In meetings, I have to grab interest in five minutes, but in a survival course I learned how to be inconspicuous

Milan Hejl, co-owner of the PR agency AMI Communications, has been through many training courses, including a survival course: “Events like this are very useful, because somebody in an executive position, or in the consultancy business, as I am, needs a varied life experience.” According to Hejl, a manager should be able to view a situation from different angles and empathize with others. It is becoming increasingly important to have the right feel for a situation, a partner’s, customers or a whole company’s reaction. “Our international partner, Edelman, encourages its people to live ‘a colourful life’, do various things, meet different people in different situations. And it gives them time and money to do this. A multi-hued experience significantly helps with developing empathy and creativity,” explains Milan Hejl.
For example, he recently put himself through a smithery course. “A person who is used to working mentally suddenly has the chance to create something with substance, which makes for a rather pleasant experience,” he explains further. “There were people from various backgrounds, of different ages, life stories and education. One always benefits from a change of environment and meeting people who come from different walks of life. He or she gets a completely different view of things.” But the most momentous experience for him to date was the survival course. “I knew that the others will be younger and in a better shape, so I worked myself hard beforehand, trying to get fit, so that I’d be able to keep up with them – and it did me a lot of good,” says Milan Hejl. But he also says that it is great management training. “When a person is pushed to the limit, he or she is better equipped to deal with emergencies and unforeseen situations that work puts before them. And any higher-up executive is faced with such situations on a regular basis.” To experience a real crisis situation is effective, even though one knows it is only a simulation: “It was something of a turning point for me. The course was about surviving a situation of ambush and being taken hostage. One could find oneself in such a situation rather easily, given the way world is today. Dealing with this requires different skills than those which a regular manager has in their repertoire. In a commercial meeting you have to capture the other party’s interest in five minutes. And here, you are taught how to be inconspicuous – as sticking out could get you killed.” But he is rather reluctant to divulge what he has been put through: “The course is also about the moment of surprise. If I told you I would spoil it for all the others who are yet to take the test, and I wouldn’t want that.” He only revealed that the situations were very challenging – physically and mentally.
Milan Hejl saw what a difference such an experience makes some time ago, when attending a different event. “I saw this guy who suffered from vertigo – and he might have been standing on a chair. After he confronted his fear he was able to plunge 11 metres down into water. And when he surfaced he shouted – I did it!
It was one of the strongest emotions I had ever seen,” he remembers. “I saw the turnaround when a man conquers his weakness and achieves something.”

18.10.2010

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