Transport systems and sauna behaviour – common ground?

I am setting up ITSB24, a new consulting enterprise focused on getting benefits from Intelligent Transport Systems (sometimes called ITS).  ITS includes driver information messaging, navigation systems, traffic control room and all sorts of stuff that for years just sat alone doing things in isolation.  ITS seek to integrate the technology to improve its utility and value.

Setting up a new business is tiring.  We need time out.  I was in my gym last night and decided a swim is best followed by a good sauna.

There was another chap in the gym’s large family sauna.  I greeted him – very un-British – not the stiff-upper-lip silent stoical treatment we usually dispense each other.  A chat followed that was both jolly and useful (it gave me the idea for this blog).  I think he and I were both nurtured by the exchange.  It elevated that sauna occasion to something more than just getting hot (perhaps I should get out more).

Finding benefits from ITS and uncharacteristically having good chat in the sauna have a key factor in common: ask the right question.  “How’s the sauna tonight?” is sufficient to ‘break the ice’ in a sauna in southern Britain.  Asking the right questions in an ITS Benefits Audit is along the same lines but requires more thought.  However, the outcome is basically the same: people love to talk, they just need the right encouragement.