the Samaritan helped the injured Jewish man. Jesus was telling the parable in response to the question from a lawyer, “Who is my neighbour?” who Leviticus 19:18 says should be loved. In response, Jesus tells the parable, the conclusion of which is that the neighbour figure in the parable is the man who shows mercy to the injured man—that is, the Samaritan. The greatest lesson from this story is that our neighbour is anyone of any race, creed, or social background who is in need.
As I was reflecting on the Good Samaritan story, I was overwhelmed with fond memories of my childhood growing up in a small township in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. I always think that back then, social relations where so much simpler and purer. I don’t know whether it was because I viewed life through the naïve yet pure lenses of a child. But I recall how our neighbours could come home and say “Sanibonani, ninjani? umama ungithumile bethisicela ukunana ushukela” meaning- “Greetings, how are you? Mum has sent me and warmly asked if you could share some sugar with us”.
Our response – we would gladly offer our neighbour the sugar and instances where we lacked something and going to town was too far we knew which neighbours to run too.
What I loved about this experience is that there was no shame in asking for help and receiving help. It was like there is this unwritten law that as neighbours we are dependent on each other. The sugar example is just a small illustration, there are many other greater examples, like how neighbours came to support those who lost their loved ones.
It was a beautiful time to experience that kind of community. Now we live in the big cities where to be honest I don’t even know my neighbours name though we have exchanged greetings a few times. If I lacked something – going to my neighbours for help will probably be the last thing I did – why? Because, we live in the “don’t bother me and I won’t bother you society”
Even years before our continent (Africa) was colonised and we got to hear of the Good Samaritan story, the concept of ‘one hand washing the other’ – Ubuntu has always existed.
I love how author Sindiwe Magona puts it “…human beings are interdependent. It is the indispensable nature of being human. No one is complete or can be completely human without interaction and, to a lesser or greater degree, dependence on another” (Chasing the Tails of My Father’s Cattle; pg 19; 2015)
In the business world, we look at Ubuntu and lessons from the Good Samaritan as just soft issues that don’t affect the bottom line. Well, I beg to differ, whether we choose to admit it or not the core of us is human and history always teaches us to get the basics right before proceeding further.
Even if one is a CEO, as untouchable as that role may seem – but no CEO can be successful without their respective customers, their teams and adherence to the laws of the land they operate in.
So, the enjoy life tip is this: Perhaps what we need is this unwritten ‘neighbourly code’ tattooed in our hearts and minds. This code will ensure that from “Caretaker to Customer” we act in ways that dignify others always.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Please feel free to share at – bongeka@fresh.penthevision.co.za
I was introduced to Neuroscience in the 2nd year of my university studies. Since then, I have had an ‘itch’ to know more about it. So last year, I enrolled in an Introduction to Neuroscience course to satisfy this ‘itch’.
The course covered elements of Neuro-Anatomy, Neuro-Physiology, Neuro-Psychology, Quantitative Electro Encephalogram, Biofeedback and the Neuroscience of Learning.
The aim of the course is to give students an overview of the effect that the interconnection of brain wiring, physiological responses, the external environment have on our personality and behaviour towards life situations. More importantly, the course provides knowledge and techniques on things that one can do to improve brain performance i.e. increase your brain-fitness.
As intriguing as all the other course modules were, the one that struck me the most was Neuroscience of Learning, which maps out your individual Brain Profile. In a portion of the module, they unpack your individual brain inclination. They claim that the question as it relates to intelligence is no longer “Am I smart or dumb?”, the appropriate question to ask is “How am I smart?”. They make the assumption that we are all smart – just in different ways; we are all wired differently and as a consequence we have different inclinations.
An interesting key feature of this module is a “How am I smart?” self-assessment. This assessment seeks to map out your specific intelligence inclination (preference). They assess you across the following intelligence types:
In my self-assessment I scored high on EQ, but scored low on IQ – the latter of which is generally seen as the superior assessment of intelligence. The question I posed to myself was- does this mean I am dumb because I am not mathematically inclined? My answer- of course not. I am fortunate enough to have chosen a career path that does not necessarily require traditional IQ, but requires high levels of EQ. Therefore, I am absolutely suited in my “intelligence” to carry out my role.
The nugget of wisdom I wish to convey is this, too often society dictates that we need to be mathematically inclined to be successful in life. I say we are all wired differently, and have within us a different purpose to fulfil. We cannot all be doctors, nor can we all be entrepreneurs. God has placed within us different inclinations that are linked to His purpose for our lives. It may be cliché, but one should truly do what they love. Not only will you be happier following your natural, God-planted, inclination but you can also be very successful. You also do not need to complete this assessment to know what you love to do, just be true to yourself. The assessment merely confirmed what I already knew about myself.
So, how are you smart?
About the writer:
Lihle is a daughter of the most High God – Jehovah. She is a Change Management specialist who is passionate about Organisational Development and fascinated by Neuro-Psychology. She holds an honours degree in Industrial Psychology. She enjoys musical theatre and outdoor adventure games. She is principled, values spending time with her family and friends. She is pragmatic, empathetic and caring.
*Article picture courtesy: https://www.mcgill.ca/neuroscience/
We have heard some interesting and powerful quotes about change. Some of the ones that stand out for me are:
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
― Leo Tolstoy
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
But as I was reflecting on my experiences both in the work setting and personal space, I just felt that the below image captured human behaviour in the context of change.
Image courtesy of: https://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/change-management/change-management-comic-strips/
The image above captures visually some of the frustrations that I have encountered working with various teams and leaders in different organisations. As a Change Management Specialist, it’s so amazing how many organisations and leaders can say all the amazing and ‘right’ things about how much they believe in change as block one of the image illustrates.
But block two of the image is where you able to separate the sheep from the goats. It’s shocking how people will say all the right things about wanting to change and improve their environments, but as soon as that very change requires them as individuals to change, suddenly people begin to resist. It’s easy for people to want everyone else to change and the environment to change but they themselves are unwilling to change. I suspect that the reason why many projects/ideas that pertain to change don’t always become successful is this issue. Imagine this, if we have an organisation of 50 people and 48 of those are thinking in the above manner, surely nothing will change because you are waiting for the next person and the next person is waiting for the next and so forth.
Block three of the image is perhaps the most eye watering, again some in leadership positions will say the most beautiful things about change, but when you want to engage them further so that they play a leading role in advocating for the change, they are MIA! (Missing in Action).
Simple examples include leaders who don’t respond to your emails, leaders who don’t make time to come to meetings where key decisions need to be made, leaders who play the blame game instead of coming up with solutions, leaders who are constantly “busy” sitting in meetings but with no value add, the list is endless.
I think we can come to a common agreement that anything that doesn’t change eventually dies. Even in our own lives it is eye watering to see how many people say they believe in change but do nothing to improve their lives. There are even instances where change knocks on people’s lives because it’s such an inevitable process and yet still people resist.
I don’t think we should view believing in change as a feel good ‘mantra’. Even in the political scene everyone will be chanting about the ‘dawn of a new day’ when new reign of power ascends the stage. But I am always left in wonder post the charismatic feel good speeches and I always want to truly know, does this leader really believe in change. And the Yes answer doesn’t fully satisfy me. I think most people will relate and say over and above the yes, can we see leaders taking accountability for the things they have said, can they practice daily that which they preach? can there be less elaborate talk and more elaborate action?
You see my friend the proverb remains relevant even today – “Action speaks louder than words!”
We are living in very interesting times with so much access to information and amazing progress by mankind. We witness this progress through technological advancements, human rights movements, business expansion, and so much more. Though these are awesome components of our society, one must admit that they also come with a hefty price tag on the soul. What do I mean by this? Well, in my conversations and observations I have noticed that the pursuit for bigger and better things may cause us to undermine the entire human experience.
In a recent conversation I was having with a dear friend of mine we laughed about this; “over romanticising” of a “spectacular end goal”. Our conversation centred around the idea that so often in our generation everyone is overly ambitious and that’s a beautiful thing, but you find that people don’t live in the NOW, they live fixated on their end goal.
It seems like people are saying to themselves “I will only fully start experiencing the whole human journey when I reach this particular milestone in my life” and I think that can be a ‘dangerous’ way to view the world.
It’s dangerous in a sense that, firstly tomorrow is not promised to anyone, we truly don’t know if we will be alive tomorrow. Secondly, we can undermine other very important aspects of our human development like; spiritual growth, social and romantic relationships, health matters, intellectual expansion etc.
Even in the business world we become so focused on waiting for financial year end to celebrate the previous year’s achievements and we often overlook progress in the quick daily wins. Yes, making profit is a spectacular end and the desired outcome of any business, but in pursuit of that, how about taking a pause and applauding things like fostering a great business culture, implementing all the great ideas and projects well, empowering leaders to do their jobs successfully and that the company values are not just words on a wall but that they lived daily by people in the organisation.
In the words of India Arie,
Life is a journey,
Not a destination,
There are no mistakes,
Just chances we’ve taken
Lay down your regrets cause all we have is now
I am by no means discounting long term goal achievement, but I am just advocating that there is a lot of progress that happens daily that we should celebrate.
International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8 across numerous nations in the world. International Men’s Day is celebrated annually on November 19 in just over 60 countries of the world.
According to the UN there are 195 countries in the world and it’s interesting to note that of these 195, the number that commemorates Men’s day is significantly lower than the number that commemorate Women’s day.
In my own country South Africa, we have a national holiday, August 9 where we take time to celebrate the amazing women of South Africa. But I don’t recall a national holiday to celebrate the amazing men of our country.
I am aware that there will be various arguments that may rise to challenge the statement above. One of the biggest arguments surrounding this is the fact that since the beginning of time, men have dominated every sphere of society and whether we want to admit it or not, even our “modern” society is still built to support men.
Even many religious practices and teachings have been wrongly presented and largely favour the patriarchal agenda.
However, it’s also encouraging to note the great work that has been done to redress the gender/sex issue through movements like feminism, which have their early traces in the 1800s and have significantly evolved into various expressions today.
In South Africa, there are various initiatives to support the girl child and numerous women empowerment initiatives. This is amazing progress for a world that has favoured men for thousands of years. However, I really believe that our generation faces an interesting dichotomy. This dichotomy finds expression in a conversation I was having with a dear friend of mine.
As someone who works closely with young people, my friend echoed her worries on the “over” focus on the girl child, to a point of “neglect” of the boy child. This over focus is leading us into another risk where women are raised to be strong and fully empowered and the men are just left without being empowered with the “right” tools to fully compliment the women to build each other and build our societies together.
I fully understand the continuous effort of building the girl child because of the harsh injustices of the past, but what I am merely also advocating for is; let us not neglect the boy child because if we do we will continue to create an imbalanced society in which one sex is supreme than the other and we will be no different from the oppressive systems that we are challenging. We need great men in our generation and campaigns like #menaretrash don’t help much. We need the full strength of both genders to make our societies great.
There are many great men and I have been fortunate to be surrounded by some in my life and though my writings are about uncovering wisdom in everyday life, I thought let me pause and honour the rare species of great men. I really want to honour them in this piece, though they are indeed a rare species, but none the less when great men show up and they fully take their place, it is an absolute work of art to witness.
To my Daddy, I am the woman that I am today because of your constant unconditional love, you always encourage and believe in me even more than I believe in myself. To my four brothers, I “dig” you guys, your love, your support, your giving and over protection is truly remarkable. My cousin brother whose kindness knows no bounds.
To all my male friends, though you all different in many ways but I love how you show up in the world living a deliberate purposeful life, serving, giving, protecting, loving and so much more…
To my spiritual Fathers, thank you for surrendering your lives for a much greater cause.
Dear PenTheVision Friends
Thank you for being a part of our journey. As PenTheVision, we would like to continue serving you with great articles. As part of our focus for 2018, we want to focus on two major things. Firstly, we would like to get your feedback in terms of how we can improve PenTheVision and we would like you to give us feedback about what to write and do, that will benefit your life journey. Please be on the look out for a survey in your mailboxes, on our blog and social media in the next coming days. Please kindly complete it as honestly as you can.
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I have this very special friend of mine and I was just reflecting on our journey together. When we initially started talking, we misunderstood each other a lot. It was like we were in the “storming phase” of the team development journey. Research suggest that a new team cannot be expected to perform optimally when it first comes together. Literature in team and people dynamics reports that forming a team takes time because members often go through recognizable stages as they change from being a collection of strangers to a united group with common goals. “Bruce Tuckman’s Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning model describes these stages. The storming phase is where people start to push against the boundaries established in the forming stage. This is the stage where many teams fail. Storming often starts where there is a conflict between team members’ natural working styles.” https://www.mindtools.com. I must say my friend and I had our own hectic storming phase.
The more we engaged in dialogue the more I realised that he was forming an inconclusive perception of who I am. I think to people who don’t know me well, I can come across as “weird” and to those who see life through patriarchal lens, they may perceive me to be a feminist. His inconclusive statements were portraying me as a difficult human unwilling to open and yield to understanding other people’s world views. After he had mentioned his statement about how he was going to make me more “human” because I was difficult, I was mad. A few seconds after our conversation I started to think that perhaps he was right about me. It’s amazing how we can hear nine reviews about how exceptional we are, and hear the one negative comment and it dominates our minds.
Though my friend and I have made tremendous progress in our relationship and I suspect we always bound to conflict in some way as he often says that we come from two very different worlds. However, I must say that one of the most liberating things for me has been realizing that we cannot stay mad at people for saying certain things about us. Sometimes people don’t have the “language” to express what they are perceiving or experiencing, and they will use the closest, and not necessarily the most accurate words based on their current vocabulary.
One of my personal strategic goals is to learn daily and not allow statements that people make about me to become my “truth” because the reality is no one lives my life the way I do.
Even as we still in the early stages of 2018, I want us to guide against and protect our hearts/spirit from falling into “30 seconds of weakness”. My definition of 30 seconds of weakness is those few moments in time when we choose to take, accept and believe what other people say about us more than what we believe we truly are.
I love the proverb that says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” Proverbs 23:7 New King James Version (NKJV). You are what you truly believe you are.
What creates the context for your life is your spirit not your brain. Your spirit is the better part of you and I choose to draw from that every time I face 30 seconds of weakness so that I can be sharpened to better serve humanity.
Constructive criticism is a great gift, but depending on where you are in your life, it can sometimes come across as a great pain. Recently someone was giving me feedback about something very dear to me. The feedback came packaged with both positive and negative comments. As the dialogue progressed, there was a moment where I felt that my character/ability was being challenged rather than the idea. Generally, its very difficult to “detach” yourself from your work but I was reminded during that moment that we have a continual responsibility to live life wide open for growth. In many ways when people take time to thoroughly apply themselves and give feedback about our “craft/s” it is because they are well meaning.
In my opinion, our traditional socialization is not geared towards growth. However, we have a continual responsibility to lean towards progress, and the greatest challenge is that it requires us to open yourselves up to “expert” voices that come in different forms. Sometimes it’s not easy to hear what you are not doing well because as people we often just want to feel good about what we do.
When someone takes time to be forensic with you, perhaps we need to begin to see that as a great compliment. I am learning that growth is not a destination but a part and parcel of my lifetime. So, for us not get emotionally scarred by some solid feedback we need to adopt certain practices;
My dear friend, you have a continual responsibility to just be you. The you that is continuously evolving to be great.
My parents and I were driving and listening to the news on radio. As we were listening, we noticed that the newsreader used designated political titles for all the leaders she was referring to except one. When she mentioned the President of the Republic of South Africa, she kept on referring to him as “Mr Zuma”. My parents were taken aback by this and they mentioned how shocked they were that this newsreader did not refer to Jacob Zuma as President Jacob Zuma.
Come to think of it, there is sadly not much respect in the nation for our president. I hardly hear any one put the title president before his first name. I know that the public is tired of the drama that has surrounded his presidency and perhaps struggle to see any good in him. I am also aware that the South African context is not a unique case in that there are numerous nations in the world who are not happy with their Presidents. I think of the United States of America, though there are mixed perceptions about Donald Trump, I have heard various news stations consistently refer to him as President Donald Trump.
Has the presidency title lost its “honour” in South Africa? I recall a conversation I had with my younger sister recently. I tried to make her feel guilty for not showering and changing into clean clothes. I said to her, “Please love yourself, go take a shower and change those shabby clothes, what would you do if the president came and you looked like that?” Her response, “Which president? Ours…hahahaha…I couldn’t care less.” My sister is a born free, by the way.
I usually shy away from writing and talking about politics because it’s one of those never-ending dialogues and truly speaking I prefer leaving the intricacies of political activity to the political analysts. However, I thought perhaps let me pen some of the questions that are on my mind. Maybe the President will one day speak the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
How do I feel about President Jacob Zuma? Well, I respect President Jacob Zuma because I was raised to respect my elders. I respect him as a man made in the image of God, the creator. I respect him as a human being because as a self-proclaimed Human Rights Activist, I believe that he too has inalienable rights. I respect him because my faith teaches me to pray for leaders in government.
We have seen through the media scandals how the paradox of the honourable title is losing its honour. Long before his inauguration, we were informed of the corrupt controversial relationship that President Jacob Zuma shared with Schabir Shaik. More troubling information surfaced around the President’s involvement in the arms deal.
After being inaugurated we came to learn of the various successful attempts to weaken once previously independent prosecutorial institutions for the President’s own gain. And of course, the heart-breaking revelations on Nkandla in the Public Prosecutors report.
I have read a few books on President Jacob Zuma political journey and have witnessed the various media and social media campaigns about him and these portray a very unpleasant depiction of one of “Umkhonto wesizwe’s” heroes.
Mr President please allow me to ask these questions. I know that this information is not new to you, our parliament has become a sight for entertainment. Numerous times opposition parties have asked you to account for the scandals that surround you, you remained silent and indifferent. You have been investigated countless times, found to be in the wrong and yet no justice served at the end of the day.
To me it seems like you are this super human where nothing sticks to you. I would humbly like to know – who are you really, Mr President?
I wonder what you are truly passionate about. Is it better education in our country? Is it land reform for those stripped of what was birth fully and rightfully theirs? Is it seeing a progressive economy?
When you lay down to sleep what do you think about? When you awake what is the first thing that comes to your mind? You are human after all.
I consider myself part of those who want to work to make South Africa a better country. I believe that your generation did tremendous work in giving us the baton of freedom. Yes, you fought in the struggle against Apartheid and in many ways, I am grateful for some of the opportunities that came in post-Apartheid South Africa.
But I worry Mr President that some of the decisions you have made will undo the great foundation that many of the great freedom fighters lost their lives for. I am more concerned about our generation and the next, what legacy will we leave for them? Will there be a democratic South Africa where human rights are not just words on a page but truly lived out in state institutions and where leaders are able to surrender their greed for the benefit of all, so I ask you again Mr President, who are you really?
