There were two people chopping wood. One continues to work without a break, and the other seems to be taking breaks.
Interestingly, people who take a break are more productive. That is because their work is far more productive than workers who continue to work without taking a break. Why?
The secret is people take a break to sharpen the saw. Meanwhile, those who work without rest continue to work and do not realize that the saw is dull. No matter how hard he works, the results will not be optimal without the support of a sharp saw.
Steven Covey adopted the principle of sharpening saws in his legendary book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This story describes hard work versus intelligent work. Unfortunately, hard work does not always mean maximum results. We don’t realize that our productivity is decreasing, not because we are not working hard.
The effectiveness of our work drops due to the fact that the tools we use are dull. That’s where we need to take a break to take another look at our skillset and toolset. First, ensure all instruments are working correctly.
‘Sharpening the saw’ is what was happening by the 28 organizations in the K-Hub Fellowship. This event was held by the K-Hub PVE Community led by PeaceGen. In this event, the representatives of CSO (Civil Society Organization) honed their skills in technology and data.
We invited participants to review how valuable data is in reading reality. With the data, we can challenge assumptions. Without this mapping capability, CSO’s work can lose context.
Three junior high schools ‘sharpened their saw’ and collaborated against school intolerance in April. Forty-eight students from Yahya Christian Junior High School, Peacesantren Welas Asih, and SMPN 17 Bandung met after completing the 12 Basic Values of Peace learning initiated by PeaceGen.
They did not stop learning these lessons; they also collaborated to create works in the form of comics, infographics, mini-lessons, short stories, and podcasts that voice the message of peace. Participants were divided into small groups consisting of students from the three schools and different backgrounds.
After learning the values of peace and creating works that promote peace, they finally had the opportunity to meet offline with the other students and learn more about peace at Breaking Down the Walls Day or BDW Day. On BDW Day, they were challenged to break down prejudices of different schools, ethnicities, and religions. This activity was meaningful for them.
At the same time, PeaceGen held exceptional and intensive training for the victims of terrorism acts and collaborated with a government institution, the Witness and Victim Protection, and UNODC in Bali.
The training was the second collaboration with the Witness and Victim Protection Institution, which had trusted PeaceGen to train the victims. However, after the first training was successful, even in a shorter time, they requested a longer time in the movement to provide and give a better impact on the participants or victims.
With the Self Love module, a derivative module of the 12 Basic Values of Peace, the trainers from Peace Academy encourage victims to understand the six steps to make peace with themselves. This training is enough to provide messages from participants, such as security who used to be church guards during the bombing incident at Surabaya. Nowadays, he accepts the incident as a part of his past.
In May, PeaceGen was trusted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology to ‘sharpen the saw’ of 1,200 lecturers in the Modul Nusantara program. They were encouraged to navigate the oceans of the archipelago. As a result, they learned various mindsets and skill sets around the themes of global diversity, critical thinking, and empathy. In addition, we provided the lecturers with a toolset that will enrich the student mentoring methods.
This program is part of the ‘Pertukaran Mahasiswa Merdeka’ program, which will reach 15,000 students from various corners of the archipelago.
With the saw-sharpening process, we hope to be sharper in work to prevent violent extremism and to build peace. So the incredible work in this sector will have a more tangible impact, and good practices will become more attractive.
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