Words by Dian Ratna Mahita

Last Sunday, May 29, my cohort at XL Future Leaders welcomed two inspiring people. First is Lucy Kusman, a career and personal growth coach who experienced in human resources position in various companies. Second is Harri Firmansyah, Indonesia’s Top Ten Trainer (Pikiran Rakyat, 2010). I would like to share what I learned from them through this writing and I will begin with a story:

“In a rush hour, there are lots of vehicles on the road waiting their turn to go forward. People get bored as they are estimated to stuck in the traffic for up to 3 hours. A driver of a truck seems angry as he pushes the honk frequently. A man in the motorcycle opens his holy book and read it little by little while going forward. A driver seems okay as he sings a song inside his car. A passenger inside taxi reads a book while waiting the traffic. If the traffic is repeated every 5 days in a week for a year, what each of them have achieved after one year according to what they do when they get stuck in traffic?”

Each person has different response towards certain condition. But it is very obvious that everyone has their own decision to create their own response. Honestly I never think that knowing how to deal with my response will be hugely important. Well, I interact with people everyday, I give my response and I get their response. Responses are everywhere in daily conversation, teamwork, etc. But I got different perspective regarding response this last Sunday. I just know that I can classify my response and even choose what kind of response I am going to create.  I learned about Quality of Response adopted from material created by Ron Kaufman. Kang Harri’s powerful session has led me to research more about responses and their meaning in our daily activities.

Kang Harri lectured us on Levels of Responses (basic, expected, desired, surprising, unbelievable), where he adopted from The Six Levels of Services by Ron Kaufman. Kang Harri did very well on that because he successfully contextualized his speech to our life as students and youth. So now, I can reflect what kind of response I give to my work partner in certain project and in another condition where I belong. Getting a basic response is inevitable but at least I want an expected response from people. So, that is why I have to give my best reponse to everyone around me.

I was told if I proud that I walk in pedestrian or I throw litter at the right place, it is not that good, it is expected. It is the expected response as a citizen who should follow the rules. It is better for me to go extra miles by doing something more, it could be something desired, surprising, or even unbelievable.

After knowing those levels of response, I am really keen to reflect what type of response I make everyday and what type of response I should make. I personally think that making a desired or surprising response is not only satisfying other people but also satisfying myself. Sometimes making a good response is not easy if the people I am facing exactly do the opposite, but letting my negative emotion appears never solve any problem at all. I prefer to grow my heart by being patience, take a deep breath, and making an intention to give my best response even the person I am facing does not acknowledge it. Because I am not giving my best response to satisfy him/her, I am on my way on building the best character of me.

One thing before I finish this writing, I also learned that response ability creates responsibility. So if we can manage our response well, it is very likely for us to get more responsibility, because we are trusted based on our response. Now I am going to lead myself to response beyond the expected. Do you want to join me?