It was a blustery winter’s evening; a far cry from a
romantic Dickensian scene. I was frustrated and impatient, wedged between post
match football fans congregating outside a closed train station at the start of
my journey back to Leeds .
I asked the helpful man behind the bullet proof screen 'what
are the chances of me catching this train?' He shook his head, clenched his jaw
and made that face you make when someone tells you about the time the trapped
their finger in a door. 'How about the one after that?' I asked. 'And the one
after that?' The face did not change.
A few minutes later, having reluctantly rejoined the crowd,
the man beckoned me back over to the window. He looked like he was up to no
good. He awkwardly drew the blind down and whispered covert instructions into
the microphone. I listened with my ear to the speaker and followed accordingly.
For no reason other than 'I just didn't want you to get stuck in the middle of
nowhere on your own' the man had allowed myself and another solo female passenger
to sneak through the train station offices, through a labyrinth of corridors
and onto the platform. Meanwhile the mob outside were none the wiser.
As well as putting a smile on my face for no less than a
week this got me thinking. It's the random acts of baseless kindness that get
us through the year. Particularly during the post Christmas winter, when fun
seems to hibernate and the sun has presumably taken his hat to the drycleaners.
Random acts, though tiny and sometimes insignificant, require
us to be a little more thoughtful for an extra moment. Thoughtfulness is all it
takes. So why aren't we all doing it? Why isn't it the norm? And what happens
when we forget to be thoughtful?
In the NHS we expect our frontline staff to be thoughtful at
all times. When things go wrong, it's usually because of lack of thought rather
than destructive intentions. So what can we do to tip the balance in our favour
and avoid the dreaded mediocrity?
Well, I have a plan and I would like you to join me. On the
first Friday of every month commit a random act of baseless kindness. Buy a
stranger a cup of coffee or share a happy thought with a colleague. Give
someone a compliment. Make a pledge for NHS change day. Be thoughtful.
