In 2018 I returned to the USA from a summer in Beirut, Lebanon where I had been “remote managing” a human-aid program in Syria. Knew I was going be in the States for an extended period. Did not want to stagnate in the prevailing toxic public discourse.
Developed the concept of “global agility” and the underlying training technique by coaching myself. Started "feeding" my French conversational skills with activities that would bring that "root toward the world" back to health. Once that became a habit, I started "feeding" other aspects of my identity...like my ethnic origin and my Time-Orientation. Nine months later I realized I had created so much value by self-managing so many parts of my identity that I had a service that I could commercialize. So, founded Global Agility Services LLC.
If I have “a political ax to grind” it’s expressed well in this clip from We Were Soldiers.
That is to say that I do not see myself as being on any “side” of the current toxic political deadlock. All US Americans need to ramp up their global agility. We all need to fit better in the world as it is. It is the only way anyone stands a chance of effectively pursuing their self-interest and representing their beliefs and values. You might side with one of the factions or you might be standing on the sidelines. Does not matter. I trust that engaging with the world will separate your political wheat from your chaff (Matthew 3:12).
Personally, I do not see any current political faction as fitting in the world better than any other. We offer our Covalence Conditioning™ to everyone with the hope that “a rising tide will lift all boats.”
Stay well,
Rob Pianka
Note:
It is interesting that the US taxpayer deliberately paid for my own global agility. My father was trained to be a Middle East expert by the US Army, where I was raised. My insights into global agility come mostly from my own taxpayer-funded experiences working with refugees in conflict zones. In a sense, the thousands of US citizens like me are just bringing back the skills that you paid for us to learn and exercise in diplomacy, economic development, and disaster relief.