Network Rail commissioned Lucid to design and deliver two e-learning modules for Signaller training: Train Requiring to Stop in Section and Train an Unusually Long Time in Section.
The training deals with highly specific scenarios to which Signallers must respond. The project required a detailed understanding of the Rule Book and Network Rail operating procedures.
Lucid provided educational design and e-learning production services for this highly technical project. The learning was delivered using Articulate’s Rise platform.
Network Rail has commissioned Lucid to produce the Facing Points Podcast.
The podcast will focus on issues relevant to operational staff – Signallers, Ops Managers, Incident Controllers, and the many and varied roles that must work together to deliver our rail services.
Here you see our first recording session at the Roles in Rail event held at the Westwood training facility. Roles in Rail provided graduates and apprentices with an opportunity to explore the many and varied operational roles available to them now and in the future.
Lucid worked with the Network Rail podcast team, providing planning and production expertise to this highly experienced team. We aim to provide practical, educational insights into operational activities – all delivered in the down-to-earth style and good humour associated with operational staff.
Network Rail commissioned Lucid to design and deliver five video training modules on Electrical Control in the UK railway.
The training provides a broad introduction to the fundamentals of electricity supply, electric trains and how the system is managed. Lucid worked in tandem with Danny Barrett, a recognised industry expert in rail electrification.
Lucid provided educational design and video production services while retaining Danny as the core presenter. This approach allows for the crafting of professional training materials by ‘external eyes’ while retaining the deep knowledge and credibility of an industry expert.
It’s safe to say that almost every small business has been through the process of defining exactly what service or product it provides. In fact, most market savvy businesses will go through this process multiple times, to stay afloat and keep up with the pace of change. Questions asked are likely to include whether a business should…
Focus on a core service or product?
Broaden the offering and capture a bigger share of the market?
Specialise in one industry or have a general understanding of many?
Offer a one off service or something that needs an ongoing contract?
The answers to which are all critical for any business to know.
One thing we have learnt in almost 20 years of trading is that small companies must excel at something!
In our case, we are a digital agency. More specifically, we’ve refined that down to providing ‘eLearning and digital comms’ for the heavy industries and transportation sectors. Even more specifically, our specialist topic areas are non-technical skills, railway communications and site induction via our online platform SiteSentinel.
We’ve also learnt that it’s important to say what you don’t do! This builds credibility and helps clients frame your offering. In our case, we don’t do Public Relations; we don’t do Marketing Communications; and we certainly don’t do print campaigns…
…except for the fact that we’ve just done a print job! Our offering – digital comms and learning – is pretty well defined, so why have we dipped our toe in the print pond? The answer is simple: it made sense for the client.
The rail client wanted a set of cards designed and printed that workers could use to learn about non-technical skills. The project was required within an existing programme of work that we were involved in and we were well placed to deliver it. We used our knowledge of non-technical skills in the rail industry and combined that with our experience of creating and delivering eLearning programmes, to design the set of educational cards.
And now comes the critical part… we then brought in a partner company and leaned on their specialism – printing! In this case the excellent print management company Birch Print – who printed a beautiful set of client-ready cards.
So, what’s the moral of the story? Defining what you do, and don’t do, is key to attracting customers and making sales. However, sometimes a job might come along that you are well suited to – just with a little expert help. So it would seem that specialising, whilst remaining open to possible new opportunities through collaborating with trusted business partners, provides the best of both worlds.
The idea of repeat business sounds so clear cut: customers electing to return for more work, often needing something the same or similar, and all wrapped up in an established working relationship. It might therefore seem like an opportunity to roll out more of what worked previously, and in some circumstances, this is exactly what the customer wants. However, even with pure repeat business there is a process of checking and challenging that must happen to ensure the customer gets what they need.
Take our SiteSentinel online worksite induction solution, which we’ve successfully rolled out across numerous rail sites – depots and more recently stations. The structure and benefits stay largely the same, yet the content often contains significant differences – additions, subtractions and points of emphasis. It all depends on the nature of the site and its associated risk.
As consultants accepting repeat business, the benefits of already knowing an industry are huge. We can make good use of standard industry phrases or acronyms in site induction content, confident that induction users will be familiar with the terminology. For example, the rail industry ‘HOT’ protocol for assessing the risk of an unattended object: Is it Hidden from view? Is it Obviously suspicious? Is it Typical of what one would expect to find in that area? We can use this across different site inductions safe in the knowledge that all rail employees will understand it.
Repeat business also means that as consultants we become more and more familiar with our customers’ policies and procedures; making us adept at knowing exactly when and where to cite them for maximum impact in site inductions. By supporting our clients across multiple different sites, we are also efficiently and effectively communicating company-wide policies across the organisation – helping to develop awareness, support uptake and increase consistency of implementation.
However, the real benefits for a customer comes from a consultant that doesn’t make assumptions when undertaking what looks like a repeat job. Just because one site paints its safe walking route yellow, doesn’t mean they all will – even if they are all part of the same company. For many of the rail companies we work with, every site is different, and if we make assumptions, we risk making mistakes.
Therefore, for each site induction we develop, especially when it’s repeat business, we remain actively curious. We ask questions, we don’t jump to conclusions and we never assume we know the answer just because of what we did at a neighbouring site. It’s only when we’ve completed a thorough assessment that we begin to carefully add or remove content from the induction programme to ensure it reflects each unique site perfectly.
If you get it right, customers will vote with their feet. Having implemented SiteSentinel across a range of train operating company sites, Arriva Rail London, East Midlands Railway and Greater Anglia are just some of our customers that have returned for more site induction development at different sites in the last six months… which is no small achievement considering the last six months we’ve all had!
