A High-Rope Experience

Self-Invention for Better Performance

A sharing experience with
Michael Adryanto
HR Director of Sinarmas
Food and Agribusiness

BEING a good person with good performance is not born from an instant moment. It is rather a serial process of self-invention as Michael Adryanto puts it: “This process happens almost everyday and anytime where people meet challenges.”

And the critical question, explains Adryanto who is also Sinarmas Food and Agribusiness Human Resources Director, “Is how far she or he could succeed to ‘manage’ his/her ‘self’ i.d. finding the balance of emotions in facing any challenge she/he meets.”

However, not any single person in the world would not be easily escaped from the factum which says that everybody has his/her own fears or psychologically speaking feelings of being worried. “To be able to defeat our own fears and worries is the key to success,” says Adryanto during a special interview with OBI in late November.

“Among those great advantages I shared with OBI was first of all an experience of defeating my own fears. And this very specific experience of how to suppress a feeling of inferiority of complex was shared during the high-rope exercise with OBI some years ago,” said Adryanto.

High-Rope Exercise

As a Psychology Department graduate from Unpad in Bandung, Adryanto has been being very familiar with some of psychological terms such as self-invention, inferiority complex and how to manage oneself for a better performance. And among those very specific and unforgettable experience during training with OBI, said Adryanto, was ‘spiritual exercises’ he had undergone during the high rope training.

This dates back some years ago when Adryanto was set up in a situation where he should leave his official attribute as the Chief Manager, Training and Development Division at BCA Head Office Jakarta and served as a trainee at an outdoor training exercise with OBI. “It was the time when in the middle of doubt and worries as just standing at the height and then a young female trainer strongly provoked me for to step forward instead of giving up,” recalled this lecturer in the post-graduate economics studies at UI.

Being in the height while exposing the body at the High-Rope exercise was not a fun at all for Adryanto. A psychological challenge was raised as he was about to be doubtful whether or not to continue his next step, unless he would then decided not to continue further step with some reasonable argument. “My heart was against any order which was voiced by that female junior trainer…um.. I was feeling like being provoked as I was drowned to be very upset as to deal with my fears and feelings of worrying,” said Adryanto.

He has the reason to say. The argument was very simple. “I am a big boss and the female trainee was just an ordinary girl. Why should I obey her and let her control my step? Obedience matters and I was totally upset in handling my inner feelings to deal with feelings of being subordinated. Otherwise I was also challenged by her to overcome my shortcomings: just step forward, instead of giving up by exposing some reasonable argument to her: nausea!,” recalled Adryanto.

Easy to be Number One

To be number one among his own peers was not a big deal for a smart person like Adryanto. As a young student in both junior and senior high school student in his native hometown of Salatiga in Central Java, he was always awarded with good remarks. The same chorus was once again taking place during further studies at the University of Unpad in Bandung.

“To be the best among my fellow class-mates was not difficult to do. My rivals were just two-three friends and I could easily manage to beat them without much efforts,” recalls Adryanto.

But while on the High-Rope Exercise, something different has forced him to be totally upset. He was about to be “subordinated” by a just junior female trainer. “My conscience was against her. She was not my boss. I had no reason to be obedient to her. But, I also had a strong motivation for not being easy giving up,” he added.

Self good image (jaim) would be Ardyanto’s self-defense while complying with this young lady’s demand. Instead of being humiliated by her with an easy giving up, better had Ardyanto decided to follow her instruction to step forward…and finally he could managed to reach the destination by straightly following her supporting yelling which says, ”Come on sir, you can manage it if you try hard!”

Not any single person can hinders from a syndrome of inferiority complex as experience by Michael Ardyanto during a High-Rope Exercise with OBI. “The time I could manage to control my feelings of fears while fostering my self-confidence of being able to tackle any challenges, I could feel a sigh of relief,” said Ardyanto.

Facing a challenge has always been a fun as it is a time when “I am totally exposed to a situation where I have to manage to control my inner-self, while also to foster my self-confidence of being certain to be able to surpass the challenge. And this kind of psychological process is going to take place anytime and anywhere. This is a self-invention: moments exposed to be more and more better,” Ardyanto explains.

OBI exercise is after all an experience of self-invention. “I can manage to overcome my inferiority complex as I have had being inferior of having older facial outlook than I was used to be. And that’s was very disgusting,” he said.

Material and sharing experience provided by Varinia & Wendy Kusumowidagdo
Source is interviewed by Vari & Wendy of
Outbound Inward Indonesia (OBI) Office Management
Text is fully written and edited by Mathias Hariyadi
Photo Credit by Mathias Hariyadi
An Outbound Experience in Jatiluhur, Purwakarta
West Java, November 2006