It was Friday 10 September 2010 and time for the second Shindenkan RR Camp – RR Camp stands for Ryugi/Ryuha Camp for chief instructors by invitation. As usual, I had to pick up Kimu Sensei at 11.00 and as always he was happy and in a good mood and said to me: "I'm hungry and if we hurry we can have lunch"...
The scene:
One may ask oneself why the holding of RR Camp 10.2 had to take place only 14 days after RR Camp 10.1? Well, the short answer is that it had become a necessity because the Chief Instructor team had not kept the high gear that we had agreed between ourselves and with Kimu Sensei at RR Camp 10.1!
We had focused exclusively locally – Hmm..
Physical training 1
At this training camp we started with a physical training session and we showed up dressed for training and just like last time, Kimu Sensei talked to us one at a time. I immediately thought that I would be put back on the bike and that it would be really hard.
The turn also came to me: "Well" said Kimu Sensei."What did you do last time"! "I was cycling" I replied, knowing that now something would come to push me. "Today you must run for 25 minutes and you must have an average of 12.5 km per hour"
After this we continued through 6 machines where we had to run all the exercises in a frequency of 2 seconds out and 4 seconds back - it was a really good acid workout.
Then the scene was set!
Recap
Afterwards we met in plenary and we were all expectant when Kimu Sensei went through a recap on RR Camp 10.1. After this came the first dilemma, we were faced with the question:
There had been 2 episodes between RR Camp 10.1 and 10.2, where I, as head instructor, had been challenged to take leadership – that is, in addition to the local!
What was the main takeaway from RR Camp 10.1?
How much have YOU individually taken in the main conclusion?
All change starts with YOU, so if YOU don't take the main conclusion from one Camp to the other - there is NO development! – nor leadership development.
Inside recap.
After this start, it was time to bring up the main conclusion again, how did it go with my illusions, with my implementation of our motto: "thought, word and action". I must honestly confess that I had not taken in the main conclusion - individually - that is, in short:
Although I had worked a lot with leadership development, I had actually forgotten an important step – being a leader myself.
In short, I had participated in a group with awareness of our role as recipient and giver and recognized that there were more things I could do, but I had not taken it in properly - individually - that is, in myself.
It showed that – when I am with myself, I forget the part with the others and when I am with the others I forget the part with myself – that is, forget the whole.
It was too bad, because that was what RR Camp 10.1 had been about
I had NOT been humble enough!
Humility – is it macho?
Humility – what the hell… are we going with it? That's when we train Karate - Isn't it? This is where we have to learn to defend ourselves against an opponent. You cannot defend yourself with humility!
There is not much macho about humility or is there…
If humility means submission, then it is not macho, or if humility means abdication of responsibility, then it is not macho either.
But if with humility it is understood that I know myself and understand that there is something greater than myself. And if it is humbly understood that because I have the ability and competence, I also have an obligation to fulfill my role in Honbu-dojo's strategic plan.
A role that involves leadership development locally, as well as in the federation and honbu as well as in myself. so if it is humbly understood that I fulfill this role - then it's really ok macho.
Because this is about thinking, speaking and being in wholes, not being separate from myself or others or the outside world - all things are now and I can make one difference.
Hm.. so what am I waiting for?
RR Camp 10.2
RR Camp 10.2 was a hard camp where I was challenged - in a good way and I had to exert myself (or my intellect) to retain as much as I could.
After this RR Camp, I have a beginning to understand the scope of Honbu's strategic plan 2010-2015 and how important it is to the future of Shindenkan.
