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A newsletter published by the
International
Association of Reservation Executives
Issue 28, September 2005
Natural Disasters: Preparing For and Dealing with the Aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina
Submitted by: Jon-Roger Maranda, Senior
Director, Amtrak, Washington, DC
Amtrak
has three levels of ongoing disaster preparedness to prepare for
natural disasters:
-
The call
centers each have their own plans that cover their geographic areas,
people and functions. Telephone scripts are in place to
automatically reroute traffic, should one center go off line for any
reason.
-
The Marketing Department as a whole, which we are a
part of, also has an emergency plan that covers all types of
disasters, with a command center and alternate locations designated.
-
Operationally, there is also a corporate 'GO' team and procedures
for them to mobilize and travel to any location, as needed, to
assist in the event of a derailment of other catastrophic disaster
impacting us. All three of these groups have pre-designated
bridge phone numbers, email and page groups set-up to notify of
emergency activation, etc.
Hurricane Katrina had an impact on our
company's operations. Three
of our trains serviced New Orleans and some of the other affected
cities, and can no longer service some of those cities. We also
had about 350 employees in, and/or based from, the affected areas.
Obviously patronage on those trains is down considerably.
The
three trains serving the area have been truncated. Currently, the Crescent
from New York to New Orleans is only going as far as
Atlanta. Shortly, the track will be restored so it can continue
as far as Meridian, Mississippi. Four and one-half miles of
track on the Lake Ponchatrain Bridge is missing, as well as various
washouts on either side of the lake - it is unknown when it will be
restored exactly, at least weeks. The City of New Orleans
from Chicago to New Orleans is currently terminating in Jackson,
Mississippi, and shortly will start terminating at Hammond, Louisiana,
about an hour north of New Orleans. The Sunset Limited which
operates from Los Angeles through New Orleans to Orlando, Florida, is
only operating from Los Angeles to San Antonio, Texas at this time. We do not know when and if it can again go to New Orleans from
the west.
From the east, there is hardly any track left between
Mobile and New Orleans and restoration of that service is months away.
There is really no alternate transportation until the authorities determine who can and cannot come in and out of New
Orleans. Of, course there have been many itinerary changes by
passengers due to the event, which we are allowing without penalty.
No passengers were involuntarily stranded in New Orleans
during Hurricane Katrina. As part of
the hurricane preparation procedures, the flood gates
are closed where the tracks penetrate the levies. We had a couple of
days warning - so all passengers and equipment were evacuated in
advance. The New Orleans station, adjacent to the
Superdome, had only minor damage and is being used as a temporary
jail. The rail yards and facilities will need some work. We hope to get some feeder bus routes established as soon as people
are allowed in and out of the area to service and connect the truncated trains that would normally connect in New
Orleans.
We have two sets of equipment in the area at FEMA's
disposal. They were used to evacuate one trainload of residents
and will likely start shuttle service between Baton Rouge and New
Orleans to ferry workers in and out of the city in the coming months. Many of
Amtrak's New Orleans employees have been temporarily reassigned to
these new interim terminal cities.
The call
centers have been helping front calls to the company's Employee
Assistance Program and have been overwhelmed by calls from
employees from the affected area. There is a company-wide effort
to collect clothes, etc. for those affected employees and those items
are being shipped on our trains. To
stimulate contributions, we
have encouraged our call center employees to offer the Red Cross
phone number on as many calls as possible. When the Red Cross has more trunk capacity, we may consider allowing
them to tip calls directly to the Red Cross.
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Coaching
by Personality Types
Submitted by
Sandy Doucet, Director, Reservation Sales Center, Vantis International
Corporation, Calgary, Canada
I
spend a great deal of time learning about people and observing their
behaviors. It helps me to understand how to approach them and have successful
interactions when coaching them. We all try to find those secret ways
to deal with constructive feedback so that our employees listen,
understand and show buy-in when we are talking to them. Realizing there may be some method to the madness in dealing with different
people has opened my eyes and changed my approach with people in
general.
I
had the opportunity to attend a Myers-Briggs session and learn
about the Jung Typology Test. What an eye opener! Myers-Briggs is an
organization that has been doing personality testing for years. Their
method produces a four alpha character score to describe your personality
type. This has helped me considerably in dealing with my direct
reports.
Why
would we want to do personality tests? Well, ever wonder why someone
you work with likes to talk about a situation, cover all of the
details, go over everything more than once and appears to repeat their
message multiple times? Do you feel they think you don’t get
what they are saying? Do they think you can’t understand a message
without it being repeated five times? A personality test would show you
your co-worker is an extravert and likes to talk out loud
about situations, go over all of the details and repeat information
throughout the conversation while they think about what is being
discussed. You on the other hand are an introvert, and say things
once, internalize your thinking and share only solutions or answers
with others. By recognizing similar and contrasting personality traits, we can all work more effectively as a team.
In the Jung Typology Test, there
are two types within each of the four categories of personality:
| Extravert |
Introvert |
| Sensing |
Intuitive |
| Thinker |
Feeler |
| Judger |
Perceiver |
When
relating personality types to coaching there are two categories that
weigh more heavily on how people react. It's important to consider
whether an employee is an extravert
or introvert and also whether they are a thinker or a feeler. These
two categories can
help you understand whether your team member needs short, to-the-point
coaching or longer detailed discussions with lots of examples. By
learning the personality type of each team member you now can deliver
more effective feedback in a style that will gain trust, confidence
and respect. People naturally feel better when they know you are
trying to do what works best for them.
There
is plenty of information on-line about the different personality types
and many ways to use the information.
I
found a condensed and free version of the testing online and
encouraged my team to take the test at the following link:
www.humanmetrics.com.
The test takes five to ten minutes to complete.
Once I received the results, I put
together a chart that shows everyone’s alpha scores and held a
meeting where we talked openly about situations where people were
frustrated or hurt by the way they were dealt with. This opened up
lots of great conversation and brought all of us closer together.
People were willing to share their feelings and their preferred
method of interaction.
I would encourage you to use
this valuable tool. You have nothing to
lose and lots to gain. It sure goes a long way in building a strong
team!
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Upcoming IARE International Meetings
Register
today for these meetings:
October 28, 2005
IARE International Meeting
Dusseldorf, Germany
For details, click here
Friday, January
27, 2006
IARE International Meeting
Birmingham, England
(Rescheduled from
October 4, 2005)
For details, click here
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About
IARE-News
The IARE-News is a quarterly publication
distributed electronically to provide ongoing communication and
information for IARE Members.
The IARE’s Communications & Technology Committee produces
IARE E-News.
Articles
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2005 -- International Association of Reservation
Executives -- All rights reserved.
Last edit
03/28/06
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