Wow, this week has been more than hectic so far and it is only Thursday. The last 72 hours have involved a great deal of travelling, a significant amount of talking and some deep and meaningful learning.
Monday
05.00hrs: Up early to start my train / tube journey across the city to South East London client to focus on helping senior team of managers cope with impending change. Using the ‘Future/Backwards’ approach from Cognitive Edge, the challenge was to encourage them to use a different way of thinking about the future – success, but for some it was tough.
13.30hrs: On the tube again from South East London to St Pancras International, to catch yet another train, albeit Eurostar, at 15.05hrs to get to Paris – shared train with William Hague MP – obviously he was in Business Premier whilst I was simply Standard Premier, but hey – wonder what he was going to do in Paris? Arrived at Gare du Nord at 18.15hrs and then yet another tube, the Metro this time to Rue Saint Maur and short walk to hotel – phew, aching feet and tired!
For someone like me who drives everywhere and absolutely hates trains, I feel like I have had my fill of them today. A few hours prep for important facilitation meeting Tuesday morning and then bed.
Tuesday
06.30hrs: Up early to breakfast and off in the rush hour traffic (taxi this time) to Restaurant Fouquet’s on the Champs-Elysees, founded by Louis Fouquet in 1899. What an amazing place to have a learning event! You pay dearly to sit in the deep leather armchairs – the espresso at €4.60 must be the city’s most expensive.
Just amazing venue and my client group were all eminent professionals including a Professor from the Sorbonne – such a collection of intelligence!
13.30hrs: After the event ended I had just an hour to myself before heading back to the Eurostar so grabbed a quick-lunch and sat under The Arc de Triomphe – commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 – in the sunshine.
15.30hrs: Worked on the Eurostar the whole journey back to St Pancras, writing up Monday session and Tuesday session. Then spent an hour listening to voice training webcast, just unable to ‘practice’ as carriage too full and would obviously get some strange looks. Arrive back in London by 17.30hrs to tube delays on Bakerloo line and broken down rolling stock on train back to home town, how lovely to be back in UK.
Wednesday:
05.00hrs: Up early to drive to East London client to do evaluation with participants on the ‘Being An Effective Manager’ programme on which I deliver one session and facilitate Action Learnng Sets. Wow, their presentations were fantastic! Real transfer of learning and improvements in quality of service and management, cost savings and time (note to self; must write this up in a more formal way so that training team can share this valuable feedback with Senior Directors of the organisation to demonstrate how training really can make a difference).
13.30hrs: Telephone conversation with brand new client about how to approach change and share learning and knowledge. Got so engrossed we spent ONE AND HALF HOURS on the phone – can’t wait to do this work will be really interesting.
17.00hrs: Quick drive from East London to Central London (contradiction in terms) to get to University of Westminster where I teach Post Graduate HR students on an MA in HRM from 18.00hrs until 21.00hrs. This session looked at methods for evaluating training and measuring return on investment. Very lively class, but really tired and need to get home.
22.00hrs: Drive home hampered by ridiculous road works and three lanes down to ONE, and not one workman in sight, arghhhhhhhhh. Arrive home, collapse in chair and then drag self to bed, phew, where did the last three days go?
Józefa
