Roughly translated, as ‘Surprise Report’, the presentation new employees do in France

For today’s post, the brilliant Jessica Jones-Langley will be taking us through an idea that I think that many companies could benefit from. Take it away Jessica…

In French working culture, when individuals join a new company, they are sometimes asked to create a rapport d’étonnement, roughly translated as a “surprise report” as in ‘what surprised you in the first few weeks/month in your new role’. It can also be literally anything, from working culture, to how the company runs meetings and more traditional topics such as approach to projects. Seven months ago I joined Fifteen, a company that supports cities worldwide with public bike-sharing, so I did one of these surprise reports. 

While you’ll find Fifteen bikes in 30+ cities, I’m based in the Paris office so part of my astonishment report concerned working culture. Many things about French working life fascinated me including the ritual of taking lunch. I kid you not, they all remove themselves from their desk and head to the lunch room. This is not some room in the corner of the building with a few microwaves in the corner, it is an entire floor dedicated to communal eating with a balcony overlooking the rooftops of Paris. 

As a kiwi and someone who’s spent time working in London, it’s also much much longer than I’m used to. However long people need to comfortably eat and engage in conversation, sometimes it can extend to 2+ hours. It’s also not your classic lunch-time conversation. Today for example, following the local elections in Spain, I discussed the ins and outs of politics in Barcelona with a colleague. The multiple faux-pas I’ve made so far include going back to my desk before everyone is finished with their final course (yes, dessert is taken seriously here), and starting to eat before others that I’m sitting with have sat down. But I’m definitely going on a tangent here.

Here is my astonishment report related to mobility: 

With a few years experience working in European politics, I was already aware of the unique development approaches in different European countries, however, I was surprised by the significant emphasis and resources that the French government dedicates to public transport. Just a few weeks back, the French Government announced a 2 billion investment to promote cycling.

Additionally, the level of ambition in France is remarkably high. When looking at the number of trips that a public bike-sharing scheme delivers daily, in France each bike is ridden 1.5 times a day, at an absolute minimum—and I believe some places would be embarrassed to share numbers like this. With my access at Fifteen to behind-the-scenes data, I can share that on average, each bike in the bike-sharing systems powered by Fifteen in France is on average three times a day. In fact, quite a few schemes in cities like Paris and Marseille have a fleet of bikes where each one is being used more than seven times a day (some months it’s 10+). I would be interested to know what is considered “acceptable” and “amazing” in other parts of the world. In Germany, I overheard a politician expressing satisfaction with 1.5 trips per day!

My role involves creating content for the UK and it quickly became apparent how much importance UK institutions place on social inclusion. For instance, there is a strong emphasis on ensuring the inclusion of minority groups when planning public bike-sharing systems. This is not to say that France is the opposite, but their approach to social inclusion differs a lot. The French government follows the principle of “colour blindness” or “equality before the law,” meaning official statistics based on race or ethnicity are generally not collected. 

While racial equality is not discussed (at least not what I can tell), what I have observed in France is that social inclusion as a concept is so deeply ingrained that it’s almost invisible to foreigners like me. As an example, refurbished bikes were turned into a free long-term rental system in Lyon for students or young job seekers. I had to inquire multiple times for examples of how bike-sharing projects can be inclusive, because such a system providing free transportation to those in need, is considered normal and not worth shouting from the rooftops —as one colleague stated, doing so would be disingenuous.

I’m curious to know what you would include in your astonishment report. What surprised you when you started your current role? I invite you to leave a comment below!