January 22, 2012
Cinderella had a fairy godmother to aid her in her transformation, and so did I. Her name is Donnna and she joined us for six days from Bayonne to St. Lucia to help me transform into a true Celebrity Training & Development Manager. Even though my predecessor in the job is still on the ship, she is now rather fully engaged as the Human Resources Manager with a crew of 1200 under her care.
For two weeks Laura was expected to do both jobs. I now feel slightly guilty for my request to delay my starting date by a week. Now that I know what each of these two jobs entail, I cannot imagine where there are enough hours in the day to even make a serious dent in either. Fortunately Laura realized that, as well, and requested a ‘relief’ T&D be temporarily assigned to the ship to help get me settled. So Donna joined us on Turnaround Day in Bayonne for a six day crash course in the responsibilities of shipboard training and development. (Perhaps given recent events in the cruise industry I should not say ‘crash course’ . . . but you get my drift . . . hmmm, probably shouldn’t say drift, either . . . wow, this could get rocky . . . ah, heck . . .)
Donna has the look of a kindly fairy godmother and if you picture one of the ladies from the Disney version of Cinderella, you will get the general idea. Her ‘god motherly’ ways are evident when she interacts with the crew. Given that she is a ‘relief T&D’ she moves from ship to ship to cover vacations and help struggling departments. As a result, she has crossed paths with a good number of the people on our ship. Her greetings are warm, affectionate, and genuine. A couple of the crew even call her ‘mother.’ (In the nicest possible way, of course!) One of the keys to her success in doing what she does is that genuine concern and care for the crew.
This fairy godmother also has dragon’s teeth. She knows very well the tedious details of this job and had determined best practices for everything she does. These are invaluable, but anyone who knows me knows that my mind likes to reconnect the dots in new and unusual patterns. If we are speaking the language of Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicators, while I am an Intuitor who likes to embrace the big picture and find new ways to cross the finish line, Donna is definitely more of the Sensate, who likes to embrace the detailed process to ensure she gets to the goal. This was good for me and really helped me learn the job, but the one-on-one training did always not proceed without a ruffled feather or two. I quickly learned to pull my hands back from the keyboard unless I was exactly sure what she wanted me to do. (Thank the Good Lord for Previous Screen arrows and the Undo function!)
The first time she reached into the drawer and pulled out a red plastic ruler, I winced as memories of 2nd grade and Sr. Rosario flooded my mind. Fortunately Donna only used the ruler to point at exactly what she wanted on the computer screen, but she certainly seized my full and undivided attention any time that ruler was visible. This increased attentiveness certainly aided my learning and the repetition of tasks has served me well in the day since she left, as my muscle memory has kicked in as I deal with a diversity of non-integrated computer systems, allowing my creative streak to be employed in the classroom and devising more robust process improvements.
When we walked Donna down the gangway to the car waiting to whisk her to the airport in St. Lucia, I was sad to see her go. Her insights and experience were invaluable, and I told her that I hope my service to the crew of SI (fleet code for the Silhouette) will make her proud. Donna is currently flying literally half way around the world to join our ship sailing out of Australia through ports in Oz and in New Zealand. Then they will traverse the islands of the South Pacific on the way to Hawaii. Once in Hawaii they will run a couple of loops between San Diego and the Hawaiian Islands. Then up the West Coast with a two-day stop in San Francisco before finally starting their Inside Passage tours through Alaska starting in May.
Yes, I’m coveting my neighbor’s itinerary . . .
But Silhouette is my home ship . . . and I feel more at home every day.
The adventure continues . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment