Skip to main content
Facilitate Magazine: Informing Workplace and Facilities Management Professionals - return to the homepage Facilitate magazine logo
  • Search
  • Visit Facilitate Magazine on Facebook
  • Visit Facilitate Magazine on LinkedIn
  • Visit @Facilitate_Mag on Twitter
Visit the website of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management Logo of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management

Main navigation

  • Home
  • News
    • Comment
    • People
    • Reports
    • Research
  • Features
    • Analysis
    • Features
    • Round Tables
    • Webinars
  • Outsourcing
    • Contract Finder
    • Contracts
    • FM Business Models
    • Interviews
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Opinion
    • Procurement
    • Trends
  • Know-How
    • Explainers
    • Legal Updates
    • White Papers
  • Jobs
  • Topics
    • Workplace Services
      • Hospitality
      • Catering
      • Cleaning
      • Front of House
      • Grounds Maintenance
      • Helpdesk
      • Mailroom
      • Manned Guarding / Security
      • Pest Control
      • Washroom Services
      • Disaster Recovery
      • Specialist Services
    • Professional Performance
      • Behavioural Change
      • Continual Professional Development
      • Education
      • Management
      • Recruitment
      • Training
    • Workplace Performance
      • Benchmarking
      • Health & Wellbeing
      • Operational Readiness
      • Procurement
      • Security
      • Workplace User Experience
      • Workplace Culture
    • Compliance
      • Health & Safety
      • Risk & Business Continuity
      • Standards
      • Statutory Compliance
    • Building Services
      • Architecture & Construction
      • Asset Management
      • Building Controls
      • Building Fabric
      • Drinking Water
      • Fire Protection
      • HVAC
      • Landscaping
      • Mechanical & Electrical
      • Building Security
      • Water, Drainage & Plumbing
    • Technology
      • Building Information Modelling
      • CAFM
      • Data & Networks
      • Document Management
      • Information Management
      • Internet of Things (IoT)
      • Software & Systems
    • Energy management
      • Energy Management Systems
      • Electricity
      • Gas
      • Solar
      • Wind
    • Sustainability
      • Environmental Quality
      • Social Value
      • Waste Management
      • Recycling
    • Workspace Design
      • Agile Working
      • Fit-Out & Refurbishment
      • Inclusive Access
      • Lighting
      • Office Interiors
      • Signage
      • Space Planning
      • Storage
      • Vehicle Management / Parking
      • Washroom
    • Sectors
      • Corporate Office
      • Education
      • Healthcare
      • Manufacturing
      • International
      • Retail
      • Sports & Leisure
      • Regions
  • Buyers' Guide
Quick links:
  • Home
  • News
  • Comment
Topics

Nothing lost in translation

Open-access content Monday 24th March 2014 — updated 2.38pm, Tuesday 5th May 2020
John Bowen

 

24 March 2014 

This time last Monday I was setting up for the first of my two days of workshops in Tripoli.


Two of my colleagues had flown out earlier and had run day one of the event on Sunday and another colleague was to join us on Tuesday evening to do the final day-and-a-half. 

The trip was a joy on many levels, but especially so because of the quality of the people involved, and that came on many levels so, in no particular order, here is their contribution.

The team on the ground in Libya sorted out the venues and logistics and was immaculate in its preparation and execution. I will not gloss over the security issues, nor that these can change by the hour, but the whole thing was carefully risk assessed and there were alterations to plans made quite late in the day as the risks changed. At all levels things were managed and communicated with efficiency so that while we were aware of the security issues we were not troubled or distracted by them.

At the event the organisers, hosts and support team were also top-notch and I would have been proud had they been my team. Everything that was needed to make the event work was done and the contract catering was superb.

The delegates were a mixed group of academics and administrative people from the university community, together with representatives of the ministry concerned with higher education. As anyone who has worked with technical specialists and administrative people will know, they frequently do not get on within their own organisation and can be a volatile mix, but here there was a common purpose that rose above partisan lines and the contribution to the event that the group made will stand them in good stead; the more you put in, the more you get out.

My colleagues on the trip were also outstanding, for we had to gel as a team on the ground in Libya. The advance pair had met before, but although I had spent an hour in a coffee bar with them, we were otherwise strangers - and the final member of the quartet flew in not having met any of us. It speaks volumes that our audience believed that we had worked together for some time, and the pleasure of working with seasoned professionals who can seamlessly put on that kind of show is a real treat. The work of one of the team in pulling us together and getting us there was a fine example of a cool head under pressure.

My final mention goes to the simultaneous translation team, for few of the delegates had any English and I have no Arabic. Our slides had been translated, so what appeared on the screen could be read by our audience (but not by us) and the success of the four-and-a-half days was entirely in the hands of the simultaneous translation team; their contribution to the success of the event was crucial.

When you are working with top-class people, regardless of what their contribution is, it spurs you on to give your best; not to compete with them, but not to let them down. That is one of the great things about a winning team - the synergy it can create.

I am, as may be apparent, on a high from this trip and I have learned to savour such successes, but I have also learned that there is a time to put them into the treasured memory box and move on. There is an saying that you are only as good as your last result; I have come to believe that I am only as good as my next one, for there is another adage that pride comes before a fall and in two weeks' time I will be in China for the first time and facing a new set of challenges. The triumphs of Tripoli will mean nothing to the team in Tanggu, so it will be a clean slate to start from. I may have been hired on my reputation, but I still have to deliver  - and that is what faces us all; each day is a new one and we have to go out and do our best.

As Martin Luther King put it; "If a man is called to be a street sweeper he should sweep the streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all of the hosts of Heaven and Earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well' ".

And there's the rub, for not only must I sweep my streets to the best of my ability, I am dependent on those around me sweeping theirs well too. In Tripoli we left the streets spotless, so to speak, and I shall be taking a new broom to China, Hell-bent on giving my best.

John Bowen is an FM consultant
http://thatconsultantbloke.wordpress.com/










Also filed in:
Comment
Content
Topics

You might also like...

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked in
  • Mail
  • Print

Today's top reads

 

Latest Jobs

Project Leader (Maternity Cover One Year Contract)

Cambridge
Circa £50,000 Pro Rata + Benefits & Opportunities
Reference
56378

Maintenance Supervisor

Surrey
Up to £43,000 + Excellent Package & Opportunities
Reference
56376

Regional Facilities Manager

South West England
Circa £40,000 + Benefits & Opportunities
Reference
56375
See all jobs »

 

 

Sign up to our newsletter

News, jobs and updates

Sign up

Subscribe to print

Sign up to receive our bi-monthly magazine

Subscribe
Facilitate magazine cover, June 2020
​
FOLLOW US
@Facilitate_Mag
Facilitate Magazine
Facilitate Magazine
CONTACT US
Contact us
Tel: 020 7880 6200
​

IWFM

About IWFM
Become a member
Qualifications
Events

Information

Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Cookie Policy
Think Green

Get in touch

Contact us
Advertise with us
Subscribe to Facilitate Magazine
Write for Facilitate Magazine

General

IWFM Jobs
Help

© 2022 • www.facilitatemagazine.com and Facilitate Magazine are published by Redactive Media Group. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part is not allowed without written permission.

Redactive Media Group Ltd, 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ