Bullet Points
Venue: Mount Abu, India
Event: Outbound Leadership Training
Activity: Rock Climbing and Rappelling
Height: 40 Feet Granite Slab
Target Achieved: Yes
After reading these bullet points I am sure we all can understand the story and its outcome, life would have been very boring and dull if we will use bullets to describe the events! Because lots worth sharing happens between those bullet points.
I was with group of high pots on an outbound training and was responsible to observe my team of 6 people. My task was to note their behaviour for two competencies decided to cover- Decision making and result delivery.
As we say that any training program is an opportunity to grow and evolve even if you are a trainer and not a participant! And that’s what happened: I ended up this outbound with lot of insights for myself!
On the day of rock climbing there were two rocks named A (Easy) and B (Difficult) and team was asked to decide A or B as their individual goal and it was noted by the behaviour facilitator. Next level was to decide as a team A or B as it has scoring attached to it. You score if you achieve your target and you lose if you fail. My team decided all B and achieved it so it was full score.
I was comfortably sitting on the side rock and was recording my observations with some kind of expert look on my face!
Out of curiosity one participant asked me “have you done this before?” and I said “not recently but I know how it is”.
Suddenly something triggered inside me and I said to the activity expert that I want to climb and want to climb the difficult rock B.
All set with my harness and helmet in place I was ready. Activity expert looked at me and said “I know you will do it as I know you have tough heart and good smile (he knew me just a day before as we travelled together!)” I wanted to believe him as wanted that confidence to climb on that granite hard rock.
Somewhere in the middle when difficulty level increased I started losing my confidence, dropped my shoe and also lost my grip. Told my belay that I want to come down and I gave up.
Thousands of thoughts or feelings (I don’t know!) rushed in my mind: who asked you to select B? You think you are Bond! Etc…
Then I heard the voice of activity expert who was shouting: “No she can’t come down and she has to go on top” Don’t know what was the magic of this statement and I pulled myself with all my strength and I was there waving my hand at 40 feet height!!
This incident made an impact on me and some of the insights it brought to me about decision making and result delivery:
You need trigger to do something out of your comfort zone
You need coach and her belief in echoing the statement “I can do it”
You still fail and you again need that extra push to achieve that result you set for yourself
But finally you are the starting point and you have to start, then people are ready to guide you and help you!
– Ms. Supriya Dhongde (Head, Leadership Interventions)
To know more, please contact supriya@namanhr.weblivelink.com
