Once or twice a month, I travel to Manchester for work. I usually get around by tram (Metrolink) when I’m there – there’s a stop close to our office and its convenient for travel to/from my hotel and the railway station.
Manchester’s tram system is being upgraded at the moment and, last week, I was amused by posters asking passengers to “bear with us whilst we make Victoria posh”:
Spotted this at a Manchester tram stop… is this what is meant by straight-talking Northerners? pic.twitter.com/NB7lcianEu
— Mark Wilson (@markwilsonit) March 6, 2014
As much as my southern sensibilities (actually, I’m from the East Midlands) cringe at the idea of “making something posh”, in fairness to Metrolink, they do have a great series of communications around their project (and whoever is responsible clearly has a sense of humour). One of my favourites is reproduced below:
“Dear [customers]
It can be fast.
It can be slow.
You can measure it in feet, inches, weeks, months and years.
And, occasionally, in leaps and bounds.
It’s going to take a little time.
And a lot of hard work.
But, rest assured, it is moving forwards.
Creating something better for us all.
So thank you for your patience.
And while our network is undergoing this transformation, we’ll keep you up-to-date with information.”
I like that poem, and I started to think about other applications for its use… something to consider for my next IT transformation project, perhaps – because good communications are vital to project success (and so many updates that I see are just dull walls of words).
Next time you’re up this neck of the woods (and you’re free), let me know – I’m usually in one of the Warrington offices, but it’d be nice to finally put a (non-avatar) face to the name :) Maybe I can find a reason to be in one of the Manchester sites :)
That sounds good Jon. Actually, one of my team tends to work out of Warrington and it’s about time I dropped in to see him so maybe I’ll drive up rather than take the train next time to combine visits to Warrington and Manchester!