Newsletter, End of Year 2022

By Jane Drake

In November, the Center team returned in person to Southeast Asia after a 3-year absence due to the pandemic. It was wonderful to be back at the British School of Jakarta (BSJ) working with some of our most experienced Compassionate Systems Student Ambassadors, as well as local Compassionate Systems Master Practitioners, and educators newly learning about the Compassionate Systems from around the region. We had over 80 attendees either attending in person or virtually, some joining the Zoom in satellite groups from Hong Kong and China.

Our tech team took the hybrid experience to a new level, seamlessly integrating the satellite groups attending virtually. Their live production brought the “zoomies” into the room in living color, and the combination of both in-person and Zoom breakouts across all formats really enhanced everyone’s experience. This satellite approach was initiated by Angele Law (Class of 2020-21) and Jennifer Ho (Class of 2020-21), two of our Compassionate Systems Master Practitioners based in Hong Kong. They brought together over 20 participants in a local venue in Hong Kong. We believe their success could pave the way for others wanting to provide in-person Center-facilitated introductory workshops in their local sites. 

The feedback from Jakarta participants was full of appreciation and inspiration. A highlight of the workshop was the visit by BSJ Compassionate Systems Student Ambassadors. This group is one of our longest-running ambassador groups who were first introduced to Compassionate Systems during one of our 2019 introductory workshops. They really blew everyone’s minds with their depth of understanding and practice around Compassionate Systems. They began by leading a short grounding and then shared their current reality and aspirational icebergs around their school’s wellbeing program. Wellbeing is a central focus for the school. The students were appreciative of this commitment and their own part in helping to develop the wellbeing program. They also had plenty of ideas around how it could improve and additional ways to enhance wellbeing at the school.  

I loved the moment when one student asked, “Have you done reinforcing loops?” The student responded to the “no” response with a spontaneous, precise and extremely concise description of reinforcing and balancing loops before casually continuing with her presentation! In addition to bringing in the Compassionate Systems Student Ambassadors, we also integrated a brief site development section in the workshop, helping teams think about how to integrate Compassionate Systems in their school sites.

The region now boasts 27 Compassionate Systems Master Practitioners based across Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Jordan, Iraq and India. This wonderful group has come together to form their own regional strategy team to support the growth of the work in the region. In addition to organizing and hosting the Compassionate Systems Asia-Pacific Community Calls, they will be providing workshops, gatherings and events across the region and working in partnership with the Center to bring Center programs and events into the region including further introductory workshops and an aspiration to host a regional contemplative training program and conference. Who knows, perhaps there will be a Certification Program for Compassionate Systems Master Practitioner hosted in the region in the future?

 

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Jane Drake
Managing Director | Center for Systems Awareness