Manufacturing Serendipity — what to do when you’re going to miss your flight and there are no trains?
To set the scene it’s just after 4.40am I’ve arrived at Kentish Town train station to get the train to Gatwick Airport for a flight. The train before mine had been cancelled. There were two others on the platform waiting with luggage — I assumed headed for Gatwick. First, the display for the train times changed to delayed with a few minutes added to the departure time — it then changed to simply saying delayed. I logged on to the National Rail app to discover the train had been cancelled.
As the next train due in an hour — the only option was to get a taxi to either Gatwick or Victoria to get the Gatwick Express. Assuming the others on the platform were in the same situation I approached them at the same time to offer to book an Uber where we could share with the cost being similar to the price of a single journey by train.
They agreed and within minutes were headed off arriving at the airport within minutes of the previous arrival time.
Yes, there’s Uber Pooling however, it would have been more expensive, it could have also resulted in a detour. Knowing we were all going to Gatwick before getting into the car was super useful.
Whilst Causr wasn’t used in this instance there are 3 core pillars in play that were activated. Firstly permission, I gave myself permission to break a social norm and say something as I wanted to save money and it’s good for the environment to car share. Secondly, as I had the information that the train had been cancelled I had the confidence to say something which is also related to the third pillar, Context, by seeing the bags I made an assumption they were going to the airport.
Adding it all up they were pleased I said something and we all ended up at the airport on time.
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