By Kodwo Brumpon
“A person who carries responsibility also receives blame.” – Kenyan proverb
The explosion in knowledge has given us insights into the fact that our actions and inactions affect all of us. We understand how the neglect of one group of people affects us all in the long run. Likewise, our insensitivity fuels hatred and violence in others, our failure to act creates feeding grounds that breed corruption and misdemeanours.
We are all a part of a highly interactive global environment and every situation you find yourself in demands that you respond. The how and what you do determines how fluid the interaction becomes.
We are all responsible for ourselves and for each other, for the environment and our social, economic and political structures. This is not just a call for action; it is a reminder of our place in society. In earnestly, what is the essence of your humanity if you cannot be act responsibly towards yourself and all others, including your surroundings?
Listen to all the entire buzz about the environment and climate change, it has to do with our very own survival and yet only a handful of people are responding to the fight to save mother earth. Is this not ironic? What is the point of mastering all the skills and talents that society demands if you simply lock it up in your head and not be responsive to your environment?
Since the day you were born, you have sought for and found tons of knowledge to enable you design and provide holistic experiential solutions. You have trained yourself in more ways than you can remember, and it fills you with pride.
Did you do all this because you were told to, or you did it to be empowered to respond to the stimuli around you? Why then are you So why hide it? The world does not know about what you have inside, unless you become responsive. If you are not responding to your surroundings, then it literally means you are non-existent, you are dead to the world.
Nobody lives in isolation or in a different world, we all live in one world and what happens in one part of the world has a cumulative effect on another part. Your response to the stimuli around you lays the foundation for tomorrow. But most importantly, the survival and prosperity of all of us depends on your positive responsiveness to your surroundings. Responding is a quality of being human.
You always need to reaction in some form in order to interact. Every form of reaction is you responding to stimuli around you. Everything you do is your response to the stimuli around. But how positive is that response? What impact would your response have on your surroundings?
The object of your attitude is to encourage you to be positively responsive to your surroundings. You need to take seize every little opportunity to make a positive impact. That can only be possible if you first respond to your surroundings. For most of us, our focus is only on ourselves.
We only respond to the ecosystem, when we feel the tick against our skin. Such a self-absorbed character has a negative effect on you and on society as a whole. You cannot solely focus on yourself; it defeats the very essence of education and intelligence.
Every situation provides you with an opportunity to be great. As someone once said, ‘never miss an opportunity to be remarkable.’ Being remarkable means doing something worthy of a remark. In order to do, you have to respond positively to the situation. And not only that, but your response must be impressive.
Most of us are living in a state of trance. We see a world that just revolves around us, not a world we are part of. We do not respond to this world and we barely have anything to show for that. Some of us have not imprinted our signature on this world yet.
This is an appeal to connect you with your earthly citizenship duties. But I want to assure you that, it is one that best serves your interest and the interest of all others. It is a call to invoke your citizenry obligations and skills.
Your social awareness and community involvement are being summoned to be a part of your drive to develop holistic solutions. Your right to creatively designing holistic solutions imply a sense of responsibility to the world, and as always posterity will honour you for your effort…
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Kodwo Brumpon is an executive coach at Polygon Oval, a forward-thinking Pan African management consultancy and social impact firm driven by data analytics, with a focus on understanding the extraordinary potential and needs of organisations and businesses to help them cultivate synergies, that catapults into their strategic growth, and certifies their sustainability.
Comments, suggestions, and requests for talks and training should be sent to him at [email protected]
