4. Fush and Chups

Three weeks in and I'm feeling like part of the team, and I think I get what's going on!  The picture just becomes clearer and more focused with every day that I'm involved.  I've been able to start asking relevant and insightful questions, which always feel better than asking stupid questions.  What has become more clear to me is that there is one job which based in the office and involves planning, meetings, working on computers and printing out documents.  There will be a second, completely different job, when it is Games Time - no office, no computers or e-mail, no desk, no meeting requests, no documents to work on.  We will be on our feet, dealing with the unexpected and unplanned, and communication via mobile phones, radios and face to face contact will be the key to successful event management.  Additionally, we will also be leading teams of paid staff and volunteers.  I attended a leadership course this week which was a lot of common sense but also provided some valuable insights on leading a team outside of an office environment.  We will need to make quick decisions, lead by example and ensure our team members have their needs met and stay motivated.  This all sounds obvious, but it will also be in the context of 12 hour shifts, potentially boring tasks and long hours of standing in outdoor weather conditions.  It's something I don't have that much experience in, so it's a challenge I look forward to.  

Something that will help me in meeting that challenge is teamwork, and I'm grateful to have a friendly and supportive team.  In my team, there is one American, one Canadian, one Aussie, one Scottish Pakistani, one English person of Middle Eastern descent (haven't found out about that detail yet), two Greeks and me.  It's quite a diverse bunch, which is really cool - there is no one way of doing things, and people come from a variety of backgrounds, including some with masters degrees in transport, a farmer, a sports scientist and me, a commercial lawyer.  

Around the open plan office you can hear a number of different accents, although it seems like, on our floor, the dominant one is Australian!  One of the London 2012 "hosting actions" is "Distinctive" - provide the personal touch, let yourself shine through.  So, I have decided to consciously use my Kiwi accent.  "Why wouldn't you be using it anyway?", one might ask; "You've only been in the UK for a year!"  Well, the problem is my name - Wendy.  From the get go, as soon as I introduce myself to someone, I have found that unless I say it in a way that sounds to me like "Wandy" (sort of rhymes with Dandy), people screw up their faces, probably because they're too polite to say "Windy?! What kind of person is called Windy?"  I've also had to clarify on a number of other occasions a certain word I was pronouncing.  This was even though in my team at my last job, there was one American, one South African, one Scottish, one Turkish, one Welsh and three English people.  Anyway, I think it's because of the need for "Wandy" that soon after I started working at my last job, I started consciously (and recently, increasingly less consciously) rounding and opening my vowels, particularly "e" vowels.  You know how some people have a posh "phone voice"?  Well it's like I was adopting a "work voice", basically meaning that I spoke with a quasi-international blended soft accent at work.  

I began feeling concerned recently when I noticed the open vowels creeping into my normal voice, even when talking with other Kiwis.  I was shocked, however, that in my first week at LOCOG, two different people asked if I was American.  What?!  This has got to stop!  So, I'm going to be "distinctive" and embrace my Kiwi accent.  The Aucklander's accent isn't a thick Kiwi accent anyway, and in the LOCOG environment I'm sure there won't be any problem being understood.  When we first moved to the UK and met a Kiwi who had been here for 9 years, I was surprised and very impressed to hear her speak with a Kiwi accent.  I guess people have different views about this sort of thing but for myself, I'd like the way I speak to be a conscious choice.  Maybe I'll even start bringing back phrases like "choice", "sweet as", "stink" and "yeah nah".