Millions descending on London

We can look forward to an exciting time when the spectacles of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games come to London. Millions of people from around the world will descend on London and other parts of the UK over a 100 day period to participate in the celebrations. It is estimated that 20 million extra journeys will take place during the games.

So the Olympic dream is coming, but … there could also be a potential nightmare facing businesses across London and beyond. How will staff, customers, suppliers and deliveries get to and from work? Travel disruptions are inevitable, so how do businesses prepare for this and ensure that they can continue to operate? And what role is coaching and mentoring playing?

The Travel Advice to Business programme (TAB) is an initiative supported by the Olympic Delivery Authority and Transport for London. TAB was set up to help businesses come up with their own solutions and resilience plans in readiness for the games. In fact this is the largest peacetime travel and logistics exercise ever to be undertaken in the UK!

Coaching and mentoring coming to the rescue

As a Travel Advice to Business Advisor working on this exciting programme for the last 18 months, I have been busy applying my coaching and mentoring skills to ensure that major businesses are able to function during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The TAB programme is targeted at over 450 key businesses in Central and East London. It focuses on how staff travel to, from, and within work, as well as looking at customers, deliveries and servicing.

Wide range of organisations affected

I have been helping over 20 major organisations which range from larger companies (investment banks, oil companies) and local authorities, through to large scale construction projects (e.g. The Shard), and from clusters of smaller businesses in key locations through to transport providers such as Eurostar and Thames Clippers ferry services

Getting the message over

Getting the message over to businesses hasn’t come without its challenges ranging from perceptions that the Olympics wont affect me through to forward planning for travel in a way that businesses have never done before. Buy-in is vital from right across the organisation, and not just those traditionally involved with facilities management or transport. The impact of the 2012 Games is a whole business issue, and for this reason engagement with business continuity managers, risk analysis, HR and wider professionals has needed very careful and sensitive coaching and mentoring.

Far from business-as-usual

Each of my nearly 20 assignments needed a bespoke approach to tackle the fact that business isnt as usual and needed to achieve trust, buy-in and a commitment to developing and rolling out an action plan during the Games.

Passing the baton

It was absolutely vital that the baton of responsibility to plan and manage travel needs was passed firmly to the organisation, and that the relay of pre-planned action is well coordinated leading up to the summer period. A coaching and mentoring approach proved invaluable in helping organisations to self-analyse their risks and preparedness, as well as taking ownership of the solutions that were developed.

My experience has been very positive. Most organisations progressed with real energy, coming up with innovative ways to communicate with their staff, to engage effectively with contractors, third party providers and their wider supply chain, and to really influence their peers to make the necessary operating changes for the Games period.

Celebrating London 2012

The TAB process was designed as a helping hand service empowering business to come up with their own resilience plans and solutions, and to drive forward the changes needed to be ready for the Games whilst providing technical support and know-how on the likely impacts on the road, rail, tube and bus systems. But, it should not be forgotten, that it also provides a real opportunity for organisations to celebrate London 2012 and think of ways to use the Games for social events, team development and other fun aspects that this once in a lifetime experience will bring.

Leaving a positive legacy

By the time the programme has concluded, there will be over 450 businesses with around 500,000 staff responding to the travel challenge of the Olympics. Sensitive coaching and mentoring will have helped London 2012 be a great event for all those involved, leaving a positive legacy with each of the organisations supported.

What about your business?

450 businesses in London received help, but there is no doubt that this is going to affect thousands more businesses. You don’t need premises or staff in London to be affected: Are you planning to meet your customers in London during this time? Could your deliveries to London be caught up in traffic? Will you be able to get flights in and out of London? Etc.

So to make sure you are completely ready, please remember to check-out www.getaheadofthegames.com

I’m keen to hear back from you. How are you expecting your organisation to be affected by the Olympics? How has your organisation prepared itself?