Cool Cat

Last week I received a phone call asking if I’d be willing to join a Focus group today at The Ridgewood. The Trust is looking to recruit to an associate directorship position and besides the interview, the short-listed candidates will give a brief presentation to the Interview Panel and face questions from three Focus groups (peers/professionals, service users/carers, staff). The Ridgewood isn’t the easiest place to get to by public transport for 9 am so they organised a taxi for me. It arrived just after 8 am, far earlier than anticipated (the journey takes maybe 20 minutes or so). I was still in the shower! Quickly I threw some clothes on and went out to speak to the driver – he was happy to wait whilst I dried my hair and got ready.

We arrived at The Ridgewood before the receptionist and it occurred to me that nobody had told me where to go or who to ask for. This Norwegian Forest cat stalked through the door with me and settled himself comfortably in the waiting room (see photo), so I followed suit. Eventually the receptionist arrived and managed to discover where I was supposed to go. In theory there should have been 5 service users or carers in the Focus group but in practice just two of us made it – last week when I hadn’t heard any more about the transport arrangements, I’d phoned and persisted until I’d got through to somebody who was able to confirm the taxi had been arranged, but it would appear that no one had followed through and advised the other service users of the details. Barbara P_ (one of the friends with whom I meet for coffee once a month) had made her own way there. We weren’t best impressed with the disorganisation.

One of my questions to each candidate was: Imagine an award ceremony where you’re being presented with an award ...

1. what accomplishment can you envisage receiving an award for;
2. who in the audience (eg. family, friends, work colleagues, members of the community or service users) do you think would be applauding most enthusiastically;
3. how long before this might take place?
   
   Afterwards we gave our feedback to the HR facilitator, had lunch and got the taxi home again. I enjoyed the buzz I got from the morning.