Preamble
This is a piece of unscientific research, of opinions, thoughts and hopes. It is about a train journey (or in reality several trains), talking to fellow passengers and absorbing their fears, aspirations, frustrations and feelings.
In the coming articles I will explain why it occurred, the reasons I had a fantastic time and what we, and I do mean you and I, can do with it to improve our respective lives and, more generally, society. There is nothing compulsory, but we may be moved to give greater thought to what we could achieve.
If I had picked up this book my first question would be, “Why does this guy think his outpourings are relevant?” They may or may not be, but the really important perspectives are yours. What do you think? Why do you think that way? What do you want to do? Who can help you? Who is affected?
My background is in Human Resources. I joined British Leyland in 1976 as a Graduate Trainee and remained through numerous iterations until MG Rover went into Administration in 2005. After that I became HR Director of one of the businesses in the GKN Group. Perhaps the relevance of this detail relates to my ability to talk to people and that I have been a coach in business for thirty years.
Since 2009 I have been running my own consultancy businesses, which has been a hoot. It is very true to say I have learned more in this period than in any other in my life. I love what I do and its variety, the different projects, the different types of business and, as we all know, every person is different. I never went into HR (or Personnel is it was known into the 1970s and 80s) because I like people but because I am fascinated by them. I would emphasise I do like some people a lot. However, some of the things with which HR is involved can be negative for the people involved, such as disciplinaries and redundancies. I always feel disappointed in interviews for HR positions, when the interviewee says they want to be in HR because they like people. All functions deal with people; we like solving problems which relate to people. Inevitably I have a thousand stories, examples, and anecdotes, but they are for another time.
My businesses are primarily about people issues; HR, leadership, teamwork, behaviour change and developing talent but also customer relations, change projects, governance, and individual coaching. They are absolutely about having fun, albeit fun comes in many forms and may well be different for each of us.
You will read numerous stories from the people I met, some of them highly personal and, therefore, with a very few exceptions, I have changed their names. At least I hope they are different but as on most occasions I didn’t ask their name it is possible that I have accidently used a real one. My approach was to give each interviewee a business card and the link to the blog, so any contact would be at their initiation.
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