set the direction for the first of our staff communications and motivation
programmes – Putting People First. The aim was to focus attention on cus-
tomers, the marketplace and later the competition. It started our long term
strategy to improve service ... something that would become part of the
culture of the organisation.^6BA was aware of training programmes at other companies that had failed.
Commenting on these failures, the manager responsible, Mike Bruce, said:
‘[There has been] a failure of programmes which have set out to influence
motivation and behaviour. They ignored the issue of values.’^6
Cultural change – ‘putting people first’
BA embarked on a major programme of cultural change that resulted in all
staff attending the ‘Putting People First’ (PPF) training initiative, designed
by Time Manager International, who had previously worked with
Scandinavian Airlines Systems (SAS). PPF initially focused on customer-
interfacing staff, with key themes such as ‘Delivering the Promise’ and the
whole organization working together to achieve customer expectations.
Central to the programme was the concept of ‘moments of truth’ in cus-
tomer service. Staff were encouraged to own customer problems and be
attentive, listening to and understanding their needs.
BA employees were empowered to use their discretion in helping cus-
tomers. Personal assessment exercises, stress, body language and the psy-
chological basis of interactions with customers were covered. Staff were
also trained in the behaviour patterns of teams, working to a common goal,
coping with change, role playing common problems and the idea that
simple changes in conveying information make a difference in the way it is
received. Marshall made a point of concluding two out of every three train-
ing days by presenting his vision for the airline.
PPF generated a huge amount of enthusiasm, but unfortunately much of
this was dissipated when participants returned to their jobs. This was
related to the contradiction that although staff were being called upon to
care for customers, they weren’t sure that BA’s managers cared for them.
To help managers maintain motivation a complementary programme was
devised – ‘Managing People First’ (MPF). A five-day managerial
programme, this was created with the themes of urgency, vision, motivation,
trust and responsibility. A new management appraisal system was intro-
duced, with measurement against quarterly ‘key result areas’, set against
management behaviours such as evaluating managers by their treatment of
subordinates. Mike Bruce commented on the purpose of the exercise:
In BA we believe that if managers make a real effort to keep staff informed
of what is happening in the company, treat them as individuals, and listen to
their cares and concerns then there is a good chance that this is how they
will treat our customers.^7Creating and implementing relationship marketing strategies 459