Some days are more challenging than others and the way you get treated by others can make a big difference. This was to be a challenging day!
I had taken my wife to Bristol airport to catch an Easy Jet to Pisa. It seems that all Easy Jet flights leave around the same time (about 7am) and so there was a vast queue to the check ins but it must be said that whilst the wait was not great staff were pleasant and helpful.
I waived my wife off, walked half a mile to the car park, paid vast amounts of money and left for the 35 mile journey home. Within 10 miles my phone rang and it seemed my wife had covered every base except checking to see when her passport ran out. Staff were very sympathetic and told my wife it happens every day and they would do everything to get her on the next available flight once her passport was valid.
We waited until 8am and were then advised by the Passport Office in Newport (S. Wales) that we could possibly get a passport that day but they could not guarantee an appointment and so off we set.
At the toll Bridge I offered my toll and was viewed suspiciously by the female collector. “Could I have a receipt, please?”
The change was given but no receipt.
“Could I have a receipt?”
“Try saying please” came the retort
“ I did.”
“Rubbish”
Anyway, I got the receipt and we carried on. We found a car park near Newport station and I had just enough change to pay the Pay and Display. At the Passport Office- a building where the word inspiration and design are unrelated, we were told that we could have an appointment at 12.30. The only place where we could wait was the Museum/Arts Centre. My wife heads in this direction and I return to the car park to ensure sufficient money is paid to avoid a ticket or clamping. I attempt to use my mobile phone to set up an account and pay the parking fee. Trust me, you need to take all the information from the board and then escape the rain and sit in your car to do this. I now have two accounts but failed at any point to pay for my car. Of course no human being is ever going to talk to you. Now concerned I rush back into Newport and find the nearest bank. I queue, then explain my predicament and ask if they could let me have some pound coins.
“Do you bank here?”
“No”
“Then I can’t help you, sorry.”
I run to another bank, explain my problem and mention that the previous bank has been less than helpful.
“We can’t help you either.”
My response is,
“You know there is precious little change of my ever changing to this or the other bank.”
I rush out and head for WHSmiths, buy something I don’t want for £1. 50, queue once again and pay.
“Could you let me have some pound coins sufficient for the day parking charge, please?”
The girl looks at me clearly furious, mutters something unpleasant and slams and boy do I mean slams a bag of pound coins down on the counter. Now everybody is looking at us wondering what on earth is going on. I receive my coins and leave saying,
“I take it customer care training is off the radar here.”
Not much of a response but by now I am desperate and I high tail it back to the car park and pay.
I find the Museum/Art Centre and join my wife at the cafe on the third floor. Not unpleasant and the views from the window affords the opportunity to see the architectural horror of Newport and compare it with the lovely countryside. The cafe has been stocked by a minimalist and is less than inspiring. But by now I need the loo. Unfortunately part of the loo is unavailable because, as the sign says, ‘closed due to vandalism.’ Oh well, I need to get to a computer to check my emails and this is the very place to do it, on the second floor, except I can’t find the second floor and the lift ignores my commands and only takes me to the first and third floors. EventuallyI discover that the second floor is a mezzanine floor only accessible from the first floor!
We make the 12.30 appointment where everybody is most pleasant and helpful - I did wonder if the security guard was actually going to join my wife in the passport photograph - and are then told to wait for up to 4 hours for the passport to actually be issued. We leave and find a policeman.
“Is there anywhere around here where we can eat and hang around for up to four hours?”
“ There’s nowhere round here that you two would want to stay frankly. This is the armpit of the world. The whole place is full of muggers and Romainian pickpockets. We are stretched to the limit and I’m stood here trying to spot people not wearing seatbelts! Not from the Welsh Tourist Board are you?”
Suddenly inspired we repair to The Celtic Manor Hotel, where in their vast bar/lounge we told to make ourselves at home, eat, drink and doze off whenever we want to. Indeed nothing was ever too much trouble and so I commend it to you all.
The following day my wife flew to Pisa without any problem but you know what? I don’t think I ever want to experience customer care in Newport ever again.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Size matters?
I see companies like Ford are now in pretty desperate straights, indeed General Motors has said it would run out of cash in the first half of next year. The world's biggest car company said that this year's cash levels would approach the bare minimum required and that next year the company would be in a worse position unless it gets government help, or sells assets, or the economy improves. GM lost $4.2 billion (£2.7 billion) in the third quarter of 2008.
So, then we see car manufacturers burning money at the kind of rates that were once the province of the dot com bubble. When these big companies had money available at cheap rates they bought marques such as Saab and Volvo. In 2002 under General Motors Saab lost $500 million. To quote Forbes magazine, "If there is one company that doesn't understand quirky, it is GM. General Motors kept some of Saab's traditional styling cues and its funky features but began filling the car with parts from Opel."
Ford paid was an astounding $6.5 billion for Volvo and in in a good year Volvo could make $400 million. The math were pretty challenging. Ford Motor executives kept talking about a new vision, "One Ford," meaning similar cars around the world. One thing that Volvo was not was a Ford. The old Volvo focused on building incredibly robust if a little quirky cars,that were people focused, high on comfort and safety. Ford gave us low investment cars like the S40 and V40. Not bad cars but remarkably similar to the Focus.
Giant global management then just does not hack it.
Then there is car size as a measure of financial markets. Look at today's cars, they have got bigger and bigger, faster and faster just at a time when congestion charges and taxation are growing. My contention here is that the delay in designing and producing cars means that as vehicles get bigger and more costly they are lagging the economy by at least 3 years and are thus only in kilter with market trends and needs for a brief period in time and since all financial markets are cyclical this is not good news.
www.kchamberlainandco.com
So, then we see car manufacturers burning money at the kind of rates that were once the province of the dot com bubble. When these big companies had money available at cheap rates they bought marques such as Saab and Volvo. In 2002 under General Motors Saab lost $500 million. To quote Forbes magazine, "If there is one company that doesn't understand quirky, it is GM. General Motors kept some of Saab's traditional styling cues and its funky features but began filling the car with parts from Opel."
Ford paid was an astounding $6.5 billion for Volvo and in in a good year Volvo could make $400 million. The math were pretty challenging. Ford Motor executives kept talking about a new vision, "One Ford," meaning similar cars around the world. One thing that Volvo was not was a Ford. The old Volvo focused on building incredibly robust if a little quirky cars,that were people focused, high on comfort and safety. Ford gave us low investment cars like the S40 and V40. Not bad cars but remarkably similar to the Focus.
Giant global management then just does not hack it.
Then there is car size as a measure of financial markets. Look at today's cars, they have got bigger and bigger, faster and faster just at a time when congestion charges and taxation are growing. My contention here is that the delay in designing and producing cars means that as vehicles get bigger and more costly they are lagging the economy by at least 3 years and are thus only in kilter with market trends and needs for a brief period in time and since all financial markets are cyclical this is not good news.
www.kchamberlainandco.com
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Presenting In Public
Why is performing and presenting in public so challenging? I think it was the actor Victor Spinetti who said most people would rather die than perform in public. Tom Jones says that most of his family can sing but he would always jump on the table to sing when it was his turn.
When I am coaching performance and presentation skills I find there is an issue around our the inner and the outer relationships. Our inner self is rich complex and vulnerable. Our natural desire to self protect means that ‘exposure’ is dangerous. If we can be comfortable with who we are then there is a chance we can present ourselves to others and not try and put on a performance that we suspect convinces nobody unless we have rehearsed to the point of perfection that would rival a top media star.
I have worked with actors who could be found throwing up in toilets shortly before going on stage and could only do so because once on stage they were acting as a character and not as themselves. Sometimes I meet musicians with infinitely more ability than my own but for whom appearing on a stage feels impossible. Most people tell me that they can just about cope with one to one presentations but larger audiences fill them with dread.
I wonder how many of us go through life with a inner voice telling us that somehow we will be found out as less than competent. You will know from my previous blog that my 'thing' is uniqueness. If I am right about uniqueness we need to acknowledge that there has to be a good reason for uniqueness and we are OK.
The context then is presenting one’s self and then handling groups. Groups are challenging because groups can be powerful. Groups can develop an energy of their own. Groups are often powerful because we cannot read the ‘body language of a group’ or know how to get feedback. What we have to do is to transmit ourselves and pick up on the audience response and this is the stuff of emotional awareness rather than scientific logic.
How do you experience yourself when 'presenting' in public?
When I am coaching performance and presentation skills I find there is an issue around our the inner and the outer relationships. Our inner self is rich complex and vulnerable. Our natural desire to self protect means that ‘exposure’ is dangerous. If we can be comfortable with who we are then there is a chance we can present ourselves to others and not try and put on a performance that we suspect convinces nobody unless we have rehearsed to the point of perfection that would rival a top media star.
I have worked with actors who could be found throwing up in toilets shortly before going on stage and could only do so because once on stage they were acting as a character and not as themselves. Sometimes I meet musicians with infinitely more ability than my own but for whom appearing on a stage feels impossible. Most people tell me that they can just about cope with one to one presentations but larger audiences fill them with dread.
I wonder how many of us go through life with a inner voice telling us that somehow we will be found out as less than competent. You will know from my previous blog that my 'thing' is uniqueness. If I am right about uniqueness we need to acknowledge that there has to be a good reason for uniqueness and we are OK.
The context then is presenting one’s self and then handling groups. Groups are challenging because groups can be powerful. Groups can develop an energy of their own. Groups are often powerful because we cannot read the ‘body language of a group’ or know how to get feedback. What we have to do is to transmit ourselves and pick up on the audience response and this is the stuff of emotional awareness rather than scientific logic.
How do you experience yourself when 'presenting' in public?
Monday, November 3, 2008
I am working with individual uniqueness and would welcome any insights you can provide based on this cartoon of mine.
My contention is that we are more likely to win the big prize on a national lottery than find anybody with a gene set exactly like our.
Our gentetic uniqueness means that our mental 'wiring' is unlike anybody else's therefore we process uniquely, experiencing events uniquely.
Each moment in time is unique and this influences our thinking. Memories are shaky and liable to 'self doctoring' over time but we are heavily reliant upon memory.
The brain matures at the age of 21.
UG is unique genes
UE is unique experience
and UY is the unique you
What is your sense of individual uniqueness in the world?
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