From the Chair: 10 August 2022

Something that caught my attention in the news this week was the report that Qantas has asked its executives to work as baggage handlers for three months in an effort to tackle a shortage of staff. Labour shortages have been blamed for contributing to luggage piling up in terminals and passengers complaining of delays and missing luggage.

On the radio I listened to one disc jockey using the report to make jibes about the move by Qantas, making fun of the idea that company executives could perform roles they were ‘not fit for’. Rather than siding with the radio DJ, I took the view that it’s better to be in the trenches with employees than detached and managing from afar.

Managers and senior executives who work alongside front-line employees often discover a veritable treasure trove of insight into their organisation. There is no better way to build respect and company culture than to walk in the shoes of your staff. You get a sense of the health of a company by how it functions under stress, and in our industry there are few more stressful environments than a busy move-in or move-out for a major event, exhibition or conference.

It’s the trenches of your organisation on the front-lines where the work gets done and the customer experience actually gets delivered. You get to see everything, the good and the bad. Plus you get to see it all from two key perspectives – that of the employee and that of the customer.

It provides an unfiltered view of reality, an unvarnished view of the business. For Qantas I see it as a valuable experience for executives than something to shun or make fun about.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos once said that he’s “not seen an effective manager or leader who can’t spend time down in the trenches.”  Bezos saw it as an invaluable instrument for cultivating business insight and company culture. Take away that insight and management can quickly become out of touch with reality and their decisions end up being “abstract and disconnected.”

Roadblocks that stand in employees’ way become more readily apparent when witnessed from the trenches. It’s a sobering experience when executives see, with their own eyes, how deficiencies in workplace infrastructure are essentially sabotaging employees’ best efforts to do their jobs. The human impact of those pain points becomes abundantly clear, be it in the form of disgruntled customers or frustrated employees. 

When sales executives and managers are side by side with front line workers they send a powerful signal to the workforce: you matter, and your job is important to the company. That’s an incredibly engaging message for employees, and one that helps cultivate and strengthen company culture.

That’s why I love our industry. It’s not uncommon to see all hands on deck in the delivery of events, executive and employee, contractor and organiser, together in the trenches, delivering the best possible event experience for our customers.