I recently saw on the BBC website that additional travel restrictions have been imposed on eight areas in the UK including where many of my family live.

This has been in place since Friday, but nobody knew about it. There was no announcement it was simply posted in a subsection of a governance Covid advice page. But since as far as anybody was aware there had been no change, there was no reason to visit that page.

Heightened customer expectations are here to stay and are having a huge impact on technology in contact centres. Ed Creasey at Calabrio shares a forward-looking plan for the “new normal”. 

See how planning helped tackle complex challenges in introducing the first new train type in 30 years, itself the first step in a journey of digital transformation.

Summary 
Successful implementation of the new Azuma trains has depended as much on the planning and delivery of training, as the technical introduction of the trains themselves. This required complex planning on such a crowded rail network, including suspending two daily services and gaining flexibility on schedules from colleagues. Yet over 1,600 crew were successfully trained, at the same time that trains were being tested and drivers trained, losing only one service in 18 months. Customer experience is transformed – moving LNER to 3rd out of 28 operators. And technology now provides new facilities and data, paving the way to expand the services further, in a competitive marketplace. Adapting key planning approaches, to face new challenges with limited technology, this is all about engaging with people at the right time to bring them on board on this strategic journey of change. 

I recently read an article that stated “The simple act of rotating your plate can make the food on it taste better.” Like many of you my first reaction was scepticism, surely this was yet another of those statistically unsound studies that newspapers seem to love. However, as I read on I found that this was a valid study conducted by the Science Museum scientists at Oxford University. 

Solving Problems

For some, the attraction is the challenge of solving something so complex, for others it’s the satisfaction when it’s achieved, for others still it’s collaborating and working together knowing that many minds are better than one. Problem solving can be a key enabler to success but how successful are we in the act of problem solving itself?

Forum Member James Stewart, Head of Live Operations at Sky UK, reflects on his roller-coaster ride at the 24-hour European Championships and the resulting team medals.

Across the river Bega, a bar erupts in a cheer. It is the kind of roar that tells you something special has just happened. The commentator is screaming in Romanian and I can see the big screens clearly, Gareth Bale has just scored a wonder goal in the Champions League final.

Meanwhile, I am emptying my belly over the fence being sick once again. Even so, I wouldn’t have swapped a seat at the bar for the fence I am hunched over in the Ion Creanga park in Timisoara for all the tea in China at that moment.

Yep, welcome to 24-hour racing!

Read the full blog.

Date Published: 18/06/2018