When we are faced with extraordinary levels of stress, one should look no further, as the most effective and simple way to improve one’s emotional health is by extending your hands out to help others.
Research has shown that by having a sense of purpose and rendering support to others significantly impacts our well-being and that of others.
As such, during the INTI International University High Performance Culture Workshop 2022, 30 of our Senior Management team decided to embark on the Act of Random Kindness (ARK) Challenge, which saw them going to various locations around Johor Bahru City Centre and spreading messages of positivity, providing assistance and sharing small gifts with complete strangers.
But this was no simple fear, as even before the start of the challenge, the Senior Management team had to spend 15 to 20 minutes thinking of the right phrases for their posters and the positive messages they intended to write on small cards before giving them away.
They were then dropped off at the heart of the City Centre in Johor Bahru where they broke into smaller groups to begin their task.
Gifts and messages were distributed to as many people they believed they could reach out to. From police officers patrolling the streets, to the cleaners by the roadside and a mother waiting for her child to return home.
The task was simple. Just spread positive messages all around. Just by sharing and spreading any act of random kindness.
At the end of the challenge, the participants sha
red their experiences and most felt that they had underestimated how much their small gesture would impact on the people they have reached out to. They did not expect that although they felt their gesture to be small and inconsequential, but to the recipients, they felt that the gesture was extremely meaningful.
I recall the statement made by a mother after receiving a message from one of the groups as they walked away, “You all look like angels”.
Well, I can confess, the Senior Management Team were the angels on the day!
Written by:
Song Kuok Thong
Pro Vice Chancellor