On a “normal” year, early August, for business academics (about 10,000 of us) meant attending the Academy of Management (AOM) Annual Meeting. Over the past three years, I was able to participate in the Atlanta, Chicago, and Boston meetings. I was looking forward to this year’s meeting in Vancouver, Canada. But, like most events this pandemic year, AOM, on its 80th year, has gone virtual. From August 7 to 11, thousands of attendees from 83 countries are participating in the first-ever virtual Annual Meeting by gathering online to attend hundreds of sessions, discuss academic research and attend meetings. I wish all my fellow academics a great conference, but unfortunately, I will not be with them this year.
However, I did participate in the planning and hosting of the retreat of my United Nations Principles for Responsible Management (PRME) Working Group on the Sustainability Mindset. A yearly tradition of gathering members from around the world, this retreat allowed us to meet face-to-face, rekindle friendships, and share stories of our sustainability journeys. Typically you a few days before the AOM annual meeting, this retreat was also held virtually. With the theme, Making Magic, the 2020 retreat spanned the globe with presenters sharing their work, research and interests in a nearly 24-hour, global event.
The sessions, classified as head, heart, hands, and fun, started with a sunrise welcoming ceremony in three time zones, Asia-Oceana, Europe-Africa and Americas (NY). I happily hosted the first welcoming session by welcoming members and two of my colleagues to the retreat. I opened the session with a Pope Francis’ A Prayer for Our Earth, taken from his encyclical, Laudato Si. While he wrote it five years ago, the prayer still resonates (and probably even more so today) with everyone whose lives have changed because of this pandemic. Here are a few lines from this prayer:
Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction. Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the earth. Teach us to discover the worth of each thing, to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light.
In all, the retreat had 24 fellow members presenting 30 sessions. Some of the head sessions included Engaging students to integrate mind, body and heart, The Renaissance Mindsets: Sustainability Lessons from Past Pandemics, and Business In Nature; a new proposal for Corporate Sustainability in the 21st Century. The heart sessions covered topics on Yoga, Arts, Aesthetics and Management Education and Sound Meditation. The hand sessions featured topics like The Sustainability Mindset Toolkit and Leadership for Sustainability. Because the retreat usually ends with food, fun and fellowship, we had to incorporate fun sessions such as An Italian Aperitivo, Karaoke Night and The fun of cross-cultural connections in the classroom, connections.
Aside from the events I hosted, I was able to attend the session that promised that developing a sustainable mindset can be fun. I was attracted to this session, which promised to explore various topics around sustainability, because I am looking for new techniques to keep my fully online Sustainable Management students engaged. The session was run by Ana Simaens from her home in Lisbon, Portugal, and introduced the attendees to the use of PLAYMOBILpro, which is an innovative modeling kit for professionals that encourages problem-solving and creative thinking in the workplace. She presented how she used play in drawing out ideas and scenarios on Responsible Leadership and Education for Sustainability. The outputs of the participants were creative and insightful. The narrative that accompanied the created dioramas showed that the groups achieved some of the goals of a good experiential learning experience: applying knowledge, increased teamwork and communication and visible accomplishment.
Another session I attended was the call to establish a Student Sustainability Club. While the retreat was limited to members, this session was opened to students. It was hosted by Ayako Huang, from her home in Fairfield, Iowa. This session attended by students from the Philippines, US and Russia proposed the creation of a club for students to share their sustainability research, learning and practices. My students were excited at the opportunity to meet and network with fellow students!
To end my night (at 1 a.m. Manila time), I attended the Italian Aperitivo session that promised great conversation on food, culture and sustainability. The host, Beate Klingenberg, meet us with wine and cheese from her home in Florence, Italy. I participated with my drink of choice, Baileys on the rocks. As promised, this session did generate wonderful conversations.
I started my day early to attend Julia Storberg-Walker’s Storytelling: Equity, justice, responsibility, and ethics in the view of COVID and BLM. From her home in Virginia, USA, we shared stories of how we started on our sustainability journey. We also reflected on the challenge of bringing the burning issues of the day into the classroom.
I applaud my fellow members of the Magic Team, Isabel, Ekaterina, Julia, Beate, Ayako and Martine. I will miss the weekly meetings that brought me out of my room in Makati to meet with all of you in your rooms in the US, Russia, Italy, and Germany. We truly made magic!
The author is the Graduate Program Coordinator of the Management and Organization Department of the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business. She is currently teaching fully-online MBA courses in Business Communication, Lasallian Business Leadership, Ethics, and CSR, and Sustainable Management. She can be reached at pia.manalastas@dlsu.edu.ph.
The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the position of De La Salle University, its faculty, and its administrators.
