Catch me, or else...
Friday, February 20, 2009 by Mariskova
Did your office ever hold an outbound program for its employees?
Mine did, a couple of years ago. All of us were gathered from all of the branches all over Indonesia.
There was this game in that program that I remember vividly until now. It's called "Catch Me, Don't Let Me Fall. (Or I'll surely kill you!)". Playing it is actually simple. All you've got to do is to stand on a higher platform with your back facing your friends (or your team members).
After that, you have to let yourself fall backward so your friends can catch you.
The key of this game is to LET yourself fall without having doubts. When you have to fall backward, you have to TRUST your friends that they will CATCH you. The moral lessons of this game are 1) it's a bravery test, 2) it's a trust test. Personally, I think, without Trust, you won't feel Brave. At all.
At that time, some of my team members were hysterical or very cautious, which is understandable because which fool wanted to trust his/her life in the hands of a bunch of people that s/he just met yesterday?
When it was my turn to fall, I did it mindlessly. I wasn't worried a bit that those guys wouldn't catch me. To tell you the truth, though, my lack of worries was not because I knew they cared about me so much that they wouldn't let me fall to the ground. It was simply because (I knew) nobody was stupid enough to willingly take the position of a murderer in front of so many eye witnesses. It's just a basic human psychology. It has nothing to do with Caring.
That knowledge leaves me with a feeling of relief. For me, it shows that even strangers will watch your back although their motive is probably only to keep them off trouble.
Now, put that story in another context. Your office. And your colleagues are your team members. If I may borrow Simon Cowell's voice, my question would be...
"Do you honestly believe that those guys you share the office room with are willing to catch you when you fall?!"
When the answer is no, my suggestion is you start googling for a vacancy.
Oh, eh, you can look at the bright side of the story: when you cannot trust your colleagues, may be you can trust a bunch of strangers.
Mine did, a couple of years ago. All of us were gathered from all of the branches all over Indonesia.
There was this game in that program that I remember vividly until now. It's called "Catch Me, Don't Let Me Fall. (Or I'll surely kill you!)". Playing it is actually simple. All you've got to do is to stand on a higher platform with your back facing your friends (or your team members).
After that, you have to let yourself fall backward so your friends can catch you.
The key of this game is to LET yourself fall without having doubts. When you have to fall backward, you have to TRUST your friends that they will CATCH you. The moral lessons of this game are 1) it's a bravery test, 2) it's a trust test. Personally, I think, without Trust, you won't feel Brave. At all.
At that time, some of my team members were hysterical or very cautious, which is understandable because which fool wanted to trust his/her life in the hands of a bunch of people that s/he just met yesterday?
When it was my turn to fall, I did it mindlessly. I wasn't worried a bit that those guys wouldn't catch me. To tell you the truth, though, my lack of worries was not because I knew they cared about me so much that they wouldn't let me fall to the ground. It was simply because (I knew) nobody was stupid enough to willingly take the position of a murderer in front of so many eye witnesses. It's just a basic human psychology. It has nothing to do with Caring.
That knowledge leaves me with a feeling of relief. For me, it shows that even strangers will watch your back although their motive is probably only to keep them off trouble.
Now, put that story in another context. Your office. And your colleagues are your team members. If I may borrow Simon Cowell's voice, my question would be...
"Do you honestly believe that those guys you share the office room with are willing to catch you when you fall?!"
When the answer is no, my suggestion is you start googling for a vacancy.
Oh, eh, you can look at the bright side of the story: when you cannot trust your colleagues, may be you can trust a bunch of strangers.
Eh, gue pas acara catch me, berusaha percaya, tapi akhirnya tetep aja bergerak mundur dengan "penuh pertimbangan", akhirnya sebagian temen gue kena somplak tangan gue...
waduh, itu mah trust crisis buanget dah .....