Lucky Escapes

I can't resist one of those 'it's Monday morning - let's have something different' posts.  BBC On Line has two lucky escape stories at the minute. Here's one about a super duck and a guy who survived a fall from the 17th floor of a hotel.

So, how do you fancy sharing the story of your 'luckiest escape' in internal comms? 

I'll start, shall I?  Once upon a time, I was doing a big redundancy briefing.  People were expecting it, it had been signposted for a long time, we were trying to do it properly and we'd brought a couple of hundred managers together to talk them through the plans and coach them through how to deliver the briefings.

It was a two day thing with an overnight stay, and we got a request from the managers that they'd like a big party on the first night, so they could go out in style.

I tried my best to dissuade the business. It was a major redundancy briefing, people might react in ways we didn't expect, all my instincts were screaming 'BAD IDEA!!!'. But they were adamant that if that's what people wanted, that's what people would get.  We got in some of the runners up from 'Stars in Their Eyes', the programme where people try to sound like celebrity singers.

I was so determined to avoid a disaster that I sat down with the events company and made them tell me exactly what people were singing. I didn't want anything with 'inappropriate' lyrics. Came the day, and even the business were getting nervous. Some people were quite upset on the first day of the briefings and I was going around half an hour before it was due to start saying 'we can cancel it - there's still time!'

It went ahead though, and wouldn't you know, it was the most amazing party! People were dancing on the tables and having such a great time, that ... the singers all decided to do an unplanned encore. So there we are, in the middle of our redundancy briefing party, with everyone waiting in expectation for the grand finale.  What did they decide to sing?  MY WAY! Which, dear readers, you may recall begins:

"And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain ...."

There is a video somewhere of me and the senior leaders all standing together with totally shocked looks on our faces at that precise moment. The rest of the room, however, found it hysterically funny. And so we joined in with everybody else and sang along.  It was a spectacular end to an amazing party.  A lucky escape indeed.

Come on, who's next to confess?

Sue

Comments

[Fiona]

Not exactly a lucky escape.

Clearly an old CEO of mine hadn't watched The Office when he asked for a photo montage (hopefully some of you have seen Team America - World Police as well and remember the song...even Rocky had a montage) of everyone at his top 150 conference to.... oh, yes, simply the best. I hid and cringed from outside the conference room.