BigChange, the revolutionary mobile workforce management platform, is celebrating the delivery of an HGV driver training simulator at the Industrial Training Centre (ITC) in Lusaka that will help meet growing demand for professional driver training in Zambia.
BigChange is one of four organisations from the transport and logistics sector to have supported Transaid’s efforts to provide a professional simulator in Zambia, enabling new HGV drivers to spend additional hours behind the wheel in the safety of the classroom. It has worked alongside Clipper Logistics, Malcolm Group and XPO to help supply the simulator, supporting the initiative with donations of cash and expertise.
“BigChange is passionate about safety and sustainability. We are delighted to support Transaid and partners from across the transport and logistics sector in this incredibly worthwhile and potentially life saving endeavour. ”
Martin Port, BigChange Founder & CEO
“We are hugely grateful to BigChange, Clipper Logistics, Malcolm Group and XPO for securing the simulator and working with the talented team at ITC to ensure it was installed in Lusaka. It’s an amazing resource; and we’re confident it will help drive standards of training at ITC even higher, alongside the existing classroom, workshop and practical on-road teaching.”
BigChange ambassador Kevin Keegan OBE returned to Elland Road, home of Leeds United FC, to share tales from his time playing top flight football and the leadership lessons he learnt playing and managing the beautiful game.
He joined BigChange founder and CEO Martin Port, and Leeds United’s Head of Commercial Stuart Dodsley to discuss how his experience could help business leaders to build back stronger post-Covid.
Together, they talked through their experiences of motivating people when times were tough, embracing diversity to build stronger teams and how they stayed agile to grow during uncertainty.
Read the Video Transcript
Kevin Keegan OBE (KK): If there’s one thing that’s come out of it for me, it’s that if you ever think that football can manage without supporters, just look at what we’ve seen over the last year, where we’ve had stadiums empty and the football isn’t as good. The demand on the players is normally from the crowd. But you’ve got to build from within and that’s what I did at Newcastle. I started to look at everybody, demand more from them, because everyone’s got a little bit more in them than they believe. I honestly think that.
Stuart Dodsley (SD): It’s all about the manager and how he brings them together and generating that culture of success.
KK: Sometimes it needs people to just drag it out of them and give them the confidence.
Don Revie was my manager with England, he was the biggest enemy in the world when played Leeds. But when I got to know him, one of the really great people I met in my life.
Martin Port (MP): Obviously you need a vision, and then bringing together a great group of people.
KK: Sometimes if it’s coming from a voice that’s been there and done it, they take a bit more notice. We often played with a team of 11 players, every one of them from either France, Ghana, it could be Romania, I never had a problem between two players because of where they were from, or what their beliefs were. That guy next to you, you need him.
When you looked at the Leeds side, I always used to think ‘this is going to be the toughest game of the season’, whether with Reaney, Cooper, Yorath, they were all just such good players.
SD: Thankfully, now we’ve got stable, fantastic ownership that develops an ethos and a culture of success. And then when you bring in new people into your culture, they can adapt into that culture, and bring their values and cultures in. But then you keep your business ethos, at the core of it.
MP:
We want people to have that hunger, our sole mission is customer success. We’re absolutely passionate to make sure our customers get the best out of what we’re providing them. And you know, they rely on us.
KK:
Don Revie was here, wasn’t it, when I mean, they were just a fantastic side and that’s the sort of standards they’re trying to live up to now, isn’t it?
KK: You’re looking for leaders, that’s the key in football and that’s the key in any business. And they say “look, this is the way it is at this club” and when new guys come in then to a club that’s run properly, they straight away, from day one, know what the rules are.
They don’t need a piece of paper saying what they are, they’re told by the senior players “we don’t do that here.” You get your players to run it for you, if they’re running it for you, and they care that much about it, then you can trust them to do all the other things on a football field.
KK: It’s this year, it’s a bit like business, you know, it’s not good saying “in five years time, we’ll turn a profit,” you know, you need to find out how you can turn that profit as quickly as possible. Because, you know, you might not get the five years.
MP: When things aren’t going well, and business is a roller coaster, it can be really difficult. You have to be prepared to take those risks, because that’s what an entrepreneur does. What an entrepreneur is, is a risk taker.
KK: You’ve got to go in and say “right how do I sort this out,” you know, “how can I get the best out of this group of players? And what do we need to make us better?” And that’s what businesses do. You’re taking on guys who can do that job and take this company to another level, because they’ve got the expertise that you don’t have.
MP: If somebody says “it can’t be done”, I’m going to smash that wall down. KK: Well, that’s what’s fantastic about the guys we’ve got on Zoom here from the different companies. Basically, it’s the same as football, they’ve been confronted with this massive problem and instead of saying “wow, you know, what do we do now?” [its] “what can we do and where can we gain from that?” And I think that is what makes us as a nation, not just talking about football here, but as a nation we’ve, yes, we can take the blows but we bounce back from them.
BigChange ambassador Kevin Keegan OBE has many great memories of Elland Road from his career playing for and managing top-flight football teams.
In May 2021, he returned to the home of Leeds United FC for an online event sharing the leadership lessons he learnt from the beautiful game with BigChange customers.
Stuart Dodsley, Head of Commercial at Leeds United, gave Kevin and BigChange CEO Martin Port a tour of the iconic stadium. (During the tour) Kevin told tales from the tunnel, reflected on stand-out games and discussed his time playing for, and against, the formidable Don Revie.
Read the video transcript below
Kevin Keegan OBE (KK): When I come here it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up because of so many great memories.
When you looked at the Leeds side, it was just full of international class players. I always used to think, you know, this is going to be the toughest game of the season. Whether it was Reaney, Cooper, Yorath, they were all such good players.
[In the tunnel] I was always looking to see where Norman was, and whether he’d got big studs on, ready to sort me out.
Stuart Dodsley (SD): Did you come out together or separately?
KK: We came out separately in those days, so we didn’t have that confrontation luckily.
Martin Port (MP): [Pointing to pitch-side advertising boards] Our advert appears, I think at three minutes thirty. Does it put the players off you think?
KK: I don’t think that one does, but there is one where the dog runs around – you think ‘there’s a dog run on the pitch’.
SD: So you’ve got your Leeds United Roll of Honour here. Perhaps the disappointing thing is it’s down to you some of this!
KK: This was my first year, 70-71, and this is when I got sent off with Billy Bremner. So just take that out of there [pointing to ‘1974 FA Charity Shield’], we’ll just cover that up.
[Pitch-side] That’s the biggest difference. We’d never play on a pitch like this even at the start of the season.
SD: Elland Road here, fans are close to the pitch, they create their own unique atmosphere. There’s a reason England chose here to come, to play before the last World Cup.
KK: Most grounds you come out the middle, there’s a couple you come out the corners, but Leeds is off-centre isn’t it.
[In the dressing room] The whole squad would’ve fitted in here. The whole training squad when Don Revie was manager. [To Stuart] Is this the home one then? I bet the away one isn’t as good?
SD: No it’s a bit tighter (Both laugh).
KK: My dad used to come and watch me when I played at Leeds because he only lived up the road at Doncaster.
The thing that really gets me is if I start to look at the names on the stands. Don Revie, who was my manager with England, he was the biggest enemy in the world when we played Leeds. But when I got to know him, one of the really great people I met in my life.
You know, the scouts from Leeds came to watch me play and I thought ‘Wow, that would be some move for me, because obviously I’m from Doncaster, I’m a yorkshireman, but it never happened. So I had to play against them, which was fantastic.
[Pointing to the 60s period on the Honour Roll] Don Revie was here wasn’t he when they were just a fantastic side. That’s the sort of standard they’re trying to live up to now right.
In the next 10 years it could be Leeds, Liverpool, you know, as dominant forces in the country.
MP: You made our youth enjoyable.
KK: What even scoring the goals against Leeds? You seen how many goals I scored against Leeds? (laughs)
MP: No, Bremmner and Keegan in our garden, it was the best.
Introducing a new space for you to suggest and share ideas about how to improve the BigChange system
BigChange has always aimed to understand the day-to-day challenges faced by mobile workforces, and to develop the solutions that help.
It knows that mobile workers using the system in the field every day have a great understanding of where improvements can be made.
The BigChange Ideas Portal is the latest way of letting users get those suggestions heard.
Users can find the Portal by clicking on ‘Suggestion’ in the Roadcrew tab of the BigChange system. Once there, you can sort ideas by Trending, Most popular or New – or suggest an idea of your own.
To make a suggestion, just click ‘Add a new idea’.
Try to explain your development suggestion as clearly and concisely as possible. Other users will need to easily see the benefit to them for your idea to gain traction. To help, we have shared a template:
As a [your role], I want to [the problem that you face], so I can [the benefit you hope to achieve].
The Portal includes a voting feature, so you can boost awareness of the ideas you feel would help most. You can also subscribe to an idea you want to stay updated on.
For example, BigChange chose the most popular idea – “Make different job types show as different colours in the schedule” – to develop, and informed users when it was implemented earlier this month.
Product Director Jonathan Isaacs said:
“For BigChange, it allows us to make better-informed decisions and pursue developments that matter most to our users, for customers, it lets them know their ideas are being heard and acted on. Users can give input on what they would like to see from BigChange, and crucially, receive notifications that let them know we’re listening.”
“For 21 years, I’ve been living with depression. For 15 of those, I didn’t even know,” said former professional footballer Clarke Carlisle at the start of this month’s Motivational Monday.
Clarke is a former top-level footballer, straight-A GCSE student, defender for England Under-21s, and chairman of the Professional Footballers Association. He is also a survivor of five suicide attempts – and he has devoted his post-playing years to helping others thrive and avoid the darkness that at times enveloped him.
His story is one of transforming your life by having the courage to ask for help.
Two pieces of advice for people who think they’re suffering – or think they know someone who is – shone through.
Clarke Said:
“Do you think about your thinking? Thoughts aren’t facts, they’re intrusive, they come in, and then it’s up to you how you connect with it. And think about if you need to share it. Men aren’t great communicators, but for 15 years my actions were screaming for support, before judging someone’s behaviours, think ‘is there something this person needs help with and can I help?”
Clarke stressed the importance of talking about mental health and breaking down stigmas – drawing on his personal experience of burying your depression.
His issues in facing up to his mental health started with a stoic, disciplinarian father and a mother with a stiff upper lip,
“What goes on behind this front door stays behind this front door,”
Clarke recalls them saying.
As a member of an interracial family in 70s Britain, he was told early and often that,
“You have to be better than everyone else, to be seen as equal to everyone else.”
He took this advice to heart, leaving school as a straight-A student and landing a spot in the Blackpool first-team at 16.
A poor debut left him questioning if he was good enough, but scoring a 91st-minute winner in his first home match suggested he was.
After several successful seasons, multiple man-of-the-match awards, and a call up for the England Under-21’s, a serious injury put him out for the season and left his footballing future at risk. That’s when the depression crept in.
A lack of awareness about depression meant Clarke tackled the symptoms of his illness instead of the real issue. Even after the first of his five suicide attempts.
“My depression would manifest in crazy outbursts, binging and dangerous behaviour. At first I thought it was the drink, so I went to rehab. Afterwards, I was still staying in bed for 2-3 days, dodging work and family. I thought I was an idiot who couldn’t make responsible decisions.”
That wasn’t true. Clarke became Chair of the PFA in 2010, became the first footballer to appear on Question Time, and commentated on the 2014 World Cup Finals.
“Despite that every two or three months I was exploding into these behaviours. Anytime I felt my career was threatened, or my identity was questioned, my brain automatically connected it to that first suicide attempt. These behaviours were the uneducated mind trying to cope by oblivion and avoidance.”
Throughout his successful career, Clarke was often caught up by these dark thoughts. “It became my truth,” he said. “Because I didn’t share it with anyone it went round and round my head.”
Clarke was diagnosed with recurring, complex depressive disorder. This was the first step in understanding his illness and starting to heal. His wife Carrie joined Clarke to talk about how mental health affects the whole family, and about their shared recovery journey.
“Clarke had been in that pit of despair for 20 years,” Carrie said:
“He’d climb out occasionally but it would suck him back in because he didn’t change his behaviours, change his beliefs, and he didn’t get professional guidance.”
In 2017, Clarke went into psychiatric care. Carrie remembers how,
“it took him only 23 days, resting, eating, being diagnosed by professionals and treated properly for him to be well enough to come home”.
Understanding his illness, speaking out about his problems and finding help from the right professionals all helped Clarke’s recovery. He urged anyone who felt similar to do the same.
His message couldn’t come at a more pressing time. He said:
“Not all depression is trauma-based,” he said. “We’re only just learning about how it can be passed through genes, but it can even come about after a period of sustained stress and pressure. How long is that period? Six weeks. And we’ve spent the last 15 months in a pandemic.”
Clarke and Carrie were joined by Leon McQuade from Andy’s Man Club, a mental-health charity dedicated to getting men talking about their problems. He cited the terrible statistic that every two hours a man takes his life in the UK, but said how change is coming as more men speak up honestly about their experiences.
The charity runs 50 clubs across the UK, creating safe, attentive spaces for men to open up about their struggles. Its awareness campaign epitomises the biggest takeaway from this month’s Motivational Monday – ‘It’s OK to talk’.
Next month we’ll be joined by the TV presenter and Invictus Games medallist JJ Chalmers. Our charity partner will be Help for Heroes, of which JJ is a patron. we hope you can join us then, you can register here: http://bigchan.ge/MM-JJ-Chalmers.
Nic Hamilton, the British racing driver who overcame cerebral palsy to compete in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), is sharing his story with thousands of young people at schools across the North of England to help them develop new skills and a positive mindset.
Spring apporte une nouvelle vie à BigChange University, avec une nouvelle session sur la santé et la sécurité et des modules renommés – pour trouver le contenu que vous souhaitez améliorer plus facilement.
The formidable broadcaster, journalist and Loose Women panellist Janet Street-Porter shares the lessons from her career on Motivational Monday (and drops in a few mantras along the way).
Saviez-vous que le système BigChange vous permet de personnaliser votre page de destination? tandis que si vous utilisez un système téléphonique basé sur le Web, comme RingCentral, vous pouvez voir qui vous appelle et trouver des liens vers des fonctions courantes dans le système BigChange. Lisez la suite pour savoir comment.
