Friday 26 February 2010

The world’s favourite airline? Trust and British Airways


Quote
"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841

News
On Monday the result of the British Airways cabin crew’s ballot was announced: 81% in favour of strike action.  Once again the spectre of crippling industrial action looms large.  Although no days have actually been lost to strike action since Willy Walsh took over as chief executive in 2005, the constant threat of disruption is causing a slow haemorrhaging of BA’s reputation and customers.  This row is not particularly over pay (BA staff based at Heathrow are some of the best paid in the industry) but over staff numbers and working conditions.  However a court ruled last week that these cost cutting measures were not inappropriate – so why, when the company is struggling to contain huge losses, are the cabin staff prepared to risk so much by threatening to strike?

A strike indicates poor relationships between management and staff over a prolonged period.  BA cabin crew feel they are being pushed to the limit; for example, one crew member who has to juggle the demands of long shifts with raising a family told us they are often given short notice of a change in shift, and managers are unsympathetic to the reality of staff having to balance work and family.  BA management have also failed to respect the full cultural diversity of staff members – as in the case of the Christian customer service officer suspended for wearing a cross in 2006.

It is always difficult to make cuts but the critical factor required is trust, and BA’s management have clearly lost it.  This pushes the relationship between management and the union representing cabin crew from cooperative to adversarial – with all BA’s stakeholders in danger of losing out.
 
Read on...
The issue of trust is becoming more and more prominent as the global economic crisis continues to deepen.  Australia’s minister of finance, Lindsay Tanner, has long been a proponent of relational thinking and he delivered a lecture in December which set out trust as the central organising principle for a better Australian society. Read the lecture here http://www.lindsaytanner.com/index.php?categoryid=19&p2_articleid=73

Walk the talk 
Next time you are involved in making a tough decision which affects other people, and tensions arise, remember to follow some simple rules: become familiar with the personal concerns of the other parties; always treat them with respect; think through the risks and rewards to each person of the different options, and ensure the rules are applied fairly to all parties.  If trust can be maintained, then tough decisions will be made more bearable and the personal costs kept to a minimum.

The last word
From the Bible, Romans 14 verse 19: “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace…”

Friday 19 February 2010

The economic generation gap


Quote
"Be good to your children; remember they get to choose your nursing home.”

News
The topic of how different generations are bearing the brunt of the Great Recession may not make front page headlines, but it’s simmering beneath the surface, particularly in Britain.  Cuts in university funding are reducing the number of student places available in 2010; unemployment levels are highest among the 18-24 age group; young people remain dependent on credit cards even in the recession, and it is increasingly difficult for them to get on the housing ladder.  Much of this is not news, but when set against the longer term implications of yawning government deficits, mounting national debt and an ageing population (with increasing demands for pensions and health services), the question of generational injustice raises its head. 
Although individual families may have invested in their children’s future, collectively has the baby boomer generation been more irresponsible than prudent in its attitude towards subsequent generations?  While the ageing population is due to demographics (notwithstanding that lower birth rates are due in part to wanting to increase present consumption), the generation now under 30 will face higher costs for housing, education and pensions for many years to come – forced, in part, to pay for the borrowing and consumption decisions of their parents’ generation.

Read on...
Our colleagues at the Jubilee Centre recently posted a review of a new book by David Willetts entitled “The Pinch: How the baby boomers took their children’s future – and why they should give it back.”  This is a good place to begin reading further on this subject; see http://www.jubilee-centre.org/blog/268/book_review_the_pinch

Walk the talk 
One way to respond to these challenges is to invest more in intergenerational relationships.  Both baby boomers and their offspring can make decisions to stay well connected, by spending adequate time together and by living close at hand.  Thus grandparents can help save their offspring money by looking after the grandchildren, helping to pay for education, or going even further and living under the same roof and contributing to household expenses.  The reciprocal benefit of support and care when they become frail will increase the likelihood of it being a win-win-win situation, with clear benefits to all three generations.

The last word
From the Bible, Deuteronomy 5 verse 16: "Honour your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”

Friday 12 February 2010

Marking National Marriage Week


Quote
"From my point of view there is nothing more beautiful, or more difficult than marriage. It exposes us without mercy but supports us like no other relationship. Marriage week provides the creative input and encouragement that enables our dream to remain reality." Walter Donze (married for 38 years, sponsor of Marriage Week in Switzerland.)

News
Marriage is frequently in the news; behind the headlines of celebrity affairs by Tiger Woods and John Terry, or the battle over legality of same-sex marriages, or the debate over the extent of damage caused by divorce, there lies the dilemma over whether marriage is a public or private issue. 
A UK government green paper recently stated ‘marriage is a personal and private decision for responsible adults with which politicians should not interfere.’  In response, Michael Trend, our colleague at the Relationships Foundation, said: ‘It is cohabitation that is a personal and private decision... But marriage, by its very nature, is a public decision that confers both privileges and obligations.
Private choices have public consequences. Government has, in recent years, been ready to influence what was considered previously to be private individual behaviour in many areas.  The health consequences of smoking are deemed to justify influencing people's choices, yet the fact that the longevity effect of marriage may even offset the consequences of smoking is ignored.
Since marriage is beneficial for society, not just for individuals, then the challenge for government is two-fold: how to promote marriage as an attainable ideal, in place of marginalising it and thus “normalising” cohabitation and divorce; and secondly, how to deliver the right kind of support so that couples find it easier to get married and stay married.

Read on...
The Relationships Foundation has been issuing press releases every day this week, focusing on different arguments for supporting marriage in Britain through public policy (see www.relationshipsfoundation.org). In their latest briefing paper, Why Does Marriage Matter? our colleagues summarise these key differences in rights, responsibilities and outcomes. Click here to download the report: http://www.relationshipsfoundation.org/download.php?id=261  

Walk the talk 
If you are married or have a partner, find out where there is a Marriage Course being offered nearby, and sign up!  This course over seven evenings is designed for couples at any stage of their relationship, whether things are going well or a struggle, whether they are Christians or not.  For details of this course (offered in many nations) see http://relationshipcentral.org/

The last word
From the Bible, Proverbs 5:15-18. “Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.  Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.  May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.”

Friday 5 February 2010

Blair's bravado


Quote
“The wisdom of hindsight, so useful to historians and indeed to authors of memoirs, is sadly denied to practicing politicians.”  Margaret Thatcher
 
"The best advisers, helpers and friends, always are not those who tell us how to act in special cases, but who give us, out of themselves, the ardent spirit and desire to act right, and leave us then, even through many blunders, to find out what our own form of right action is."  Phillips Brooks

News
Last week Tony Blair addressed the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war, expressing again his convictions that invading Iraq in March 2003 was the right thing to do.  “I had to take this decision as Prime Minister. It was a huge responsibility and there is not a single day that passes by that I don’t reflect and think about that responsibility, and so I should,” Mr Blair said. “But I genuinely believe that if we had left Saddam in power, even with what we know now, we would still have had to have dealt with him, possibly in circumstances where the threat was worse.”  His critics don’t question Blair’s sincerity so much as his judgement - going to war ill-prepared, and failing to plan or even anticipate that a country where all dissent was ruthlessly suppressed could not fail to erupt once Saddam was removed. Blair's style of government left him vulnerable, as he turned the cabinet into more of a briefing room than a place to wrestle with issues and take differing opinions seriously – as his former cabinet colleague Clare Short made clear this week at the Chilcot Inquiry.

These events illustrate the value of leaders being able to bring tentative decisions to trusted advisors, before embarking on a course of action with huge and perhaps unpredictable consequences.  It also highlights the necessity of applying the same moral and relational criteria to the strategy for how to implement what is deemed a moral decision, as to the decision itself.  

Read on...
As a contrast to these statements at the Chilcot Inquiry, consider the humility of Abraham Lincoln's reflections on the American civil war, made in his second inaugural address, delivered in March 1865 after his re-election as US president.  To read this profound speech of just 700 words, click here: http://www.relationshipsglobal.net/Web/OnlineStore/Product.aspx?ID=38

Walk the talk 
Resolving conflict: once you have made what you think is the right decision, don’t move immediately to implementation.  Rather, take time to choose the best course of action, that takes into careful consideration the implications of each alternative, not just on the main parties involved, but also on others caught up in the conflict indirectly.

The last word
From the Bible, Proverbs 15, verse 22: "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."