Being lost and needing help

"A lady in a hot air balloon realised that she was lost.

She reduced altitude and spotted a man below.

She descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me?

I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago but I don't know where I am."

The man below replied "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground.

You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist. "I am", replied the man.

"How did you know?"

"Well", answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip even more."

The man below responded, "You must be in management."

"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "You don't know where you are or where you're going.

You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air.

You made a promise which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems?!!"

Before anyone comments I didn't write the story above. The man / woman can easily be switched around, it is not a gender issue. Equally before anyone checks the co-ordinates I am also aware that the location is in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, but again this is not relevant here.

The point I wanted to make is rather topical. We have run a number of our #GDPRexpress events over the past months and the attendees have ranged primarily from people in marketing, to HR, to IT, with only the odd business owner or Director in attendance.

With the increased responsibilities that the GDPR brings, it is of utmost importance that organisations realise this is a board level issue. No matter how big or small a company is, if there are only 2 people in a business to being a multi national, it needs the buy in from the top.

Do not expect that the staff in various departments will wave a magic wand and everything will happen overnight. It takes leadership, it takes careful planning, and most importantly it needs EVERYONE in an organisation to change the way they think to make this happen.

Heads of businesses will need to allocate time, resource and budget to make it happen. They may well also need to get external professional help in to assist in the process. From going through our own GDPR readiness programme we know this only too well.

People are often afraid to ask for help and they shouldn't be. No one person is an expert in everything. This is why people have different jobs. Different expertise coming together helps you address the job in hand. Over time you might learn enough to start taking over some of the tasks yourself but you cannot learn everything over night, it is simply not possible.

We spent time and found some really good external companies to work with who have helped us ASSESS current position, PLAN what we need to do, and IMPLEMENT our own ongoing GDPR readiness programme. Yes at the start it is a daunting task, but once you start and do things in bite size chunks, it becomes so much easier to address.

You start to take on what you are being shown and it becomes second nature. We share our story in our #GDPRexpress events, and show them how we are dealing with things, in the hope that it will help other businesses star to make the right steps ahead of May 2018.

GDPR is not just Cyber or IT or Marketing it is everything and more. It is culture change. It is training and making people aware of their obligations and the law. It is coming to protect the data of everyone, for our own benefit. It can also be a benefit to your business to improve customer, supplier and staff confidence that you take data privacy seriously.

We will be the first to admit it will not all happen overnight, but planning and tackling what you can sooner than later helps you on your journey. Our sessions have specialist speakers covering a whole multitude of areas that collectively all count towards getting your business ready. including practical steps, how to's and what next's.

If we can help you or your clients in any way with training, connectivity or GDPR awareness please get in touch.

Chris Hunter

03333 444 190

HM Network