In the Age of AI, Vietnamese Leaders Turn Inward to Find a New Resonance
by Dam Duc Anh
HO CHI MINH CITY, 07.10.2025 – The evening began not with the usual buzz of a high-powered business conference, but with the gentle aroma of tea and the sound of a bell. In a ballroom filled with over 80 of Vietnam's influential CEOs, entrepreneurs, managers and educators, the request wasn't to network or strategize, but to simply be present. To breathe.
This deliberate shift in tone set the stage for "Resonate to Make a Difference," a talk show held on October 7, 2025, that felt less like a seminar and more like a collective inquiry into the future of leadership. Organized by a coalition of forward-thinking organizations including the Mindful Leadership Community, Code to Happiness, Lanh dao Khai phong (LLO), SVF and Mindful4EM, the event proposed a radical thesis for the AI era: that the greatest competitive advantage is no longer found in processing more information, but in cultivating a deeper human presence.
The entire evening was framed as an experiential journey, expertly guided by moderator Nguyễn Thị Thanh Hương, Founder of LLO. She led the audience and speakers through a three-part pilgrimage of consciousness: from the analytical Head shaped at Harvard, to the compassionate Heart nurtured at Plum Village, and finally, to the grounded power of the Hara, the core principle of Zen Leadership.
From Changing the Play to Changing the Game: The Harvard Imperative
The dialogue opened with the intellectual rigor of Harvard. The speakers—Lê Bá Thông, former CEO of TTT Corporation; Đàm Đức Anh, a 37-year meditation practitioner and media CEO; and Phạm Duy Hiếu, CEO of ABBank—were challenged to share the one insight from their elite training that fundamentally altered their approach to the AI age.
Mr. Thông captured the central theme. "I went to Harvard looking for a better strategy to win the old game," he explained. "But the most powerful insight I received was that AI isn't just a better tool; it's a new game board entirely." He described the shift from "Strategic Choice," where the central question is 'What's the best play?', to a new "Generative Strategy" logic. "The question for leaders now is not how to choose the best move," he asserted, "but 'How can I change the entire game?'"
This reframing—from optimization to creation, from competing to orchestrating new ecosystems—resonated throughout the room, setting a tone of expansive possibility rather than technological anxiety.
The Stillness That Frees: A Lesson from the Heart
The journey then pivoted from the mind to the heart. The moderator guided the conversation to Plum Village, the mindfulness practice center founded by the late Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh. Mr. Đức Anh shared a moving personal story that distilled the essence of this stage.
"My most profound experience wasn't in a lecture hall, but on a simple gravel path when the mindfulness bell rang," he recalled. "In that moment of stopping everything—the walking, the talking, the relentless strategizing in my head—I touched what 'Inner Freedom' truly means."
He defined this not as freedom from responsibility, but as freedom within it. "It's the space between a stimulus and a response," he explained. "In that space lies our power to choose—to act from a place of clarity and compassion, not from fear or reactivity. For a leader in a world of constant pressure, that space is not a luxury; it is the source of our greatest strength.".
The Anchor in the Storm: Finding Power in the Hara
The final piece of the puzzle, connecting the strategic Head and the compassionate Heart, was introduced as the Hara—the center of physical and energetic gravity in the lower abdomen, a cornerstone of Zen Leadership.
Mr. Hiếu, a CEO known for leading a major bank with a culture of empathy, articulated its impact. "A leader with a sharp mind and a good heart can still be shaken by the storms of business," he said. "But a leader who is grounded in their Hara has an anchor. Their presence stabilizes the entire team. They become a 'tuning fork' that creates co-regulation; fear subsides, trust grows, and real creativity emerges."
The theory was immediately put into practice. The moderator invited the entire audience to place a hand on their Hara and take three deep, intentional breaths, transforming an abstract concept into a tangible, felt sensation of groundedness.
Beyond Talk: A Fully Embodied Experience
True to its promise of being more than just a talk show, the event transitioned from intellectual dialogue to collective embodiment. The atmosphere in the room shifted dramatically as participants were invited to stand up and physically experience all four core energy patterns of leadership. The space, once filled with quiet contemplation, was now alive with excitement and delight at the refreshingly new experience.
Guided by the facilitators, the room of executives moved through sharp, decisive gestures of the "Driver" pattern, flowed into rhythmic sways of the "Collaborator" that elicited bursts of laughter, settled into the structured, deliberate steps of the "Organizer," and finally opened up into the expansive, possibility-rich movements of the "Visionary." The sight of CEOs and founders moving with such unguarded focus was a powerful testament to the event's unique approach. Guests could be heard sharing their surprise at the distinct vibrations and physical sensations each pattern created in their own bodies.
This physical exploration culminated in a powerful group exercise called "The Wave of Collaborative Energy." The lights dimmed, and participants stood in a large circle. Together, they created a single, sustained vocal tone originating from the Hara. The result was a palpable field of shared energy, a resonant hum that filled the ballroom. "We are no longer just talking about resonance," the moderator declared. "We are creating it. This is the power we unleash when we speak from our deepest place."
The evening concluded with a moment of silent commitment, where each attendee wrote down one small action they would take the next day to bring this resonant energy into their world.
As one guest, prominent educator Nguyễn Phùng Phong of 500,000 students, remarked during the Q&A, "We are saturated with information on how to use AI, but starved for wisdom on how to be human alongside it. This evening was a profound answer to that."
Leaving the event, the lingering feeling was not one of having acquired new data, but of having accessed a new depth within oneself. The key takeaway was clear and echoed in the closing remarks: in an era increasingly defined by thinking machines, the ultimate leadership advantage lies in becoming more fully, wisely, and powerfully human. The journey from Head, to Heart, to Hara is not just a path of personal development; it is emerging as a critical strategy for leading in a complex world.
Dam Duc Anh is a journalist, entrepreneur, and psychologist. He leads transformative programs for Vietnam's most influential executives.