Princes Bridge is one of the few places in Melbourne I frequent where I ever see tourists in Melbourne. In Sydney and many other cities in the world tourists are noticeably everywhere; public transport, city squares, parks etc., but the river and Arts Precinct of Melbourne the only place that I feel comes close to the ‘crowds’ of Paris, London etc (and it is not crowded at all). We may not be particularly enthralled on a daily basis by the Arts Centre Spire or Fed Square so we rush past, and may be annoyed by people posing on the bridge, blocking the bike/foot path.

Can you imagine how frustrating it must be for the average Parisian or Londoner to take the metro/tube to work, with a never ending stream of families and backpackers with luggage, clogging up queues for tickets, standing stationary outside every unique looking building etc.? Must be a nightmare in peak season! Despite living in a beautiful city however, I imagine a Parisian running late for a meeting would not stop to marvel at Notre Dame if he/she passes everyday.

To get to my point, I think both marketers and educators could benefit from being a tourist in their own city once in a while. If I worked for Tourism Victoria, I would enlist the help of a foreign national (or pretend to be one) and go to the airport and try to see with fresh eyes how Melbourne presents. Sadly, there is no underground rail service that takes you directly from Tullamarine and pops you out at Fed Square or Birrarung Marr. Instead one’s first breath of Melbourne air is cigarette smoke outside the Terminal, and a view of the freeway. When we travel to foreign locations with languages other than English, I’m sure we are quick to criticise, but where is the support we offer to foreign language speakers? We would be incensed if all our street signs were also written in Chinese, Japanese or Spanish (I think it would be cool, myself) but that is what other countries do for us. Being a Tourist in our own city/country is the first step to understanding others’ perspectives and delivering a superior offering.

This is not limited to tourism of course. When the various student society committees and I used to slave over lunchtime barbeques we would be so busy cooking and serving and selling tickets/memberships that we would not take the time to see how our service looked to the customer. I recall one barbeque which was so busy and successful we needed to buy more supplies, but only when I took a break did I see from the ‘front’ of the barbeque that ‘reject’ sausages on the ground, torn paper signs, rubbish ‘behind the scenes’ and tomato sauce over the condiments table did not project the most inviting scene! With all staff occupied in their own tasks, this is inevitable for any sized organisation, so consciously taking the time to audit the customer experience is invaluable in the long run. Undercover Boss proves the value of senior leadership seeing the coal face, but any marketer can gain insights from stepping back for a moment and seeing their offering anew.

For educators, this is more difficult as the service of teaching is inseparable from its producer. Education has the added danger that the customer/student has no power to provide feedback (other than inattention or not understanding) and unlike the commercial world there is no basis for comparison. Students are unlikely to be able to try another English teacher the way one can change hairdressers. There may only be so many ways to explain algebra, or it might be tempting to use the same examples for a science theory one has used for the last decade, nonetheless teachers can be tourists by beginning each class afresh or trying to remember what it was like to first learn something.

I love sports coaching, because you can help someone else learn something quicker than you did. Case in point, the people I have taught to surf and cross country ski have had less wipeouts than I ever did! I felt very comfortable taking training sessions for athletics, football, netball and volleyball, but only when it came time for me to be a ‘student’ to learn rowing or basketball did I remember the fear that comes from not knowing technique, the rules, or even what to expect out of a training session. It is so much easier to feel comfortable doing an ergo session when you know how many sets and reps you have planned; when someone else is dictating the session and you don’t know what is coming up it is terrifying!

I love that in French ‘apprendre’, the verb  ‘to teach’, also means ‘to learn’. My philosophy is that all teachers should still be learning, and keep the emotions associated with learning something new fresh in their minds.