Whenever I visit Germany I am always struck by how clean and tidy everything looks. On the journey from Luxembourg Airport even the trees look like they have tidied themselves up just for my visit. The roadside verges are also clean and tidy with no shredded plastic sheeting hanging from the bushes.

Is this a symptom of that famous German precision and efficiency? How delightful when I arrived at my training venue to find that my German host had organised my training room exactly the way I like it, that she had ensured there were fresh flip-pads on the flipchart stands, that the lunches were organised and that water and clean glasses were delivered to the training room daily.

But it didn’t stop there. Each evening she had organised our entertainment and meals, not just for myself but for all the course attendees who had travelled from across the whole of Europe. And she had produced a day by day schedule for our entire stay which she provided for each person.

As a result of her excellent planning I was very conscious of not having to think about the “hygiene factors” of my attendees whilst I was running the course. This enabled me to focus on what was important – the learning of my attendees. I felt fresher and sharper and able to work on each person’s specific needs.

I guess this is an example of successful team work. I had been asked what my requirements were beforehand and they were delivered exactly as specified. I had absolute faith in my German colleague, Myriam, and so didn’t need to devote valuable brain time to any of her tasks. She set out with the attitude of getting it “right first time” and delivered. Just goes to show what a “can do” approach achieves.

Thank you Myriam.

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