Learning how to change

Two personal accounts of recovery and change proved the highlights of the TSA conference 2005.

In 2003, Alex Rowe of the CLS Group suffered a stroke, an event that changed his approach not just to his personal life, but to the way he ran his business.

Recovery was a slow process, moving from one small goal to the next. It taught him to keep the big picture in view while paying attention to the small stuff, and to plan for disasters. Reviewing his personal insurance policies, he says “I signed for everything” even, he joked, to protect the dog he didn’t have.

One should hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Putting that philosophy into action in the company meant a greater concentration on team work, his reason for going to work, he told the audience.

A properly run team can run the business. He realised that “he couldn’t work harder so he must work smarter.” Rather than try to do everything, he now works on a policy of training the teams and trusting them.

Set targets and goals, he advised. Both people and teams need them. Targets are motivating as long as you set them within achievable limits. Above all, he has learned to take action now, before disaster happens.

Antony Moore of Eastern Counties Laundries went through a personal examination in a public setting last year when the company was the subject of one of the BBC’s Trouble at the Top programmes. As he told David Stevens, in the conference’s “In the Chair” spot, it was his decision to apply to be on Gerry Robinson’s troubleshooting programme. The business was suffering to such an extent that “we’d run out of ideas and were looking looking for outside help.”

It could have called in a consultant, but Moore said he would have felt less compelled to take the advice.

Being on TV forced action. “The process involved every single employee, and has fundamentally changed the way we run the business. Eighteen months on [from the start of the project] we’re going strong.”

It had been a painful process to some extent, said Moore. “There was a lot of family conversation, which we’re not good at, but it forced us to talk about things.” There was no script for these conversations, but there was guidance about topics to discuss.”

Asked for his reaction to the film when it was shown, Moore admitted he felt a bit shocked – it was six months compressed into 40minutes.

But he would still have written that letter if he could have known the result, indeed he thought that he would have pressed even harder to be on the programme.

The company is now working together in a single direction and while his father refers to “that film” it has changed their relationship and they are talking more.

These two personal views of life and business were conference highlights in a programme that was, on the whole, well chosen, varied and balanced.

Some of the papers were too detailed to telescope into a general report. John Whitley, Southern England agent for the Bank of England gave a detailed account of the bank’s structure and the way in which it built up information to give economic forecasts.

Martin Kiernan of Southport and Ormskirk NHS Hospital Trust, examined the subject of infection. Entertaining in tone and delivery, but serious and informative in content, Kiernan’s talk examined the subject of infection control, and in particular MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) and the facts, half-truths and fictions that surround it.

His talk was interesting and valuable and the journal hopes to return to the topic at a later date.

Lobbying success

As reported on LCN’s website, www.laundryandcleaningnews.com, Murray Simpson’s update on TSA business had a success to relate.

After lobbying for 12 months, the association has persuaded the BSI to add an amendment to the prohibition on loose floor coverings included in the Disabled Access Act which came into force on 1 October 2004. The original wording could have damaged the dustmat rental industry, but properly designed flooring systems are specifically excluded from this prohibition.

The TSA is also showing itself ready to adapt. President Peter Webster is proposing changes that will recognise that the association represents two different industries, laundry and retail drycleaning, and that the problems faced by these are different. He suggests that a corporate structure, based round special interest groups with boards of directors, will give members better value.

Workwear contracts have been a highly controversial subject. To solve some of the problems they raise, particularly with charging for residual value if a contract ends suddenly, TSA is launching a workwear charter. This sets out the principles on which contracts bearing the charter trademark must be based.

Peter Webster outlined the thinking behind this while an accompanying booklet explained the detail.

The two keynote speakers both gave entertaining and interesting addresses. Jeff Grout, an independent business consultant, and former managing director of Robert Halp International, described the problems to be solved in building a successful team.

This was one of the toughest challenges for businesses, he said, because it needed the soft skills of management, but it was important. Teams were better than individuals at introducing fresh ideas – the more diverse the team the better.

Yet managers were often poorly trained in finding the right people for their teams. As many as 70-80% were given no training in recruitment, for example.

Managers often make the wrong choices because they concentrate on skills rather than attitudes.

People who are high achievers set goals and have the tenacity to follow them through.

They are adaptable, and have the courage to fail and the ability to learn from the setbacks.

Sporting examples and video clips underlined his points about leadership and the way teams worked together.

The secret of leadership lies not only in strong direction, but also in the ability to let go. Winning teams are self reliant.

Successful teams often make more mistakes than poor ones because they try more tactics, but they can recognise those mistakes and correct them.

Broadcaster and writer Frances Edmonds drew on many of the conference themes.

It was clear that she had taken an active part in the conference, listening to the other speakers and taking part in the social side.

Winston Churchill, she said, defined success as “the ability to move from one failure to another without losing enthusiasm.” Her own career had changed several times to include running a building company, international conference interpreter, broadcasting and writing.

She encountered setbacks, one of which led to a success.

Forced by illness to take a break, she had gone on tour with her cricketer husband Phil Edmonds.

That trip just happened to be the 1986 “sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll tour” and the diary she kept during it eventually turned into the best-seller “Another Bloody Tour”.

The English team learnt from that tour too – for twelve months later it was successful in its Australian tour.

In winning teams, she said, everybody takes responsibility – in losing teams, no-one does.

Her conclusions were to:

• keep dreaming your dreams
• have faith to believe you can do it
• have courage to turn a crisis into an opportunity. Successful people fail more frequently because they try more things.