By Gianira Giunti
Every new year brings new faces, and with them, the opportunity to reinvent the Discovery tribe.
Some Pumas arrive graduated, with the experience of what they have learned, while others explore the lay of the land for the first time. But all share the same purpose: to find their place in the tribe. Each Puma will have the challenge of finding the space to express their ideas, concerns, and aspirations.
To accompany this process, the first Quest of the year, "Build the Tribe", is designed to equip the Pumas with challenges, tools, and discussions that help them build their tribe. Here they face fundamental questions: What tribe do we want to build? How do I want to feel here?
This week, the tribe has taken a key step in this construction: the creation of the Studio Contract, a challenge in which they evaluate what promises they need to make so that the studio is a place where everyone can grow and feel safe.
To achieve this, they need to share and listen to ideas ("Brainstorming") and then test them ("Lab Zone"), and with some accumulated experience, the tribe can adjust, eliminate, or strengthen the agreements until they obtain an intentional and own result. Along the way, key questions arise: What agreements really make a difference? How has it gone putting them to the test? What has been more challenging: following the agreements or inviting others to respect them?
As they work on their agreements, they face the challenge of finding balance: the right point between play and work, between being warm and being firm. Balance then becomes a process that is discovered and perfected individually and collectively with trial, error, and reflection.
One of the most rewarding aspects of my role as a Guide is to hold up the mirror, giving the group or the Puma to look back at their journey so that they can analyze it, take responsibility, and create changes. It is in these moments when it becomes evident that building a tribe is a journey that requires intentionality.
If we take this reflection beyond the studio, we can ask ourselves: How much room do we create in our community and in society to listen to others and express ourselves? How do we balance individual freedom with the common good? Perhaps, by observing how children build their tribes, we can find some clues.
