BM: I was wondering about how you acquire knowledge (about helper skills) and pass it on.
JC: It's a really difficult skill. Um - I would say, some people don't ever acquire it - properly. We have some helpers, that are really really good at it. It's just natural. They just have a really good way with people. Um - other people can do the same thing and it won't work. I think a lot of it must be - is sort of personal charisma. Um - there is sort of tricks, like sort of just being near something or just - passing the time of day - or sort of saying "yeah, that's quite a difficult puzzle" or you know, just ways in that you don't have to say "Can I help you" in that. Sometimes it's just playing with an exhibit. Um - trying to think of, I've done it with something recently - well, I suppose going back to chromatography if you're at that - when it works it's lovely and I quite like just playing with it and if you're playing with it they'll come - people will come to you and they'll sort of peer over your shoulder and join in that way and that will start it off. So sometimes it's just being - at something that people wouldn't otherwise go to.
Um - I don't know what they do on the MSc course. That - the majority of people who have taken part in it are extremely good floor helpers. Um - and like being on the floor which - can be unusual it's kind of seen as the dud job. Um - once you've - you start off on the floor and then you work round to everything else. You'll get a lot of more - it's not supposed to be hierarchical but if you like more senior helpers, people who've been here longer who will regard the floor as "oh no not that" and do almost anything to get off it. Um - so perhaps we don't put our - on the whole we perhaps don't put - our most experienced staff there which is probably a shame. Equally some of them - part of that is due to the numbers putting new staff in and so and so. Equally, even some of those are better - not used there. Some people are particularly good in other areas.
You - we can offer ways in but in the end you can't teach it and there are some people now that I will watch who've been here far less time than I have and I know they are much much better at the interaction with visitors than I am. And at spotting problem. Or at pre-empting a problem. They just - it seems to be a skill. I think it's based very strongly on personality.