LinkedIn Has Turned Having a Bad Day Into a Management Qualification

Martin Vale | Helping organizations find their next platform

I missed my train this morning.

By forty seconds.

I could see the empty seat I would have taken. Someone had left a newspaper on it. For a moment, I felt that the entire world was proceeding without me.

Then a ticket inspector asked a question that changed everything.

“Are you getting the next one?”

[1] The next one was the 8:46. Martin's meeting began at nine. The office was seven minutes from the destination, leaving him time to buy his usual coffee. He sat down on a bench to record the question while it was fresh.

I have spent fifteen years helping businesses navigate change. This morning, a man whose name I did not even know reminded me what change actually requires.

Another platform.

[2] The service departed from the same platform. Martin has retained the phrase because it extends to organizations whose challenges do not involve rail.

I thanked him for his leadership. He asked me to move my bag so someone else could sit down.

Even then, he was thinking about the team.

[3] A connection request addressed to “the tall inspector on the northbound side” has been submitted through the railway's lost-property form. Martin would like to offer him a complimentary place on an upcoming webinar, subject to capacity.

When I finally reached the office, I brought something more valuable than punctuality.

Perspective.

To my colleagues: thank you for creating the space for this to happen.

To anyone watching a door close today: perhaps the most important journey begins when you stop trying to board.

What has a delay taught you?

[4] Martin arrived at 11:20. Before leaving the station he had taken several photographs, including one in which the bench appeared unoccupied. His colleague Ruth had delivered his presentation using the previous quarter's figures. The presentation concerned ownership.

Selected comments, 11:47 a.m.

Ruth Bell, Operations Director: Could you send the revised figures?

Martin Vale: Ruth, I value this challenge. Accountability should never stop at the office door.

Ruth Bell: The spreadsheet, Martin.

[5] A screenshot of this exchange appears in Martin's presentation on welcoming difficult conversations. Ruth asked him to remove it. Her request is now discussed on the next slide, which is animated so the word “difficult” arrives first.

Update, 2:40 p.m.

I did not expect this to resonate so widely. Thank you to everyone who has shared their own missed train.

I am particularly moved by the invitation to speak at the Northwater Leadership Breakfast. If someone had told me, standing on that cold platform this morning, where I would be by lunchtime, I would not have believed them.

[6] The invitation came from a former colleague with an empty slot between the sponsor's address and the pastries. Its subject line was “Can you fill twenty minutes?” Martin replied with a headshot in which he is looking slightly beyond the camera, towards something he has identified.

The inspector has not replied. Martin's assistant has asked the railway whether a different inspector could attend in the same uniform.

Update, Friday

A few people have asked whether I apologized for being late.

Of course.

Apology is central to the work I do. In fact, it is the first module in my new workshop, The Next Platform.

[7] The apology occupies pages four to nine of the accompanying workbook. Ruth has received a preview copy with those pages omitted. To prevent the context being lost, Martin would prefer to deliver them in person, at the event.

For participants arriving on time, the venue will provide a waiting area in which to reflect on how much of their lives they have spent meeting other people's expectations. Coffee will be available after they have decided to leave.

Update, six weeks later

I am delighted to announce that The Next Platform has been acquired by Bracket & Field.

What began as forty seconds has become my life's work.

[8] The consultancy has acquired the question, the metaphor and worldwide rights to Martin's failure to catch the train. The inspector is now described in the materials as an unnamed mentor. A stock photograph has resolved the uniform issue.

The methodology begins by establishing which train a client has missed. An assessment team then identifies the platform on which the client stands. Clients who have successfully boarded a train must get off before the assessment can proceed.

A pilot organization has spent eight months between platforms. Its chief executive describes the results as transformative. The assessment team agrees that it is now a very different organization from the one that originally wanted to go somewhere.

Martin has been appointed Founding Passenger. His office contains the bench.

Ruth still needs the number for cell F19. The cell remains empty, although its border now matches the consultancy's colors.

Factual versus fictional: LinkedIn is a real platform. Martin, the post, comments, quotations, organizations and events are invented. This is satire of professional self-presentation, not a report about a real user or LinkedIn policy.

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