Safe at Home - Part 2!

I talked on my last post (check out 'Safe at Home') about the value of making an effort to communicate more readily with the customers/client groups you are meant to be serving and thought this was a great example I saw at Canada Water recently.

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This was a ‘Meet the Manager’ day on the platform, with the station manager promoting the extensions that are due to take place in the London Overground when it moves to its full ‘orbital’ capacity.


Being on the platform rather than by the barriers where people are coming and going helped I think encourage people to take time to fire a question at the manager – if you have nothing better to do than read the Evening Standard why not? (or alternatively like me you could take photos of people. This is not some voyeuristic notion I make a habit of I should add!)

Some might also argue it is the only place to grab the staff to ask them questions about service, good or otherwise – no snow to report in the area this day, so the queries were not too pressing I think.


In saying this the lady in the photo was being run through how the new extension of the London Overground will work to take in the ‘Orbital’ format which will then take on areas such as Clapham Junction to the same lines as Honor Oak Park, Highbury and Islington, Whitechapel and beyond.


In the conversation I overheard (in a non-voyeuristic sort of way of course!) the manager ran her through the time lines for the extension, how the route works, possible journey times etc. A lot of is was broached with a lot of language such as ‘expected’ and ‘approximately’ (especially with the train times) but it was all pretty informative stuff for the passenger, who was able to get a vision of what their route would look like in the future.


It showed a willingness to engage, communicate and reassure the customer about the changes that are afoot. It also showed that this manager was taking a bit of pride in the info they were giving - though they might have been asked to do it, they were not giving a performance which made it seem forced.


The point is that it shows a little bit of pride in promoting the message and preparing people for changes ahead – sound familiar to anyone HR/L and D professionals out there?


‘That’s great – but it was only one person’ I hear the cynics at the back cry.


True - but it does show a mindset that is a bit more on the front foot in terms of promoting their message, not just to the passenger concerned in this instance but also to the others on the platform. You never know – one of those passengers might be motivated to write a blog post about it. Suddenly you find a third party is promoting the merits of the scheme for you.


As if that would happen – wait hang on…

Throwing Copper

Every so often we get a reminder of how the things we take for granted have a habit of biting us in the posterior when we least expect it. For example, take the case of the railway copper theft in East London this past week.

That’s right – forget your gold or platinum, copper is the precious (?!) metal on the move with it being worth in the region of £6,000 per ton.

(I say that like I am aware that this is a massive hike from previous amounts but I really have no clue – where does aluminium fit in to this? I could be a Diet Coke can millionaire)

"Ahhh my retirement fund - I have been expecting you!" Image by cackhanded via Flickr

Due to the rise in value some thieves removed the copper lines that are required for trains to run on the Central Line in the East London area of the Underground, meaning that things came grinding to a halt earlier this week. Transport for London even went on to say that after terrorism, the removal of such materials/equipment from their lines was the biggest threat to the Underground service. No mention of where signal problems on the Bank branch of the Northern Line causing delays ranked but I am sure this was up there.


Nevertheless it is an example of how an everyday, taken for granted resource can bring a vital service to a halt with immediate effect. It got me thinking about it in the context of mentoring or coaching for all us HR professionals to bear in mind - what is the asset that we need to make sure is, ahem, copper bottomed to ensure success in these areas?


Well mentoring is often aimed at being learner lead and reading Julie Starr’s excellent ‘Coaching Manual’, I was struck by how non-directive conversations can be used to empower people. This was a reminder of what many coaches state – you are aiming to equip the person or organisation with the skills and wherewithal to move resolve their issue and have strategies they can apply when moving forward, not as a repeat crux for the problems they are having.


Viewing it in this context, I wonder if a coach or mentor’s version of copper rails is not losing sight of the fact they should letting people to their own devices at the end of the assignment/project? Or maybe you might think that being able to resist the temptation to jump in and be really direct and supervise a peer on the way forward, rather than letting the solutions be a joint venture?


Perhaps you think it is none of the above – if so, what would you consider to be the equivalent of copper?


You might take it for granted but will know its value when it delays your journey – whether it be professional or geographical.

p.s. prize for anyone who can spot the mid-90s musical reference in this post