Another twist is looming in the ‘Avo payoff line’ debate! Just as we were about to send our business cards off to print, Tracy and Vanessa come back from training ‘On the Spot’ at Ogilvy and Mather to tell us the debate isn’t over yet!

We thought we had cracked it at ‘Fresh learning solutions’.

O and M think we should use ‘A fresh approach to Working’.

Any more takers or thoughts…..? It is, by now, the 11th hour…….

“Hello! Hurrah and heigh-ho the morning dew! I am Shanthee Manjoo from Kwazulu Natal’s city of Pietermaritzburg and STE Publishers are about to launch my memoir!

Some of you remember me from from Avo’s Diversity experience where I enjoyed reading and sharing some extracts from my memoir, ‘Classrooms in the Shade’! I thought that the senior managers in the Bank would be ‘Men in Black’. Immaculate in their 3-piece suits. Unapproachable?? Perish the thought! I found you all to be completely human and lovable!

As my memoir is about to be launched, I thought it would be great to make contact with all of you again and start to tantalise your fancy with some of its’ flavour! Watch this space and I will keep in touch with you all through the blog!”

I’ve had a quiet revolution in myself. It happens every now and again when you discover stuff about yourself that you didn’t know or had forgotten or was not seeing clearly I’m really happy with the work I do.

Sometimes when you lose sight of why you do the work you do, why you chose it, why you enjoy it, it becomes a millstone round your neck. And then sometimes you have the opportunity to be shown why you’re in this game. I had the opportunity to work with WBHO over the last two months. For those of you that don’t know it’s a large construction company.

In August I had the opportunity to train some of their level 3 engineers. They were on an intense two week academy that WBHO had set up for them. These guys are generally in charge of running a construction site. They work in a tough environment with a wide range of people from different race groups and cultures, with different languages and vastly different education levels. They talk straight, very straight, you call a spade a f-king shovel and you don’t pull the punches, that’s a waste of time. When someone makes a mistake coaching is straight you f-ked up, now get it f-king right or I’ll f-king kill you and so everyone knows exactly where they stand and what to do. And then along I come, feeling slightly apprehensive that my work on Empathy, Emotional Intelligence and Transactional Analysis is not going to go down very well amongst a group of straight talking engineers.

Well what a great experience. These guys are amazing. We did work on Personalities, on Parent Adult Child, on Listening, Empathy and Assertiveness. We discussed Negotiation, Conflict and dealing with Cultural Fluency. Every time I connected with them my paradigm of engineers and the construction industry was challenged. Every time we connected we had fun, we laughed and we got serious. AND every time they took what we were discussing to heart, looking for ways to implement the knowledge and skill at work, at home and with one another. My experience with conferences or academy type learning programmes is that they’re about playing - team building and drinking, oh and training is for recovering. Well these guys would not stop working that is and it blew me away. They devoured every thing I threw at them and I was only a small part of their programme. And so I finished on an absolute high feeling fantastic about what I do.

Over this small time while connecting with Marileen, who managed the academy, to deciding what to include and what would be most valuable, to dealing with the guys on the programme I began to get a super feeling about WBHO. Then some of the other Avos who connected with them started saying the same thing. Whenever one of us connected with the WBHO team it was a memorable experience. That starts to tell you something about their culture: they are just damn nice people. That was August. I should have blogged all this then. I got busy, back to back with more training and so you think I’m writing about it now cause I’ve got time no I don’t but I’ve got to tell you I just connected with them again this weekend in a completely different division and it’s the same!

Jules and I went to Swaziland to do two talks on Saturday to all the guys that manage the Plant (aah-ha me speak ‘constructionish’.) They provide all the big trucks, graders, excavators etc to the different working sites around the country and around Africa. Yes we had the same experience. The guys were even more straight than the engineers mentioned in previous paragraphs, but just as warm, friendly, interested and enthusiastic about our messages. So to Marileen, thanks for your faith in us, and to Bill and Rob, thanks for taking us on to do that work with your guys. But it’s not just thanks for the work, you have a culture that has impacted all the Avo’s that met with you.

I thank you for helping me with my quiet revolution. Because of you, I remembered how much I love what I do.

(posted by Jules for Grant)

With a little coercion from the Apprentice WBHO ooligan Rob, Jules and I decided to go to Swaziland on the bike. A bit of adventure we reasoned.

By the time we got to Friday midday, one hour before leaving, I was in a complete ‘toestand’ (a little anxious for those of you that don’t understand). I could not make a decision whether to go on the bike or in the car, rain, safety, timing, etc worry fret worry fret develop big knots in your stomach kind of worry fret. Jules got home, I said I don’t know what to do, I can’t decide between the bike and car, worry fret worry fret”. She said  “Were going on the bike!!! full stop” OOOOOk decision made (why the hell was that so easy for her and so hard for me?)

If you want to know more about this we run a whole flippen course on personalities and behaviour styles, which I must say I’m quite good at running but I am still the one in a complete toestand (still the same as anxious). Needless to say off we went on the bike, heading out to Swaziland and what a wonderful journey it was. No rain either, by now the level of anxiousness had abated and I was feeling much better.

The real adventure started on Sunday. Rob and Donald had convinced us to join them on a leisurely day of biking back to joburg VIA the rest of the ou Transvaal.We had a spectacular ride from Maguga dam (which WBHO were instrumental in constructing) to the Bulembu border post, 20 km up and over the mountains along narrow, winding forest tracks in the rain and mist. It was beautiful. Bulembu to just above Barberton was a dirt road under construction. All in the mist and rain.Yet it was still spectacular. We had glimpses of the valley floor as the sun broke through the clouds every now and again and then it would all close up in the mist, only to shine through a little later in a different spot, absolutely magical. Next on to Barberton, Nelspruit, White river, Sabie, Dullstroom, and then homeward bound.

11 hours and a good few thunderstorms later, we rolled in home. Had to peel Jules off the bike, but it was an adventure for all of us! Thanks, Rob and Don you took us where we would have been too timid to venture alone!

Jules has another article in the People Dynamics for September.

“Not just getting the job done” focuses on the relationship economy, which has replaced the information economy that was all about what you can access, and when you can access it, of recent years.

In it Jules says that customers know you have access to all kinds of information about them, but they want to know that they’re more than just a number.

To quote: “Consumers today feel that the better you know them, the more likely you are to deliver a value-added service. And it works both ways, as they are more likely to remain loyal to you if you take the time to understand them.”

“And so the relationship economy begins internally, managing your staff relationships - managing people well, not just getting the job done.”

Ver interesting article Jules!