Tilly Taxonomy. A Memory Carried Through an Entire Career.

This piece is dedicated to the memory of John Tilly, who, when I started out in Telecommunications was the Commercial Director at STC Submarine Systems (Later ASN) located in Greenwich, England. Much later I learned that he had passed, but his memory lives on for me.

Suffice to say that joining STC Submarine Systems as a graduate of Mechanical Engineering of a tender 21 years, I had much to learn – and soon realised that. Early bosses would probably have characterised me as enthusiastic but lacking a certain motivation and experience (I was cured of both later in life).

As I learned more about the submarine cable network industry into which I’d been recruited, I realised I’d truly lucked out! Over the years, ‘just a job’ became a passion.

In the early 1980s, the transition from coaxial cable to fibre optic systems was in its infancy, which gave development engineers like me a toybox of excitement in engineering the necessary changes in cable and manufacturing – knowledge that would stay with me through four decades in the submarine cable network community. Later, responsibility would come my way.

But I stray from the point. As an inexperienced youngster joining the industry it was necessary to learn quickly, take responsibility when it was given, and if I was to develop personally, I had to decide what kind of engineer, and in future if responsibility came my way, what kind of manager, I wanted to be.

Which brings me to the late John Tilly. Early in my career, he was the Commercial Director of STC Submarine Systems. From my lowly position in the company, I observed that he was creative, direct, shrewd, trustworthy, protective of and loyal to his team and company, and professional. When you had a deal with him, it was a deal that would stick. On one occasion during a particularly difficult meeting with the management, the MD railed at the result of some action of a member of John’s department. ‘Who in your department was responsible for this mess-up?’ was the request. ‘I am responsible. That’s my issue and I will deal with it’ was Tilly’s reply. 

In that moment Tilly became the role model it would be my aspiration to emulate. 

That day I learned that it was better never to take the easy way out, never to ‘throw your people under a bus,’ never to shrink from responsibility where it had been given, and never to imagine that by passing the blame to others, you could escape your own responsibilities.

When responsibility eventually came my way, though I fall short as much as any, aiming to work like that became my way to measure how well I could personally inspire, guide and deliver for the teams and clients it eventually became my privilege to serve.

This piece is entitled Tilly Taxonomy. 

Taxonomy, as you will probably know, is the categorisation of organisms, and for all but one of those organisms, that categorisation is done by others. What relevance does it have here?

I could never be John Tilly, No-one can ever be somebody else, nor should they be – we are all unique and must be our own version of ourselves. But we all can choose the best characteristics to which we aspire – characteristics that elevate performance, humanity and relationships. Though characterisation is for others to decide - through my work, I’m aiming for people with whom I’ve dealt to characterise me as creative, direct, shrewd, trustworthy, protective of and loyal towards the team and organisation, and professional: in short, as a Tilly.

Wouldn’t you?