Tonight I hosted the 6th annual Thames Water
Health & Safety Awards. You might think that a H&S award ceremony would
be dull, but you could not be more wrong. 200 of London’s hardest working
contractors and utility-people gathered in the Millennium Mayfair hotel, previously
most famous for being the venue at which the ex-Russian KGB agent Alexander
Litvineko was poisoned with Polonium 210 by two of his former colleagues. From
tonight onwards it will be famous for having hosted one of the best award
nights ever held by a water utility.
Like all good award ceremonies there was a common theme running
through the event: a celebration of the
Queens 90th birthday. There was a throne, crowns, Bulldogs and Corgis
(plastic not real), life-sized cut-outs of the Royal family (sorry Ma’am).
There was even a house-sized Union Jack that, if size mattered (I assure my
wife regularly that it doesn’t) would have deserved a prize. In keeping with
the royal theme I was dressed appropriately enough as Medieval Court Jester.
This was not my choosing and it is not a look that I will repeat any time soon,
but I confess to hugely enjoying spending an evening holding sway as the Lord
of Misrule.
As host one might think my role was simply to ensure things
ran smoothly; to make sure that the right people got the right awards and that
everyone got home on time. Give credit where it is due, Thames Water actively encouraged
me to expand this scope. A free rein was given and I ran with it. If you are
ever given the freedom to break the rules then I encourage you to embrace it
wholeheartedly.
I honestly can’t pick my favourite moment. Was it the ad hoc
juggling competition between some game senior managers I had coaxed (bullied?) onto
the stage? Or perhaps it was when we persuaded the 8 award winners to
participate in a (car-crash) display of Morris Dancing. It raised both a laugh
and almost £1000 for WaterAid. I am so
hoping the videos go viral. Actually I know my highlight. It was getting an MD from
a one of the Contracting Partners to deliver a genuine Medieval Jestering
talent and, standing proudly on stage in front of his peers, competitors,
clients and subordinates, fart-on-command. Glorious. There
is little the British like more than a good bit of toilet humour. Worth noting
that that particular part of the evening wasn’t meant to be high-brow.
We didn’t mention the football, and Brexit was temporarily
forgotten (5 days on I am still in mourning) .
Despite the above antics, tonight was a serious celebration
of some truly stellar performance. The night was all the more meaningful as it
represents Martin Baggs, my former boss, last time at the helm for this annual celebration.
Later this summer he will stand down from his post as CEO of Thames Water.
Martin’s personal leadership and commitment to H&S has led to a staggering, jaw-dropping improvement in almost every H&S statistic that
is used to measure performance. Achievements like this can only be delivered by
a wide team not an individual, but it is the leadership that sets the goal and
keeps the vision focused. We finished this evening with a heart-warming video of
staff thanking Martin personally and recounting some of the key achievements from
the past 7 years since he took over as CEO. The roll-call was impressive. This
is Martins legacy.
I trust he will sleep soundly tonight, proud of that legacy.
These Notes and previous
versions can be found at http://notesfrompiers.blogspot.co.uk/
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