Paul,
In 1984, Tom Peters taught us “hoopla” in his bestseller, “In Search Of Excellence”. You made it happen last week with your out of the box, adventure laden, psychedelic, methods of bringing the best out of us.
We imagined that you were adventurous enough to have lived in Pakistan for several years and still live here. But it is beyond that… you are crazy enough to teach natives help develop leaders willing to swim upstream in these torrential waters.
Management Gurus are generally “Talk”…Your “Bias for Action” is built on solid fundamentals, and a sense of direction. You lure people away from their glass towers, and help them confront and overcome their fears… releasing trapped potential that would make an organization hard to beat.
None of the 15 of us, Managers of Midas Safety, a $300 Million Group, could have imagined what you had in mind to develop “Leadership Skills” in the 3 days spent in Sri-Lanka.
We ended up getting a “giddyup” of a lifetime, never having confronted the challenges that we “can” overcome, never having dared to delve beyond the limits that we impose on ourselves… and having emerged with resilient, life-long bonds of friendship that will help us propel our Group to new heights.
What we started with was a motley group of apprehensive individuals awaiting 3 days of monotonous humdrum, boring each other with tales of how we manage our heavy responsibilities while most gloated or slept through…
What we experienced was a relentless barrage of taxing physical and mental challenges which would absolutely have been shunned had we pre-empted what you had in store…
3 days later we are a group that was transformed into men willing to reach beyond limits of physical and mental capacity… together. The bonding achieved in the shared experiences would never happen with PPs and the drudgery of the business world.
We could never have imagined creaky, mothballed, managers on mountain bikes in treacherous terrain, whacked around in white water rafting, and then being sit down at a temple to wax spiritual gleanings on their management wisdom… happily gorging on spicy Sri-Lankan Mana laced with offensive flavors.
Relentless, unending, mind challenging sessions, incisive, short, sharp, sweet… being bombarded on minds jostling to reach out of battered bodies…
A once in a lifetime experience, a glimpse into the human spirit, of bonds of friendship, spiritual…
Paul we were not just bowled over… you actually…
“Make a mayloadee with muyee heart…”
=)
Thank You Dutchman
Salman Shaikh
General Manager Shahbaz Garments (Pvt) Ltd.