Being a pioneer

It's been one year since i started my internship with Artemisia. Since Social Business is a relatively new area, one of the phrases that I've used the most during this time is that we are "developing a new field". Today I've discovered some elements of what this means, by participating in a strategic planning meeeting with the whole Artemisia team in Brazil.

1. however much time you spend trying to find answers, there will always appear more questions
2. it's important to keep an open mind and challenge your own paradigms regularly

It's interesting because i believed i had developed this understanding in AIESEC, through my MC and AI experiences. I thought that i was comfortable, even was at my best, working in such circumstancs. Yet several times today i became frustrated, only later realizing that this frustration came from me forgetting these useful lessons.

In AIESEC, although countries and LCs often had very different realities, I could be sure of some fundamental elements of my work, because the organization had 60years of experience in designing, testing, refining and replicating its programs. I had dozens of real examples from my own personal network to underpin my ideas.

Now in Artemisia I'm discovering what its like to work in an environment where your very mission relates to something new, something untested. You need to constantly test your theories - even ones that seem most obvious - in the real world; to ask how and why the reality you observe is different than the one that you expected. You need to be open to challenge not only operational matters but fundamental beliefs and paradigms.

It's incredibly challenging. It requires maturity, patience and humility. It's provoking a lot of reflections about my own behaviours and attitudes. And I feel incredibly lucky to be walking on this journey with such talented, committed and caring people.