Away days can inspire and motivate teams and help to build strong and successful cultures – but they can also go spectacularly wrong
The level of debate and passion around customer service from Megabus and Citylink staff was fabulous
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve facilitated customer experience training courses and attended management conferences as a speaker for several companies, both in and out of the transport sector. After all these years, it’s made me reflect on the point of them all and come away feeling surprisingly positive, which isn’t bad for a misery-guts cynic such as me.
Away days are a decent litmus test to gauge organisational cultures and role-modelling behaviours. At my recently attended conferences, instantly I’ve obtained a positive vibe, not least from the managing directors with how they are positively received and engage in meaningful debate, but also the way they balance the wider group-based edict and message with practical, relatable examples of how it can be deployed or tweaked to add value on a local level. At these sessions, the managing director is always at the centre of the event, ensuring a customer narrative permeates.
A great example of best practice was that class act Stagecoach South top dog, Marc Reddy and his management conference last week. He was at the venue three hours beforehand, meticulously setting up flip charts, poster boards, sweets and papers, and he accompanied his speech with a 10-minute video that he had produced in entirety showing achievements of 2024 – it cost the company nothing, but his time (“about three hours, Alex”) and was superior to many of those which at the going rate would have cost north of seven or eight grand! There was no need for an expensive external event management company when Reddy and his direct reports rallied around meticulous planning, setting up and hosting the event, enjoying camaraderie, and building a sense of teamwork in the process of doing this hard graft.
Away days are a decent litmus test to gauge cultures within an organisation
Furthermore, instead of bland slides all day, Marc organised ‘trade stands’, which involved each department setting up their own stand across the venue, showcasing and sales-pitching their wares and in a series of speed dating, groups having 20 minutes to visit, receive an engaging briefing and the opportunity to discuss how they could work better together with their colleague function. It was a simple exercise that left the room in raptures – far more so than my speech on the journey towards ensuring that Stagecoach South becomes a genuinely customer-centric business (dare I say it, but they aren’t far off).
It’s been a similar story at a series of training courses I have facilitated for Megabus and Citylink, this time with frontline employees. As someone who is proper ‘old school’ when it comes to work attire, I was delighted when the team turned up in suit and tie, polished shoes, and looking utterly immaculate. The level of debate and passion around customer service, as well as attention to detail, was fabulous.
So, too, the City Sightseeing London drivers and sales hosts to whom I presented several days in the past fortnight. Every day, the energetic discussion around customer needs went on for so long that the garrulous and charismatic managing director, Matt Callow, had to usher them out of the room at the end before our hosts turned the lights off and brought the cleaner in.
Meanwhile, at a ‘Hearts and Minds’ workshop I facilitated to discuss further developing the already excellent culture at emergency transport continuity provider CMAC Group, we had two folk in tears because they had been so positively moved by the impact that the company had had on their lives and those of their colleagues under the stewardship of their entrepreneurial and customer service obsessive CEO, Peter Slater, and his fellow co-founders of the company.
I’ve loved every minute of these events, just as I count down the days until the annual West Midlands Grand Railway Collaboration I host, a coming together of frontline folk and the top dogs at the various organisations across the region with a vested interest in rail. A more high-octane, energetic and action-orientated shindig you won’t find anywhere in business each year.
Culture is, as I’ve mentioned before, important, but it’s key that it isn’t indoctrinated and forced on employees at away days in a brainwashing way (the ultimate turn off). Spontaneous, natural growth with nuanced cultivation is the best way to create a culture where everyone is focused on the same page, feeling positively enthused and loyal to the company. This comes from strong, credible leaders who care passionately about customer service and live and breathe the sector in which they reside and the markets that they serve, such as Reddy and his mob. They’ve mastered the microscopic detail of the demographics and their customers on different sides of the streets across all parts of the communities they serve. It’s this kind of authentic leadership that galvanises teams and makes them walk through walls. I find that, contrary to what your average HR director will say, employees and particularly those who are new to the industry, admire those authentic senior leaders who possess a deep passion and knowledge of public transport, even if it’s at times a bit quirky, rather than bland toolkit leaders who spout the same transportable anodyne platitudes and multi-sector management philosophy.
Youngsters, in particular, want to learn from the technical, transport-industry knowledge and experience of those at the top. It’s also more effective than the mumbo-jumbo intervention from the HR director or some ‘pass the sick bucket’ corporate development or change management programme that ends up with employees penning their CVs to exit the business rather than feeling inspired.
The challenge is to make away days ‘sticky’, and I don’t just mean ‘post-it notes’ on the wall. After all the euphoria in the room and when the post-event cokes have been sunk and the reality of the depot the next day sinks in, with pressing and competing workloads taking over, how does the messaging of the away be converted into tangible improvements? I’m always obsessive about ensuring there is someone whose task it is to write up the flip charts and then ‘programme manage’ implementation of ideas, even if it means becoming the company irritant, nagging and coercing those into action. Sometimes, as trainers, we find our way into the depots during the ‘run out’ to say ‘hello’ again, spontaneously chat through how delegates are finding things and refresh the messaging.
It’s important not to be defeatist if tangible follow-up doesn’t ensue – sometimes the messaging will be subliminal and have a sub-conscious impact or it may just be reinforcing, embedding and refreshing in the mind thoughts that were already close to the surface among attendees. Or the away day may just have the lovely effect of making folk realise what a great place it is to work and how much they appreciate and enjoy the camaraderie of colleagues. One tip, though, is not to get seduced into thinking it’s important to have a keynote speaker or someone at the very top of the parent company or governing body. Sometimes, the whole mood of the occasion can be destroyed by some dull dishwater clone coming along and spouting a load of predictable, bland nonsense that is unrelatable at the coalface and is something more akin to a shareholder or stakeholder-type presentation.
There have been lowlights in my experience of away days. I recall attending one a few years ago as a senior employee, and the night before the event, our leader in the company contacted me moaning about folk not pulling their weight, needing to dramatically up their game and asking for my influence in getting the message across. On the day of the conference, we sat through a series of ‘all in the garden is rosy’ slides from business unit leaders until, at the end, there was a chance to give feedback, and I couldn’t help myself suggest that the organisation wasn’t perhaps as good as it thought it was and this was supported by feedback provided by customers and the wider sector. Over a team dinner that evening, I was cold-shouldered in some quarters, told by one person to look round the restaurant and take in that everyone was staring at me and regarding me as the ‘w@@*@r in the room’. The next day, my amiable boss asked if I had ever received 360-degree feedback as perhaps my outspokenness wasn’t ideal, and he was probably right, even though the fulness of time has perhaps illustrated that my sentiment may not have been unmerited, even if my approach could have been better.
I’ve been in a grouchy mood sitting in the back or just not entered into the spirit of the occasion
Away days or training conferences can be ‘make or break’ career points for employees. I’ve been in a grouchy mood sitting in the back or just not entered into the spirit of the occasion, or been plain cynical by the same behaviours of colleagues. I recall, as a senior leader at Royal Mail around the time of its privatisation, attending an internal conference and my belligerent operations director and I being the only people in an audience of over 100 who did not give the extremely well-remunerated CEO, Moya Greene, a standing ovation as she walked on stage. I respected her immensely, but colleagues’ fawning, grovelling behaviour felt over the top in what had descended into a brainwashing event.
Away days can be deeply unsettling for many. I now appreciate that many attendees do not unreasonably feel socially anxious and dread interaction or being out of their comfort zone, fearing having to indulge in unconventional group exercises or networking events. I recall, again at Royal Mail, attending logistics sector events – a more tedious prospect than these you could not imagine. I used to hide in the toilet during lunch to kill time and fake phone calls – talking one way into the phone as though I was in deep conversation – just to avoid interacting with anyone.
On many away days, folk often sit there frantically worrying about their mounting workload back at the ranch, whilst some are irritated at having to travel a long distance to get there. During the festive season, I watch with interest in restaurants and bars what appear to be staff Christmas dos. You can always see the awkward interactions between those at opposite extremes, with some counting down the minutes till they can escape.
It’s a similar scene at many work events or away days. Whilst my suited and booted pals at Megabus and Citylink were wholly ensconced in group exercise at our training courses last week that were entirely relevant to their ‘day jobs’ (such as devising a Customer Service Plan), I tittered watching some nerdy and uncomfortable folk in weekend civvies from a company outside of the sector, being forced to play stupid, somewhat humiliating, team-building games and looking at us with a sense of embarrassment and envy.
On balance, my recent tour of away days and training programmes has restored my faith that audiences appreciate them. Frontline teams absolutely value the opportunity to find out what is happening and get involved in action-planning, whilst management away days never cease to conjure up a modicum of enthusiasm and sense that ‘this time we know it is for real’ even if the formula has long been a case of ‘rinse and repeat’. But we need to keep the approach fresh, be authentic, and demonstrate role-modelling behaviours yet also understand that there’s no shame on those who dread a get-together. And be sure to ban the greasy pole-climbing corporate dullard from the owning group or head office. Or better still, heckle them from the back row, even if you become, like me, the “w@@*@r in the room”.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alex Warner has over 30 years’ experience in the transport sector, having held senior roles on a multi-modal basis across the sector. He is co-founder of transport technology business Lost Group and transport consultancy AJW Experience Group (which includes Great Scenic Journeys). He is also chair of West Midlands Grand Rail Collaboration.
This story appears inside the latest issue of Passenger Transport.
Do you love or loathe company away days?
by Passenger Transport on Feb 6, 2025 • 2:36 pm No CommentsAway days can inspire and motivate teams and help to build strong and successful cultures – but they can also go spectacularly wrong
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve facilitated customer experience training courses and attended management conferences as a speaker for several companies, both in and out of the transport sector. After all these years, it’s made me reflect on the point of them all and come away feeling surprisingly positive, which isn’t bad for a misery-guts cynic such as me.
Away days are a decent litmus test to gauge organisational cultures and role-modelling behaviours. At my recently attended conferences, instantly I’ve obtained a positive vibe, not least from the managing directors with how they are positively received and engage in meaningful debate, but also the way they balance the wider group-based edict and message with practical, relatable examples of how it can be deployed or tweaked to add value on a local level. At these sessions, the managing director is always at the centre of the event, ensuring a customer narrative permeates.
A great example of best practice was that class act Stagecoach South top dog, Marc Reddy and his management conference last week. He was at the venue three hours beforehand, meticulously setting up flip charts, poster boards, sweets and papers, and he accompanied his speech with a 10-minute video that he had produced in entirety showing achievements of 2024 – it cost the company nothing, but his time (“about three hours, Alex”) and was superior to many of those which at the going rate would have cost north of seven or eight grand! There was no need for an expensive external event management company when Reddy and his direct reports rallied around meticulous planning, setting up and hosting the event, enjoying camaraderie, and building a sense of teamwork in the process of doing this hard graft.
Furthermore, instead of bland slides all day, Marc organised ‘trade stands’, which involved each department setting up their own stand across the venue, showcasing and sales-pitching their wares and in a series of speed dating, groups having 20 minutes to visit, receive an engaging briefing and the opportunity to discuss how they could work better together with their colleague function. It was a simple exercise that left the room in raptures – far more so than my speech on the journey towards ensuring that Stagecoach South becomes a genuinely customer-centric business (dare I say it, but they aren’t far off).
It’s been a similar story at a series of training courses I have facilitated for Megabus and Citylink, this time with frontline employees. As someone who is proper ‘old school’ when it comes to work attire, I was delighted when the team turned up in suit and tie, polished shoes, and looking utterly immaculate. The level of debate and passion around customer service, as well as attention to detail, was fabulous.
So, too, the City Sightseeing London drivers and sales hosts to whom I presented several days in the past fortnight. Every day, the energetic discussion around customer needs went on for so long that the garrulous and charismatic managing director, Matt Callow, had to usher them out of the room at the end before our hosts turned the lights off and brought the cleaner in.
Meanwhile, at a ‘Hearts and Minds’ workshop I facilitated to discuss further developing the already excellent culture at emergency transport continuity provider CMAC Group, we had two folk in tears because they had been so positively moved by the impact that the company had had on their lives and those of their colleagues under the stewardship of their entrepreneurial and customer service obsessive CEO, Peter Slater, and his fellow co-founders of the company.
I’ve loved every minute of these events, just as I count down the days until the annual West Midlands Grand Railway Collaboration I host, a coming together of frontline folk and the top dogs at the various organisations across the region with a vested interest in rail. A more high-octane, energetic and action-orientated shindig you won’t find anywhere in business each year.
Culture is, as I’ve mentioned before, important, but it’s key that it isn’t indoctrinated and forced on employees at away days in a brainwashing way (the ultimate turn off). Spontaneous, natural growth with nuanced cultivation is the best way to create a culture where everyone is focused on the same page, feeling positively enthused and loyal to the company. This comes from strong, credible leaders who care passionately about customer service and live and breathe the sector in which they reside and the markets that they serve, such as Reddy and his mob. They’ve mastered the microscopic detail of the demographics and their customers on different sides of the streets across all parts of the communities they serve. It’s this kind of authentic leadership that galvanises teams and makes them walk through walls. I find that, contrary to what your average HR director will say, employees and particularly those who are new to the industry, admire those authentic senior leaders who possess a deep passion and knowledge of public transport, even if it’s at times a bit quirky, rather than bland toolkit leaders who spout the same transportable anodyne platitudes and multi-sector management philosophy.
Youngsters, in particular, want to learn from the technical, transport-industry knowledge and experience of those at the top. It’s also more effective than the mumbo-jumbo intervention from the HR director or some ‘pass the sick bucket’ corporate development or change management programme that ends up with employees penning their CVs to exit the business rather than feeling inspired.
The challenge is to make away days ‘sticky’, and I don’t just mean ‘post-it notes’ on the wall. After all the euphoria in the room and when the post-event cokes have been sunk and the reality of the depot the next day sinks in, with pressing and competing workloads taking over, how does the messaging of the away be converted into tangible improvements? I’m always obsessive about ensuring there is someone whose task it is to write up the flip charts and then ‘programme manage’ implementation of ideas, even if it means becoming the company irritant, nagging and coercing those into action. Sometimes, as trainers, we find our way into the depots during the ‘run out’ to say ‘hello’ again, spontaneously chat through how delegates are finding things and refresh the messaging.
It’s important not to be defeatist if tangible follow-up doesn’t ensue – sometimes the messaging will be subliminal and have a sub-conscious impact or it may just be reinforcing, embedding and refreshing in the mind thoughts that were already close to the surface among attendees. Or the away day may just have the lovely effect of making folk realise what a great place it is to work and how much they appreciate and enjoy the camaraderie of colleagues. One tip, though, is not to get seduced into thinking it’s important to have a keynote speaker or someone at the very top of the parent company or governing body. Sometimes, the whole mood of the occasion can be destroyed by some dull dishwater clone coming along and spouting a load of predictable, bland nonsense that is unrelatable at the coalface and is something more akin to a shareholder or stakeholder-type presentation.
There have been lowlights in my experience of away days. I recall attending one a few years ago as a senior employee, and the night before the event, our leader in the company contacted me moaning about folk not pulling their weight, needing to dramatically up their game and asking for my influence in getting the message across. On the day of the conference, we sat through a series of ‘all in the garden is rosy’ slides from business unit leaders until, at the end, there was a chance to give feedback, and I couldn’t help myself suggest that the organisation wasn’t perhaps as good as it thought it was and this was supported by feedback provided by customers and the wider sector. Over a team dinner that evening, I was cold-shouldered in some quarters, told by one person to look round the restaurant and take in that everyone was staring at me and regarding me as the ‘w@@*@r in the room’. The next day, my amiable boss asked if I had ever received 360-degree feedback as perhaps my outspokenness wasn’t ideal, and he was probably right, even though the fulness of time has perhaps illustrated that my sentiment may not have been unmerited, even if my approach could have been better.
Away days or training conferences can be ‘make or break’ career points for employees. I’ve been in a grouchy mood sitting in the back or just not entered into the spirit of the occasion, or been plain cynical by the same behaviours of colleagues. I recall, as a senior leader at Royal Mail around the time of its privatisation, attending an internal conference and my belligerent operations director and I being the only people in an audience of over 100 who did not give the extremely well-remunerated CEO, Moya Greene, a standing ovation as she walked on stage. I respected her immensely, but colleagues’ fawning, grovelling behaviour felt over the top in what had descended into a brainwashing event.
Away days can be deeply unsettling for many. I now appreciate that many attendees do not unreasonably feel socially anxious and dread interaction or being out of their comfort zone, fearing having to indulge in unconventional group exercises or networking events. I recall, again at Royal Mail, attending logistics sector events – a more tedious prospect than these you could not imagine. I used to hide in the toilet during lunch to kill time and fake phone calls – talking one way into the phone as though I was in deep conversation – just to avoid interacting with anyone.
On many away days, folk often sit there frantically worrying about their mounting workload back at the ranch, whilst some are irritated at having to travel a long distance to get there. During the festive season, I watch with interest in restaurants and bars what appear to be staff Christmas dos. You can always see the awkward interactions between those at opposite extremes, with some counting down the minutes till they can escape.
It’s a similar scene at many work events or away days. Whilst my suited and booted pals at Megabus and Citylink were wholly ensconced in group exercise at our training courses last week that were entirely relevant to their ‘day jobs’ (such as devising a Customer Service Plan), I tittered watching some nerdy and uncomfortable folk in weekend civvies from a company outside of the sector, being forced to play stupid, somewhat humiliating, team-building games and looking at us with a sense of embarrassment and envy.
On balance, my recent tour of away days and training programmes has restored my faith that audiences appreciate them. Frontline teams absolutely value the opportunity to find out what is happening and get involved in action-planning, whilst management away days never cease to conjure up a modicum of enthusiasm and sense that ‘this time we know it is for real’ even if the formula has long been a case of ‘rinse and repeat’. But we need to keep the approach fresh, be authentic, and demonstrate role-modelling behaviours yet also understand that there’s no shame on those who dread a get-together. And be sure to ban the greasy pole-climbing corporate dullard from the owning group or head office. Or better still, heckle them from the back row, even if you become, like me, the “w@@*@r in the room”.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Alex Warner has over 30 years’ experience in the transport sector, having held senior roles on a multi-modal basis across the sector. He is co-founder of transport technology business Lost Group and transport consultancy AJW Experience Group (which includes Great Scenic Journeys). He is also chair of West Midlands Grand Rail Collaboration.
This story appears inside the latest issue of Passenger Transport.
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