“You are the leaders and shapers of World Scouting”, Rabbi Peter Hyman to WSB team
Rabbi Peter E. Hyman, an Eagle Scout, the son of a Scoutmaster and father to two Eagle Scouts, gave an inspiring keynote speech at the 2015 World Scout Bureau (WSB) Management Team Meeting in Kuala Lumpur recently.
His views on World Scouting and his optimisim on a strong future for the Scout Movement provided inspiration and motivation to the 70+ colleagues from all nine WSB offices worldwide participating in the meeting.
Rabbi Hyman touched on the changes that are impacting Scouting today, the challenges that are before the Scout Movement, and how each one of the Scout leaders should proactively respond and address the demands of a changing world.
Below are excerpts of his speech:
“You (in your professional role), are the leaders and shapers of World Scouting. Each of you wrestles with the challenge of maintaining and preserving Scouting’s influence,” said Rabbi Hyman.
As global citizens, he continued, “this new world requires us to examine ourselves, reexamine how we operate and determine ‘who we are’, as the most influential youth movement, ever.” Further, he posed a question - “what must we do to ensure the continuity of leadership that is responsive to the demands of a changing world?”
The answer lies within us. Rabbi Hyman avidly expressed that the WSB team is a special group of leaders, although in a professional capacity – committed, enthusiastic, and passionate with the wisdom of strengthening the message of Scouting in the 21st century and beyond.
“Your task is crucial and your work is non-negotiable. You are tasked with seeing what others, at the moment, cannot perceive. You are called to be visionary,” he said.
“How is it possible to envision something that doesn’t yet exist?” Rabbi Hyman musefully asked, and said that “this capacity to imagine worlds that don’t yet exist is perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of the human spirit and the greatest gift given to us”.
Visionary leaders draw upon the gift of imagination, possess commitment to values and exercise moral leadership, Hyman said. Visionary leaders bring energy into form and use it to lead through the power of their vision. They draw on the truths of ageless wisdom and they understand that change is unavoidable.
Rabbi Hyman sees these qualities and characteristics within the WSB Team, “people who give their time and talent to create Scout programmes that change the lives of young people of our world”.
“And when we change those lives for good, when we raise their horizon, connect them to their peers across the globe, we are changing the world,” he said.
Change, Rabbi Hyman, said is essential in our actions to make our visions into reality. He quoted the World Scout Committee Chairperson, João Armando (from his opening address) on the six words leaders should never speak: “we’ve always done it this way”. Had Baden-Powell believed that the world cannot change, we would never be here, asserted Hyman. “Baden-Powell’s vision was transformative… we are the heirs to his vision, beneficiaries of his labour and guarantors of his legacy”.
He concluded his address by saying, “the message of Scouting that we inherited from those who came before us inform and guide us… may we rise to meet the challenges in a world whirling with change… and that we join voices and collectively say “I am a Messenger of Peace” so that the darkness dissolves, the chaos cracks, and a new day for Scouting in the 21st century dawns”.
By Eul Bryan de Gracia