You wont find much information online that provides a full picture of what it is like to live and work on a ship, mine being a 90,000 ton floating city with 850 crew and 2200 guests.  

One of the first things I learned, or rather, came to know was that time means almost nothing on a ship.  What I mean is that the date is irrelevant, we count voyages, and voyage days.  So, Tuesday June _ or Saturday June _ are referred to as “Day 3” or “Day 5”.  The only reason I know that Friday has rolled around is that I lead the weekly Jewish Shabbat prayer service onboard, and if that wasn’t indicated in my calendar I would have no idea it even happened. 

Time, as far as hours go is also another factor.  7:00AM or 7:00PM mean nothing, the ship is always working.  Now, we take breaks and have rest time but the only part of the day that signifies to me that it is night time is 6:00PM.  Why? because that is the time I change into my formal evening uniform.  The amazing thing is that I could teach 3 classes, have 4 meetings and conduct 8 interviews and if you told me it was 9:00PM I would have no clue.  

Now, don't assume that we work all the time, because we don’t.  In fact, every crew member has strictly monitored and enforced rest and duty rules.  So we always are ensured 10 hours of rest every 24 hours.  The difference from a land or “shoreside” based position is the ship is humming and alive 24 hours a day.  We plan for this and schedule accordingly.  This is also another reason why the date doesn’t matter, the only thing that matters is if it is Day 2 or 7. 

Meals are another interesting aspect.  The crew are offered 3 main meals a day, snacks are always available and then a late night hot meal is also available for those working night or off hour shifts.  Because the time doesn't matter you really have to pay attention to the clock so that you don’t accidentally work through a meal… 

Your cabin is determined based on your rank and role on the ship.  One of the things that I have come to love though is that, because crew cabins are generally on the lower decks of the ship is that I can hear the ocean running along the hull of the ship and that sound is the most amazing, therapeutic white noise I have ever experienced.  I may have to download this sound for when I return home for my vacation.  

A final fringe benefit of living and working on a ship is the commute.  I can walk out of my cabin and be at my office in less than 3 minutes, 6 if I stop by the coffee shop.  Gym? I can be there in 2 minutes.  This is huge, back home if I wanted to leave work to go to the gym I would need to carve 4 hours out of my day to do a 2 hour workout.  On the ship? 2.5 hours from working to gym to showered and back to work or off and relaxing.  

Live well,

Jeff

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  

First and foremost my apologies for not posting here in a while.  It has been a crazy few months both personally and professionally.  I have not previously shared much about my personal life, but, I think it adds some context to my past few months.  Since my last post I have;

• Concluded and implemented the largest project of my career, a regulatory behemoth that involved over a year of work and will save my employer up to $3,000,000 per year.  This project dubbed the "1/50 Project" which I promise I will do a separate post on essentially changes the Canadian regulatory requirement of 1 Flight Attendant for every 40 passengers onboard an aircraft to the global standard of 1 Flight Attendant to every 50 seats installed on an aircraft.
• Purchased a new home.  Stressful and exciting.  I take possession sometime in June or July.  I swore when I built my last house that I would never build new again... I also discovered that when I shop for a new home I am in fact very picky and having something that is a new build suits my slightly OCD personality.
• Developed and launched 3 training programs and a massive amendment to the Flight Attendant Manual.  This year, I worked with my team to try something new.  We "flipped the classroom" with most of the program in relation to practical and skills based activities.  We have had a few classes come through already and the feedback has been very positive. 
• Requested and was granted a 1 year leave of absence from work.  I am very fortunate to have this opportunity, something that few people are afforded.  
• Wait!? What!? ^^^ a leave of absence??? Yes, it is time to take a break from what I am doing, expand my horizons and take stock of where I am.  What am I going to do? More on that at a later time too.  I know, I know, why all the suspense? Well... I have to keep you all interested after all ;-)

A lot more than the above has taken place but I would say those are the "key" pieces that have occupied my time and attention.


Until next time (soon!),

Jeff 

Well, it is about time I got around to talking a bit more about my own company.  Today was a special day for my airline, Canadian North and for the Canadian Football League.  Never before has either organization celebrated their unique brands as they both did today.  

Today we unveiled our first "logo-jet", branded with the official logo of all 9 CFL franchise teams.  Over a hundred spectators representing employees of both organizations, plus many members of the media were present as we literally dropped the curtain unveiling the spectacular homage to Canadian Football. 

My role was to represent the Flight Attendant group, myself and 9 other colleagues all donned our uniforms in order to be brand ambassadors.  I don't get to wear my uniform very often, my usual day to day life revolves around the office and of course the classroom.  

However, today was a great reminder of why it is that I do what I love.  Of the many hats that I wear, deep down, everything I do is because I am a Flight Attendant.  Watching my colleagues celebrate a great day and moment for our company was an amazing culture booster.  The pride was visible on the faces of each and every employee. 

We are not the biggest airline in the country, and we often hear "who are you guys again?" or "where do you fly to?".  To know that because of the industry leading service we provide, and the impeccable standards each employee sets for themselves we are able to secure national contracts such as this one. A contract that will take our people, and our beautiful airplanes to even more corners of the country.

I am proud to represent Canadian North, and to be counted among the hardest working and most dedicated aviation professionals one could ever dream of.  

With flying pride,

Jeff

Check out the TSN coverage from today, watch how we painted the aircraft and then dropped the curtain for all to see. 

http://www.tsn.ca/video/cfl-canadian-north-unveil-custom-painted-plane-1.138618

I have had the pleasure throughout my career to be an invited guest speaker at several conferences on Cabin Safety.  I have spoke at the International Cabin Safety Conference in Amsterdam, Vancouver and was invited to Zurich before the conference was abruptly cancelled due to insolvency on the part of the conference organizer. 

I enjoyed being able to speak and found it to be a rewarding experience.  Over the past two years I have had several colleagues tell me that I should get back into a speaking circuit organized by another event provider.  I would love to! the problem I am having is that I don't know what topic I should write a paper on and one that I can catch the attention of the organizer with an abstract of 200 words or less... 

I am going to go for it, but I need your help!  I have until the end of the month to submit a 200 word abstract in order to be considered for a speaking spot. I have created a poll of topics that I am considering.  The conference organizer is looking for topics that cover "Target Training Interventions and Aviation Safety".  Additionally if you think there is a different topic not listed in my poll, please leave a comment. 

Speak well, 

Jeff 

It did not take very long to receive curious questions about my recent post.  There appears to be a strong desire to share what I have learned about feedback and what my recommended best practices are.  Without question, I am happy to share them.

I believe that there are two essential beliefs we must have in order to have open and honest feedback conversations:

1. Keep them simple 
2. Keep them authentic

After my beliefs I follow these rules:

1. Be Nice - Remember what our parents told us? "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all".  Feedback IS a good and nice thing so long as your purpose is to share.  If your purpose to is crush someones soul and to hurt them, then don't open your mouth.  Also, take ownership for your emotional wake.  What you tell someone, even when it is delivered in the best package possible might still startle them, even hurt or embarrass them.  So deliver the message simply, do not drop it on them like a bomb. 
2. Be Honest - Do not stretch your truth because you want them to "really get it".  If they for a moment think that what your saying is made up or manipulative then you're sunk... they have stopped listening.  Also, where is your finger print on the issue?  If you do own all or a part of the issue or anything that contributed to it you need to own that "I am sorry that I have not had this conversation sooner, by avoiding it I only added to your confusion over ____" or "I have to apologize for ___ I can see that by doing ___, I made this worse for you".
3. Don't Give Advice - This is very hard for a lot of people, because most us like to stand on a soapbox and show how experienced we are.  Un-fortunately this won't help the person you are sharing your feedback with.  They will start to feel that you are showing that you are proving to them how good you are at what they apparently fail at.  They need to own their own path and course correction.  If they ask you "What should I do?" ask them "what do you think you should do?".
4. Say "Thank You"  - Providing feedback is one thing, receiving it can be a whole other story.  When your conversation is over, genuinely thank them for listening and taking in your feedback.  Let them know if they have any questions or if anything needs further discussion to let you know. 

I also have a list of practices to avoid.  In fact, never ever do any of the following.  If you are unclear why, go back to my statement about honesty. 

1. NO sandwich feedback -  Many people were taught a number of years ago that to provide feedback you should always start and end with something positive.... What if you don't actually have anything positive to say about the poor soul you are about to lie to...?  It end's up sounding like this "Susan, I adore you and how hard you work here.  But, if you are ever late like that again I will make you available to industry.  Oh! and I love your shoes!".  The Learning and Human Resource industries all agree now that sandwich feedback is not the way to go anymore.  In fact, we refer to the feedback sandwich as the "S#$T Sandwich", think about it... Who would ever want to eat a S#$T Sandwich.
2. Do not interrupt them - When they are talking and sharing their thoughts, emotions or perspectives do not cave to your inner defence mechanism, be present in the conversation.  Have this conversation as if nothing else in the world exists.  The same goes for multi tasking.  It is beyond rude to be dealing with e-mails, texting, etc.  When you do this, it tells the world that you don't really care and that this conversation really is not that important to you. 
3. "We agree to disagree" - I hear this every so often and it is worse than nails on a chalkboard for me.  If you seem to not be making any headway in the conversation just take a time-out.  Say something like "I feel this conversation has hit a road block and this is very important to me, lets take a break, sleep on it and continue our conversation tomorrow".  Sleep is magical, it is amazing what happens after resting and reflecting on something.  I guarantee that both of you will come back into the conversation with a different perspective.  If the other person says the above, say "we can't agree because I don't think we understand each others perspective".  At the end of the day, either person may not agree with everything said, however there is always a little nugget of something that each person can take away with them. 
4. Anonymous/E-mail/Text - Anonymous feedback is an evil thing invented to allow people to hide behind a wall and lob a weapon of mass emotional destruction.  The one caveat I have for this is as it pertains to safety.  Anonymous feedback that is safety related allows people to identify hazards without fear of reprisal and we have to support this.  Many workplaces will allow anonymous feedback and it is killing the passion and creativity in people.  Anonymous means nameless and faceless, how is that in line with belief number 2 above?  At the very least, allow people, and yourself the license to dismiss anonymous feedback especially in cases where they don't understand it and would require clarification or perhaps specific examples in order to make a course correction.  When it comes to feedback, if you can't put your name on it then it is most likely not something worth sharing (again, go back to the belief on being nice).  E-mail and text feedback? need I say more?  Feedback is a conversation, a loop of back and fourth sharing.  Body language and tone account for 55% and 38% of understood conversation, you lose that in written form and wild misunderstandings are certain to happen. 

What practices to avoid have your name on them?  What can you work on?  It is my absolute certain belief that the relationships both personal and professional are the sum of the quality and truth in the conversations we are having.  What relationships can you improve?  What should you be saying and sharing that you are not right now?and how much is that costing you?

Converse well,

Jeff

The other day I received a phone call from a member of my team.  This person reports to me and is a front line leader based at another location than where I am.  She has worked with our company for about 8 months and comes with over 20 years of industry experience.  I really enjoy her and wish that we didn't have geography between us, due to these distance obstacles she tends to liaise more with my leader, which is perfectly fine.  Back to the phone call, she said "I was hoping to chat with you about something...", "ok, I am all ears" I said.  She shared with me that she felt I had not been a fan of her and perhaps that I didn't feel that she was capable of doing her job to my satisfaction, she finished with her sentiment that she had really enjoyed working with me this past week and that she thought I was very good at what I do.  Gulp... When she finished telling me how she felt, I offered my apology and told her that I did feel she was very much capable of doing her job and a valued member of the team.  I continued with my thanks to her, I told her she was courageous and I was very grateful she was able to speak so candidly with me.

Now, were her feelings correct? It doesn't matter, that is how she felt and I own that.  Did I love hearing that I had caused someone to feel that way? absolutely not, but this valued employee had essentially saved our working relationship.  How much damage could have been done if she continued on feeling that way?  I am guessing down the road a shocking and sudden "blow up" would have occurred that would have left both of our heads spinning, or worse.  

The fact is, I needed to hear that.  Now, I am aware and armed with the knowledge that I have to be better.  I need to ensure that I meet her needs or support, openness and communication.  After I told her how grateful and proud I was of her for speaking up I told her that I expect to hear if I am ever causing her to feel that way again and that I would also be checking in on her to see how we were doing with our communication. 

What is the first thing you think of when someone says, "we need to talk", "can we have a moment?", "I have some feedback for you...".  Are you suddenly gripped with gut turning fear?  Perhaps not, but I am certain you are like most people and you are at the very least thinking "ok.... here we go".

So, why does this happen? why are we so afraid of feedback?  Some common reasons that I have come to realize are all based on fear, fear of an emotional reaction, fear of the unknown, fear of feeling picked on.  I think that as a society our environment has brought us to an apex of emotion.  We don't want to hear what we are not doing well, but we demand to hear what we are doing right.

I hear often, "these millennials" or "what is with the entitlement these days".  I often ask, "what would you say to the person(s) that make you feel this way if it were easy and you could just say what you felt?".  I actually get some great responses and feedback and it makes me wonder, "what would your life be like if you just said what you were thinking?".  

As my story above shares, it is the conversations we have, or do not have that define the relationships in our lives.  How long have you lived in turmoil not saying the thing that you desperately wanted to say, what was the cost of that relationship?

Be brave, have the conversation, say what is bothering you.  I promise that your relationships will be more authentic and far less stressful.  If you are on the listening side of this conversation.  Do just that, shut out your own inner voice and listen, and I mean actually listen.  No interruptions or cutting off, just listen. 

Until next time, 

Jeff 

I recently had the pleasure of taking a few days off, away from the hustle and bustle of my day to day corporate life and for the second time this year I visited a Disney Park. This time Disneyland Resort in California, having visited DisneyWorld in Orlando this past April.  These two experiences were the sum total of all of my Disney park experiences.  Seriously, WHAT was I waiting for?

As I do with many things in my life I marvelled at what I saw and experienced.  From a professional aspect I was left wondering, HOW exactly do they do it? Not just the creation of "magic", I am amazed at how they create such a deep brand experience and how they get their employees (cast members in Disney speak) to do, what they do.

As soon as you set foot on a Disney property, you feel different.  You realize at many levels that you are somewhere special.  There is a purpose for everything.  Cast members greet you warmly and consistently gesture directions with an open hand, always.  Pointing is forbidden and you will not see a Disney cast member do that.  Garbage Cans, YES, Garbage Cans have a science behind them.  You will notice on any Disney property that everything is impeccable, clean and always in working order.  Did you know that Disney figured out that the exact distance a guest will walk with rubbish in their hands is exactly 27 feet?  The rubbish bins are never full, always appear clean and are always specifically branded to the area of the park that they are in.  I actually did an experiment and purposely shifted a bin so that the two side by side looked askew.  Within minutes a cast member noticed and walked up, re-aligned the bins and carried on. 

"Details, Mean EVERYTHING" 

I noticed on this recent visit that park managers all carry little grabber arms.  No matter who you are in the organization, if you see rubbish, you pick it up.  Another element that many guests may not notice is that you will never find gum for sale on a Disney property, ever.  Why? Walt Disney abhorred the thought of gum staining the walkways throughout the park.  You would never see gum in the wild west, so you certainly won't see it in Disney's Adventure Land. 

You will not find a sad, surly, or un-happy cast member anywhere on a Disney property.  I am amazed at the true interest and passion that each cast member who I encountered treated me, guest number 7 trillion, to each of them I mattered.  Again I ask, how do they do it? 

"Disney starts with WHY"

I believe that Disney starts with why (Simon Sinek, Start With Why).  What I mean by this is that Disney knows clearly what it believes is its purpose, more importantly Disney recruits cast members that believe what they believe.  That Disneyland and DisneyWorld are not theme or amusement parks.  They are a feeling, an experience, a living movie as Walt Disney would say.

This starts from solid training.  Disney has an internal training department called Disney University and the Disney Institute, before cast members ever set foot in their new work space they enter a program called Traditions, which imparts the essential knowledge, behaviours and expectations of being a Disney cast member.  Does your organization do this by providing an orientation into the organizations values?  Perhaps that would cost too much, what is it costing NOT to provide this knowledge. 

Enjoy the magic,

Jeff

Have you ever heard someone say "it's clearly a training issue?"  I hear this often and if you have read my previous post we touched on the 70/20/10 philosophy and if we agree and follow that philosophy, which I do, we know that training cannot and will never fix "everything".  

But I see this in so many teams and organizations where something goes wrong, a mishap, close call, etc and some very insightful self proclaimed expert drops the "it must be a training issue".  The question I want to ask in those situations is "what exactly are you pretending NOT to know".  In truth, they usually don't know better, which is why these types of people may try to pigeon hole "training" as the issue.

What I take from this is that, if all goes well on a daily basis "they are trained correctly" yet when things don't go well, it is a training "issue".  I think before we declare an issue to be a training issue, or any departments issue for that matter, that we should stop and take stock of the situation, WHY did something go wrong, or WHY is something not working?

Back to our 70/20/10.  The conversation that could be taking place in these types of situations should include a discussion over the gaps that exist in the "20" and "70" realms. 

"What do we expect them to do after this training?"

If the people in the room cannot articulate an answer to the above question, then it is back to the drawing board...

Argue well,

Jeff 

The look on ones face when the latest office memorandum has landed (crash landed).  Susan Scott of fierce inc has stated that "anonymous feedback is faceless, nameless and without any distinguishing parts".  Is that what you want your team or employees to think of you?

What would the world look like if anyone that ever released a memo said to themselves that what they are about to issue will be received just like an e-mail or text message?  We would live in a world of great transparency if that were the case. 


Instead, many corporations choose to shame and blame the masses with spiteful drivel.  Why then, do memorandums get issued in the first place?  I would suggest this is because they are very easy to make and not much creativity is required to issue one.

If we look at the desired outcome from a 70/20/10 approach (Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger "The Career Architect Development Planner" 1996).  We know that 10% of an adults learning takes place in the classroom, the very best we can expect to accomplish in class using lecture, activities, demonstrations etc is 10%.  20% of an adults learning comes from Coaching & Feedback, you can blend this with formal learning or you can design a process where this happens after they leave the classroom.  The bulk though, in fact 70% of their learning comes from Operational Experience. 

I would argue then, that sending out a memo to clarify, coach or correct something would accomplish at the very most, 10%.  Given the delivery, I would further suggest that retention from a memo is in fact in the single digits. Don't do it! consider a more creative approach to communicating with your team.  Perhaps an infographic job aid? or a leadership touch point where leaders are present for their employee groups to answer questions and seek feedback.  If you work with absentee workers just-in-time interactive on-line training is another great way to share information.

More interest and attention will be paid if the delivery of the information is varied, positive, and useful.  I witnessed at another organization that management set up a private Facebook group for the employees, most of whom were remote or absentee teams.  This proved very successful as this was an avenue for two-way communication, employees posted questions and their leaders and peers could respond and take part in the discussion.  I highly recommend doing this at any type of organization, embrace social media instead of being fearful of it.  Trust me, it's not going away. 

The next time you start drafting a memorandum, consider how you can communicate your information a different way and see if you can break that 10%.

Communicate well, 

Jeff