So, here I am. Sitting in Seat 20A on my Lufthansa flight to Munich. It is June 17th and after 3 months on the Serenade of the Seas I am “transferring” to another ship, the Grandeur of the Seas. In a few days I will join the Grandeur to serve out 4 weeks before signing off at the end of July to start my 2.5 months of vacation.
I intended to be more active with blog posts, alas, here I am posting after all this time. There are several reasons for the delay, namely;
- Ship life was far busier than I ever imagined
- Internet is a challenge
- I had/have no concept of time while on the ship
As I said in my previous post, I took a leave from my airline career to give a long time dream a try. I accepted a role with the worlds leading cruise line to serve as Training & Development Manager onboard a ship. What surprises many that I talk with is that cruise ships are so large now that they require a full human resources team onboard to provide full life cycle HR services. My role as an educator is to provide learning, educational support, coaching and leadership development to more than 850 crew members.
The role is a blend of corporate trainer/hr consultant/safety officer. I would say that I spend about 30% of my time actively facilitating with the remaining time spent one-on-one with crew, onboard leadership or in meetings.
One of the interesting elements that I have noticed about my role, is that the position of Training & Development Manager or “The T&D” as we say on this ship, is that it is a much beloved role by the entire crew. The T&D is known as a safe person to talk to, a mentor, guide, moral compass. This is a change from previous experience where the role of Training Manager could be perceived more as “enforcer”.
My very first post on my blog was about how I explain my role to people, settling on “I teach”. On the ship, when meeting and socializing with guests I have found that my answer to “and what do you do on the ship” I proudly respond with “I am the ships teacher”, a warm and wide smile generally appears on their faces as they discover that behind the scenes, crew support and crew welfare are on the top of the priority list for the organization.
So, here I am, in 20A. I will arrive in Munich, change planes and then jet across the atlantic to Washington DC where I join my next ship. Although I will enjoy the day off in between I can’t wait to meet my next crew and see what I can do to help make their dreams come true.
Keep learning,
Jeff
I intended to be more active with blog posts, alas, here I am posting after all this time. There are several reasons for the delay, namely;
- Ship life was far busier than I ever imagined
- Internet is a challenge
- I had/have no concept of time while on the ship
As I said in my previous post, I took a leave from my airline career to give a long time dream a try. I accepted a role with the worlds leading cruise line to serve as Training & Development Manager onboard a ship. What surprises many that I talk with is that cruise ships are so large now that they require a full human resources team onboard to provide full life cycle HR services. My role as an educator is to provide learning, educational support, coaching and leadership development to more than 850 crew members.
The role is a blend of corporate trainer/hr consultant/safety officer. I would say that I spend about 30% of my time actively facilitating with the remaining time spent one-on-one with crew, onboard leadership or in meetings.
One of the interesting elements that I have noticed about my role, is that the position of Training & Development Manager or “The T&D” as we say on this ship, is that it is a much beloved role by the entire crew. The T&D is known as a safe person to talk to, a mentor, guide, moral compass. This is a change from previous experience where the role of Training Manager could be perceived more as “enforcer”.
My very first post on my blog was about how I explain my role to people, settling on “I teach”. On the ship, when meeting and socializing with guests I have found that my answer to “and what do you do on the ship” I proudly respond with “I am the ships teacher”, a warm and wide smile generally appears on their faces as they discover that behind the scenes, crew support and crew welfare are on the top of the priority list for the organization.
So, here I am, in 20A. I will arrive in Munich, change planes and then jet across the atlantic to Washington DC where I join my next ship. Although I will enjoy the day off in between I can’t wait to meet my next crew and see what I can do to help make their dreams come true.
Keep learning,
Jeff
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