Change, how it can be easy.

The ability to change is in all of us but how do we flick the “change” switch ? Is it just carrot and stick or is there some other way?

I have just had one of those typical business experiences where a huge amount of travelling is done for a short face to face meeting, that in this case was not entirely successful. I went all the way to Inverness for discussions with a supplier to try a resolve an outstanding issue. After less than two hours my colleagues and were on our way back, some progress made but no one very happy.

It’s the travel element of this and my attitude to travel that is exercising me at present. I went by train for the majority of the journey, a bit of car sharing at the other end to link station to office and very short trip in my very small Yaris too my very local station at this end. So I am feeling very smug on that front.

A bit of advanced planning and clever booking on the lovely internet meant the whole thing was done first class for less than the standard flight costs . The first class bit is important, not because I am, but because it enabled me to work for much of the journey.

My view of train travel has changed, I have always enjoyed travelling by train or at least said I did but for some reason I have usually opted to fly or drive. Odd!, yes, why? not sure, something about the ease of booking, some residual glamour that is still attached to flying and a travel desk that does flights but not railways. So why change? Experience and ease.

Somewhere else I have mentioned that if we do want people to change their way of living it has to be easy and sold as easy or worth it. I think trains have got there and now I am an evangelist. In the car journey back to the station we were discussing why, as a business, we did very little train travel and a lot of flying. One of our number trotted out the usual ease, simplicity and cost arguments. I have heard these, and in some cases used them, many times before. But since my trip to The Hague on a train and the amount of work that I did during the journey, I am converted. The great thing about a train journeys, especially long (4 hours plus) ones, is the peace, quiet and therefore concentration that is available. The benefit of the first class option is that even on my return leg, on Friday night from Edinburgh to London, when the rest of the train was packed and the guard constantly reminding people sit in their reserved seats or they would have to stand for the whole journey, the first class cars were busy but civilised and most people were working. All of this for £98.50. There was free WiFi, coffee and tea passing every twenty minutes, at seat service for food etc. The tables are big enough for 4 laptops to be in use at once and there is mains power to keep things going etc. This is better than my office on most days. Very little disturbance, and an atmosphere that encourages one to work. Or is that just me.

Any other form of domestic business travel is madness compared to the reliable, affordable, convenient train service.

My meeting may not have been anywhere near as productive as I had wanted it to be but the journey there and back certainly was.

Book in advance, use the business tools on offer from the train and station operators Lounges, WiFi, tea and coffee, showers etc and access this by travelling with a first class ticket.

If all this was available to the standard class passenger, particularly the peace, quiet and space then I would do that as a preference. On many European trains this is possible, as it is on Eurostar.

Total travel cost of Tisbury to Inverness by train were:

28 miles from office to station claimed at 10p/mile £2.80

Parking Tisbury station: £2.50

Tisbury – Waterloo (first class) £16.00

Tube Fare £1.60

Sleeper Euston – Inverness (first class) £136.00

Collected by colleagues and car share to meeting and then back to Edinburgh

Edinburgh – Kings Cross (first class) £98.50

Tube Fare £1.60

Waterloo – Tisbury (first class) £25.20

5 miles home claimed at 10p per mile £0.50

Total £284.60

Compared too:

38 miles to Southampton Airport £3.80

Parking at Airport £28.00

Return flight to Inverness £274.00

Hotel accommodation in Inverness £75.00

38 miles home £3.80

Total £384.60

The train was £100 cheaper, the whole thing took 30 hours door to door and was productive for 20 of them.

The flight option, if it was do’able (flights from Southampton/Bristol to Inverness are not that frequent) would have taken at as long but the productive time would have been closer to 10 hours.

I will not do this analysis for ever journey and some will not be as cheap or smooth but it has to be the way forward. The last missing piece of the jigsaw is reliable car hire at all stations.

I have changed because I have had a couple of genuinely good and positive experiences. This is the way to get more people to think about their lifestyle and how they can be more sustainable.

Less preaching, more real life relevant examples of how the same or better still more, can be achieved by just being a bit different and thinking near the edge of the box.

Europe's Wild Wonders. Worth a look.

A plug for something is a common site and sound in all our media and I am certain I have unwitting done it many times in this blog.

I this case it is very deliberate. Please go and have a look at www.wild-wonders.com. Under the strapline Unseen. Unexpected. Unforgettable they have commissioned 60 of the best nature photographers in Europe to capture and create astonishing images that celebrate the best the is natural Europe from individual animals, birds and plants, to the most stunning landscapes. All of nature has been brought together in this pan European collection.

I was shown some of the images over dinner last night here at the Europarc conference in Stromstad, Sweden. Yesterday was excursion day and all of us had had a pretty long but exhilarating day, in the clear autumn sunshine that has made this event memorable. However I expect most of us just wanted to sit down eat dinner and get an early night. There was an almost audible sigh when the pa system started up and another Scandinavian with perfect English started talking, “yet another speech, please leave us alone”. The chap on the mic talked about celebrating Europe’s natural wonder and described the Wild Wonders project whilst showing a few of the images.

The tone around our table changed in an instant, Jim Dixon from the Peak National park, Helen Smith for the National Association of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Ashley Thomas from the Wye Valley AONB and I. are not a hard audience for great photos and even greater places. The thing about this slice of the conference was the positive, accessible and enjoyable tone of the project ad its beliefs.

A great change from my last blog. So go look at the site and its photos, sign up to support it when the exhibition comes to a shopping centre near you and plan to upgrade your phone to a Nokia next year as they will be shipping 500 million of theme with many of these images preloaded. Be inspired to go and enjoy these places and spaces. Hey are there for all of us to enjoy.

P.S have a look at Jim’s blog: http://jimdixon.wordpress.com/ Its not often a public bodies CEO bothers to try a communicate his values, experiences and ambitions to a wider audience in quite such a clear, open and accessible manner.

Eweleaze Farm Campsite Review

Okay we are all back from our week away at Eweleaze. This is a fantastic campsite on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast just east of Weymouth and it lived up its billing in www.Coolcamping, www.beachcampsites, etc. One friend who had been down the week before to see family had suggested that the site had the greatest “reveal” of any he had visited but it was all a disappointment after that. He was right about the reveal, after turning of the Weymouth road one bounces up a farm track and over the brow of the hill to see the site laid out in the distance with the sea, beaches and bays beyond it. Our appreciation of the view lasted longer than many as we had to hone and wait for someone to come a raise the height barrier. A swift service, repeated on our exit at the end.

The track down to the site is equally bumpy and steep. I think a few folk were a little freaked out later in the week as the rain we experienced on Wednesday made the clay/limestone surface turn to an entertaining slurry too slide over. The staff on site did a good job of marshalling cars in and out of the various fields and were firm enough when needed to convince some who wanted to drive back to their tents, that a short walk was the better option. As a result the site stayed green rather than muddy and rutted.

The atmosphere is good, the result of a clash of styles to rival anything found in CERN. A few minutes wandering around will reveal most of the styles in the centre left clothes box from Sienna Miller circa Glastonbury 2004 (battered straw Stetson, Matthew Williamson dress and Hunter wellies) to the dishevelled Guardian reader in black everything, 3 days stubble and rollup. All liberally interspersed with the British middle class on staycation 2009.

The pitches themselves are mostly sloping, the angle will vary from gentle to extreme, the most popular field of the 8 available was the suitably named “Flat Field”. None were called the sheltered field, this is a beachside/clifftop site so kite flying is not normally a problem.

One of the features of the site is the “free” firewood supplied by the owners. This vast pile of landscape gardening waste is more reminiscent of the slums of Mumbai, Manila or Narobi than Dorset but combing over the heap you will find most of the residents and their kids searching for fuel for the evening bonfire. I did my share of rooting around, Eucalyptus and Leylandii are not the greatest burning logs but if old and dry enough do the job. One word of advice it is don’t bother to buy the logs on offer as they are mostly green and wet leylandii wich smokes slowly rather than burns. There is a rent a bale scheme, I say rent as I suspect very few take them home at the end of their holiday. The ones that get broken up are recycled through an old baler to produce more little square bales. “Great for sitting on” is the sale pitch, better as a wind break is the reality. As campers move on there is a very civilized stampede to take custody of their straw stack by those remaining!

The best things about the site are the kittens and puppies. No idea if they can be guaranteed every year, but if you have small kids, and want peace and quiet they are fantastic. My two spent most of their waking hours patiently sitting in huddles of other kids waiting for their turn to hold the kittens or take the puppies for a walk. Whoever has bought these pets can be assured they will be very well socialised.

We had a day on the beach, all shingle but fun. The route down is via a steep path is equipped with a thick rope to slow down descent and speed up ascent. The two beach facing fields have a great, if somewhat bracing view. Both are car free other than set up and drop off. The car population emulates the humans, lots of urban 4x4’s and people carriers with the sizable minority of classic spilt screen VW campers, series I, II, & III Land Rovers and the odd transit van

Best summarised as Glasto without the tunes. If that’s your ting then book early for 2010. We will but I suspect we will also follow Cool Camping for kids advice a try out a couple of the “slow life” sites further west.

Age of Stupid and the lack of laughs in life

I went to see the Aged of Stupid a coupe of days ago, and now I am in Sweden having just listened to so very good speeches about the challenges we all face to maintain and promote the biodiversity of the planet. It’s a tough gig and we , the professional managers, do very little to help ourselves or the biodiversity of the planet. The faces around me all day and all night are long and serious. They take the subject very seriously and worse still they take themselves very seriously.

We will never find a sustainable solution until we find a way of enjoying the natural beauty and depth and variety of the planet.

Biodiversity is not just about conservation biology and great wildlife TV. For billions of people biodiversity is the cornerstone of their life. Its about food, economic activity, freshwater provision, flood protection, healthcare provision etc.

Life everywhere is hard for most people from Manila to Mumbai to Manchester but the common factor in everyone’s life is the moments of joy, happiness and delight. There is very little in this room today.

That worries me more than the depressing messages of Age of Stupid and the loss of biodiversity.

I believe that the outcome shown in the movie can be avoided if we are smart enough to laugh, smile and realise that more people will do more that is beneficial if they are enjoying the result.

We must make the changes we need to happen to be enjoyable not worthy.

My first mountain bike event, horse riders and Epping Forest

So I did my first Mountain Bike event this weekend. Not a race as such but an orienteering type thing, set up by Garmin to promote their bike GPS gadgets. Pretty cool in fact, bit hard to read in the sun or rattling along the trail but once you get the hang of the moving map and the very simple keys, its pretty good. I must confess I think my time (1hr 51m) would have been faster if I had been using a paper OS map but one must move with the times. Orienteering is mostly a head game, with a lot of navigation thrown in to make it interesting. The Garmin unit does the nav and you just have to use your brain.

I didn’t do enough planning, just set out for the nearest check point with a decent points tally. This meant I ended up having the cycle over two valleys’ to collect the last 3 CP’s worth only 10, 20 and 30 points respectively. Out of a total of 360 available.

I have a Garmin 705 strapped to my hybrid which I use to cycle to work and for general trolling about on and off the road around Chilmark and it is great. Thanks Mark for the loan, not certain I want to give it back.

The Cadence and HR data, along with the GPS info can be analysed in the Garmin Training Centre software. This shows time, distance, speed, height gained and lost, and can be transferred back and forth to the bike unit from a laptop. Its is possible to set alarms and waypoints to see if you are getting fitter or in my case just chart ones decline into middle aged spread.

The event was fun as I had borrowed a proper full suspension bike from mate Chopper Dave. My first problem was that the seat post was fused into the seat pillar and being a combination of carbon fibre and aluminium was not going to move even with half a can of Carbon Flo (WD40 for carbon fiber). The very nice men in Stonehenge Cycles put their chances at no better than 50:50 at getting it to move or shatter the post. Not good odds with only 24 hrs to the off. What’s an inch and a half amongst mates, bloody masses in my view. I couldn’t get a full leg stroke on the uphill sections, which is very off-putting. I did a couple of short rides around local tracks to get used to the feel but the Daviator rides with flatties which feel weird after years with riding with eggbeaters, so they were changed. Peddling is a lot simpler with ones feet clipped into the peddles, rather than sitting on top. A bit of fettling improved the indexing and I was off to Queen Elizabeth Country Park for my first decent crack off-road on a proper bike in years. I had had a couple of big days in the Brecon Beacons over the May Bank holiday but that was a spine jarring experience on my hard tailed hybrid.

My first mountain bike (25 years ago) was a Peugeot Crazy Horse, only 10 gears, no indexing and a cast iron frame. I brought it with the intention of it being a great way to get me and my gear to the crags in style, without walking. My first attempt was at Swanage on the Dorest coast with panniers loaded up with ropes and my crag bag on the rack, I spent an entertaining hour falling off every 10 metres trying to get to the top of Boulder Ruckle. It normally took 30 minutes on foot.

I left the bike in the shed after that but kept the cycling to my local trails which at that point were in Epping Forest. Mountain bikers are now in serious conflict with walkers and horse riders in the forest. I think myself and two of my colleagues would have been the only mountain bike rider in 8,000 acres back in 1985/6. The conflict today is a silly one really, lots of intolerance of changing recreation patterns and few bikers being selfish. It’s not unusual that selfishness, dressed up as rights for the masses, is the cause of lots of local difficulty. I went back to Epping Forest to work for a cope of years recently. I had mountain bikers using a trail at the back of my house almost every day. As a family we never had a problem, they called ahead on the poor visibility bits of the downhill and slowed down when ever they saw us, normally out with the kids (then aged 3 & 5). We stood back and allowed them to pass, everybody got on fine.

I don’t doubt that there were incidents when bikers disturbed peoples picnic and walkers stubbornly refused to allow bikes past on narrow paths. I bit of given and take, along with calm discussion without adjectives, is the best way forward. I am sure the entrenched are busy digging in deeper but bikes are not going away. In fact I would suggest the number of people cycling for pleasure is growing. That’s great in my book.

The issue with horse riders is an interesting one. I can understand that bikes can spook the horses. One of the most enjoyable things I had to do during my time there was ride. I arrived as a rusty novice and left a lot better. We had lots is discussion about the issues with horse riders and I must confess to taking quite a hard line on this one. Horse riding is never going to be “safe”, there will always be risks. One of the horses I had to ride in Epping didn’t like white vans and would shy away if she saw one coming her way. This was a very regular occurrence as Epping Forest is in Essex, the home of the white van! I knew this about my mount and rode accordingly. There were riders in the forest who would expect all other users to stand still as they came past in case the horse spooked. One actually told me that her horse was scared of branches, whilst riding in a forest! I understand the risks of riding a bike and horse, and accept them. I understand that I have to mange my own mount and its behaviour. That I could be injured by the actions of another. I expect them to behaviour in a sensible way but I do not expect then to put my needs exclusively before their own and I certainly do not believe it is the responsibility of the land owning authority to de-risk my recreation space. Many of the horse riders in Epping Forest believe the forest authorities should provide an inherently safe place for them to ride. This position is made worse by the generally poor standard of horsemanship exhibited by the majority of riders in the forest. the shining example of good horsemanship came from the forest authorities own mounted staff. Sadly they are being disbanded and retuned to foot and van patrols.

Mountain bikers do need to take extra care around horses but equally the riders need to be aware of the other users and school their mounts to expect cyclists. walkers, white vans and trees. From observation I think the riders are more concerned than the horses and this spooks the animals more than the cyclist, etc.

Back to the present, Chopper has a very nice Trek Epic M5 with lots of XT, XTR and Fox Float front and back. I bit short in the cockpit for me. The front wheel was coming up on most strokes on the big rings and on some of the down hill bits I was very close to acrobatics at times. It’s a large frame and even though we are both the same height I think I could do with an XL.

No idea how long my route ended up being but there were 8 check points spread around QECP and I found them all. The Oregon unit worked well even under the tree canopy. I did spend a while wandering around a nicely thinned stand of beech, swearing at the bloody thing as it insisted I was on top of the CP but it was nowhere to be seen. I found it about 50 meters away and 10 minutes later on the side of a track. Why of course all the other had been, so why would they put this one in the middle of a load of bramble and singers. There were no other tracks in or out so it was all my fault not the hardware’s.

I made it back in one piece, a bit scratched and drenched in sweat but loved it and will be adding a new iron horse to the stable ASAP. The next goal is to find a few equally daft mates and have a crack at Mountain Mayhem. The bike is on its way to the shop for some proper fettling as the indexing drove me mad. Couldn’t get any low gears gear under load, especially the bigger rings. Old blokes like me need lots of mechanical advantage to get up the steeper, longer hills. Dave says he hadn’t noticed as he doesn’t need the big rings. Its not that he is fitter he just gives up and walks sooner!

Baby P, adjectives and tribes

Do I need to saying anything about the latest chapter in the Baby P story? Yes but its quite simple. What happened to the child was appalling, I know enough, I do not need to know anymore about the suffering and the causes. I do not want to know anything more about the people that did these appalling things and equally I do not want to know anything about the people who failed to do something to stop it or didn’t notice when undertaking a diagnosis.

The media appear to think that we do want to know and to this end have worked hard to get all the names into the public domain, or rather in there individual organs, everything reported in the media over the last few days has been available online for months, also reported by the media. To this end their campaign has been a waste of time and money.

We, the tax payer, will now have to pick up the cost of protecting the 3 people whose ID has been revealed, once they get out. The Sun estimates £1.5 Million per annum. I assume this is a massive exaggeration but it will not be cheap and it will go on for a long time. The ability of the media to generate a self propagating story is amazing. The incidence of one feeding story being recycled to feed the next feels a lot like feeding dead cows back to healthy cows and creating mad cow disease, which then jumps species to people. In this case we are creating mad journo disease which is jumping across the gap to infect newspaper readers, radio listeners and TV viewers. Will we never learn.

I am assuming the law suits being brought by the various social workers, managers and medic about the criticism of them and subsequent dismissal will all end up in a huge cost being covered by the publics purse, that assumes they do not win anything but there will be huge costs. Please God tell me that the employers took some decent advice from the employment lawyers and followed due process.

A bad day for the public purse, all driven by a media that loves adjectives almost as much as circulation, BARB and RAJAR figures.

A bright hope is that TATA have found their own funding from commercial banks to get Land Rover Jaguar back on track. A big thank you to Peter Mandelson for not caving in to huge pressure to cough up £400 million in loan guarantees. The idea of active industrialism might actually work. I know the great white hope of Heseltine was a strong advocate of intervention before every meal but government staying out of industry and looking after people in need more directly may be a good idea.

I could do a very long blog on the problems of people sticking their oar in when they have nothing to add but it would be of little value to anyone especially me. I will say that I am constantly surprised at the ability of people to not hear the important things that are said to them and how easily some can take offence at the best intentioned action. We do appear to love to create tribes in our life. Tribes have many good things about them but one of the things they do bring with them is tribal conflict and better still intra tribal tension. A like working in teams of people, I try hard to build teams to deliver objectives, being a firm believer in the Chinese parliament style of decision making. Get a group of smart people and give everyone an equal say, all idea valid and everyone then develops a workable solution. It gets everyone on the same page, shares the risk and builds ownership. Why is it then that some folk will not play but the game goes on and they are asked to come on a half time. Then they have to change the game plan to the one they like or they provoke a pitch invasion too get their own way. No real winners then and lots of time wasted.

By the way, love the sunshine. Lots more please. My enthusiasm for sunshine not rain and cold must be something to do with getting old.

Baby P, adjectives and tribes

Do I need to saying anything about the latest chapter in the Baby P story? Yes but its quite simple. What happened to the child was appalling, I know enough, I do not need to know anymore about the suffering and the causes. I do not want to know anything more about the people that did these appalling things and equally I do not want to know anything about the people who failed to do something to stop it or didn’t notice when undertaking a diagnosis.

The media appear to think that we do want to know and to this end have worked hard to get all the names into the public domain, or rather in there individual organs, everything reported in the media over the last few days has been available online for months, also reported by the media. To this end their campaign has been a waste of time and money.

We, the tax payer, will now have to pick up the cost of protecting the 3 people whose ID has been revealed, once they get out. The Sun estimates £1.5 Million per annum. I assume this is a massive exaggeration but it will not be cheap and it will go on for a long time. The ability of the media to generate a self propagating story is amazing. The incidence of one feeding story being recycled to feed the next feels a lot like feeding dead cows back to healthy cows and creating mad cow disease, which then jumps species to people. In this case we are creating mad journo disease which is jumping across the gap to infect newspaper readers, radio listeners and TV viewers. Will we never learn.

I am assuming the law suits being brought by the various social workers, managers and medic about the criticism of them and subsequent dismissal will all end up in a huge cost being covered by the publics purse, that assumes they do not win anything but there will be huge costs. Please God tell me that the employers took some decent advice from the employment lawyers and followed due process.

A bad day for the public purse, all driven by a media that loves adjectives almost as much as circulation, BARB and RAJAR figures.

A bright hope is that TATA have found their own funding from commercial banks to get Land Rover Jaguar back on track. A big thank you to Peter Mandelson for not caving in to huge pressure to cough up £400 million in loan guarantees. The idea of active industrialism might actually work. I know the great white hope of Heseltine was a strong advocate of intervention before every meal but government staying out of industry and looking after people in need more directly may be a good idea.

I could do a very long blog on the problems of people sticking their oar in when they have nothing to add but it would be of little value to anyone especially me. I will say that I am constantly surprised at the ability of people to not hear the important things that are said to them and how easily some can take offence at the best intentioned action. We do appear to love to create tribes in our life. Tribes have many good things about them but one of the things they do bring with them is tribal conflict and better still intra tribal tension. A like working in teams of people, I try hard to build teams to deliver objectives, being a firm believer in the Chinese parliament style of decision making. Get a group of smart people and give everyone an equal say, all idea valid and everyone then develops a workable solution. It gets everyone on the same page, shares the risk and builds ownership. Why is it then that some folk will not play but the game goes on and they are asked to come on a half time. Then they have to change the game plan to the one they like or they provoke a pitch invasion too get their own way. No real winners then and lots of time wasted.

By the way, love the sunshine. Lots more please. My enthusiasm for sunshine not rain and cold must be something to do with getting old.