Day 3 of the Workshop – Picture credit: Youth in Landscapes initiative
“Ones’ destination is never a place but a new way of seeing things” –Henry Miller
Arrival
It was my first trip to Europe and I was anxious to arrive in Paris to participate in the Youth in Landscapes Initiative. My bags were packed, my travel documents were ready and I was ready to go. After a 5 hour delay (sigh) and a 9 hour flight I arrived safely at Charles de Gaulle airport.
My thoughts by this time were revolving around what to expect from the leadership training workshop, what the experience at the Global Landscapes Forum would be like and most importantly, would my team get along?
The first day of the YIL training workshop helped me to answer many of these questions especially because the moment I met all my team members I knew it was going to be an exciting 6 days. As the workshop progressed I realised that these 9 other youth innovators were not only smart and passionate about their work but were persons who also knew how to have fun.
Check In
The Youth in Landscapes Leadership workshop proved to be 4 days of interaction, “edu-tainment” and teamwork as we were encouraged to not only work as teams on our individual pitches but also to engage with the other innovators, share our experiences, learn from each other and reflect on the lessons learnt.
Personally, I considered myself as having experience both in the research community (academia) as well as in local farming communities and was thus capable of understanding things from both perspectives. This was helpful for me in understanding the gaps that existed across the different sectors and further realised the need for the establishment of a Landscapes Academy.
Local knowledge, partnerships across different sectors, accessibility and affordability all arose as issues that needed to be addressed to ensure that individuals are capable of taking a holistic approach to “thinking landscapes”. While we often understand that different countries will face similar challenges, stories and case studies help us to better put these into perspective and the stories shared by my team members of their respective landscape issues helped me to better understand the issues on the ground in different nations.
This Landscapes Academy upon which our pitch was based, would prove to be a multidisciplinary and unique space for knowledge sharing where organisations would be able to contribute and access information complementary to their work. As a pitcher in the Dragon’s den, I realized that teamwork and time management were the most effective tools to ensure that we effectively conveyed the idea for this academy and the applause at the end of our pitch concluded that we did in fact manage to pull this off very well.
Duty Free
This initiative provided a place for collaboration, cohesion and communication and it was interesting for me to learn from these young professionals not only of the issues affecting them but also of their cultures, traditions, motivations and goals. The smiles, laughter, disagreements and confused faces all contributed to the experiences we all shared and I have learnt three very important lessons:
Listen twice as much as you speak: Oftentimes we are all saying the same thing-“Active listening “becomes useful in such cases.
It’s ok to be comfortable with discomfort: Unfamiliar weather, food and environments may not allow us to be in our comfort zone. It is however important to be able to adapt.
Agreeing to disagree is easier said than done: When we hold true to our ideas it is often times hard to reach a consensus however we have to oftentimes come to a decision we are all comfortable with.
Departure
In conclusion, I would like to thank all the organizers who made this opportunity possible. The friendships I have made, the selfies I have taken and the lessons I have learnt are all testament to your great work. Like all good things, this component of the initiative has come to an end however please be reminded the Landscapes train is moving. Are you on-board? Let’s all do this BUT together.
