Have you heard about the genius of Peter Hanke?

Last week, I attended the OSLP at Oxford. I can clearly separate my experience in two parts. Before the session at the Balliol chapel . and after.

As we embark on a journey in life which takes us through numerous challenges and taking us to a leadership role, we learn how to defend ourselves in the mad hustle of life. Overcoming challenges with grit and stamina. So, when we get there, it is often a real sense of achievement. We have learnt so much a become someone who can weather any storm. How strong are we!?

That is how I felt before walking into a session with Peter at Balliol, with sky high walls to secure myself from adversity. He asks you to step into the role of an orchestrator in the middle of a chapel that has history beyond your comprehension. You don’t quite understand what is going on. It’s like you walked straight into a busy road in a thick misty morning. You move your hands, and it results in a melody you have never heard before. You look down at your hands and feel the energy that is linking you to the voices around you. It is like something that has a life of its own. It is surreal and alive at the same time. You take a step back; it is too much. When that happened to me, I felt like all the apprehension in the world is alive within me. Usually, I am the one who jumps at opportunity, but I see something in myself that I haven’t seen in a long long time. Like first day at school. You enter a space you have never seen before, but it seems so familiar. Right in that moment, Peter asked, ‘How do you feel?’ You feel that all the concrete around you that was built for so many years just turns to dust, and you are standing there, afraid, unsure, speechless, not knowing what to do with the energy you have just felt. He then guides you to learn to read this energy within you and around you and link it to the voices around you. It is all so new and familiar at the same time. You go on this journey and recognise the harmony around you. At the end of the experience, you realise that you were broken down into a thousand pieces and when you pulled yourself up, you connected to the very core of your soul.?

For me, the person who walked into that chapel is not the same as the one who walked out. After the course, I walked back into the competitive world again and when I find I am building another wall, I close my eyes and I am back in the chapel again. The genius of Peter Hanke is to be there when the inner core of you appears, and tell you it is okay to be that. At the very core where you are the most vulnerable and true. But that’s where the energy lives which connects you to everyone and everything. With courage, you can learn to live with yourself and be okay with that. A great teacher is able to show you that. My gratitude to Peter for being that teacher.?

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To read more about Peter's work, please visit Peter Hanke | Sa?d Business School (ox.ac.uk)