PROBLEM SOLVING

I read recently in the New Yorker about the contrast between organisations that go in for problem solving (good) and relationship conflict (bad). Problem solving is everybody talking about an issue and resolving it before going to the pub. Relationship conflict is people bitching about each other because of rivalry, personal animosity or ambition, even when there is actually little to divide them. I think we are in danger of sliding into relationship conflict over the issue of the Westminster Course, a kind of sub blue badge guiding course for the Westminster area.

The idea of this course has provoked howls of protest from London guides who see it as a threat to their income and status, as it will train guides in London but not to blue badge standard, thus potentially opening the door to less fully trained and potentially cheaper guides than those with a blue badge. Alan Cross, who was former chairman of APTG and is now joint president of the Institute of Tourist Guiding and has given up a lot of time to guiding organisations (get a life, Alan) has come in for some flak recently over this issue. He was chairing the recent Institute AGM when many London blue badge guides (including me) expressed their disquiet over the new course, particularly as one of its main tutors is a trustee of the Institute and, therefore, in a position to help decide whether the course is accredited, ie given official status, by the Institute - obviously a conflict of interests.

A letter was written to the Institute trustees and signed by several guides. I declined to sign it, not because I dsiagreed with its contents, but with its tone, which was critical of Alan's chairing of the AGM. However, the Westminster course was not an item on the agenda and its status can only be determined by the Inst's trustees, a necessarily bureaucratic process, not one that can be decided at a discussion forum. I felt a certain sympathy for Alan who had to allow several London guides to air their grievances, listen to some frankly batty woman going on about Stonehenge, introduce all the new trustees who had to do their beauty queen acceptance speech and still make time for the all-important raffle draw. Criticising him for not giving more time to London guides to essentially air the same opinions repeatedly is not fair - it is relationship conflict rather than problem solving.

Is the Westminster course actually a major problem for London guides? I suspect not, in practice. A similar course has existed for years in the City of London without being seen as a threat to the blue badge and most tour operators are surely smart enough to know that the essential difference between a blue badge and an unqualified guide is that one with a badge can take them into the all-important sites like Westminster Abbey, St Paul's, the Tower and Windsor castle and give them a decent tour of the interior, which an unbadged guide is neither qualified nor competent to do.

The fact is that anyone can stand up in front of a group of tourists and say, "My name is Eddie and I am your tourist guide." It is what happens afterwards that is important. You might be able to bluff your way around the sights of London without a badge but you will soon be exposed once you have crossed the threshold of the major sites.