A few months before leaving for Germany, a friend of mine told me, "If there's a chance to participate in the International Workshop, go for it!" Then he explained to me that the workshop would be a management game, where the participants would be grouped into several "companies" and play a specific role. The company with the most profit wins the game. At that time I was actually not that interested since it had nothing to do with my study program. I don't really know what changed my mind, but when Pak Kho invited us to join this workshop I registered myself and finally was selected as one of the six representatives from Indonesia.

The story began when we arrived in Amsterdam. I was quite confused about how we were going to play the management game since only three out of ten teams that signed in for the workshop were present at the starting time; the Germans, the Belgians and us. Then confusion grew into disappointment as there were so many unpleasant things happening. I signed up for the production manager position but I had to role play as the sales manager since there were not enough participants, I had to spend hours sitting in a boat with people whose language and way of thinking I didn’t understand, also we had to face a professor who never stopped complaining if he didn’t get what he wanted.

Three days later we went to Belgium and the game began. Slowly but surely, the representatives from another countries managed to arrive causing the atmosphere to be more and more international. The workshop was getting interesting since we got the opportunity to become acquainted with more people and, of course, interact with their fascinating cultures.

Later again, I was quite shocked when I knew that sometimes we had to leave and participate in volley ball and table tennis competitions while other companies were busy making profit. But then we realized that the competition was a set up. The game administrator did that since they wanted to know whether the company would still function if, for example, the finance manager was “in holiday”, playing volley ball or table tennis. That excited us to go back over the first days in Amsterdam. Was that also a set up? Yes! The boat trip, for example, was held to help all participants get to know each other in a short time. Well, although the professor wasn’t a set up, we learned that sometimes we just have to deal with those kinds of people.

We also learned another remarkable lesson when we had to prepare ourselves for the “Indonesian Evening”, an event in which we had to present our country along with its diverse cultures. After several discussions we finally agreed to guide the audience to discover parts of Indonesia which are not usually an international tourism destination. We explained to them the matrilineal tradition in Padang, asked them to sing “Naik Delman” and dance “Poco-poco”, and finally told them stories about the mysterious Papua Island. Thank goodness they loved it more than we expected. Our “Naik Delman” song was one of their favorites. It was almost like our workshop theme song. And that was one of the most important lessons we learned; to appreciate our culture. Many of the workshop participants envied us the fascinating cultural heritage we have, which ironically has started to fade among the Indonesian young generation.

To sum up I just want to say that the opportunity to participate in this workshop was priceless. Not only did we have the chance to play a management game, but also the chance to improve our social skills, build our network, and even learn to more highly appreciate our culture. To all SGU students, just as my friend said, "If there's a chance to participate in the International Workshop, go for it!". It’s not about gaining most profit and winning the game; it’s about the togetherness.

Yosafat
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Mechatronics
Class of 2007