People you can Trust: Rachel Ward

In this series, we're giving you an insight into the people that make RockWave the trusted partner that keeps our clients coming back for more. They are the people you will work with on your seismic project, so it helps if you know something about them before you start. Break the ice, so to speak. Don't forget to collect your RockWaver bobble-head at the end.

1) If you never went down the geophysics path, what would you be doing now?

Oh, that's a tough question.

When I was about 10, I wanted to be either a teacher or a professional ice skater! I think I'd only been once to an ice rink, on a birthday party or something, and I was like… I reckon I could do this as a pro.

Clearly that was unlikely to happen. But then my first job, when I was 14, I worked in a fish and chip shop for a few years. The smell of the grease, after your shift, just getting into everything, was enough to put me off that as a long-term career!

I like getting outdoors and doing outdoorsy stuff so I think I’d probably be doing something along those lines, you know, either a dog walker or going down the teaching route, running outdoor events for kids or something like that. I could see myself enjoying that actually… the outward bound trips or forest schools where the instructors manage to get the kids doing adventurous stuff. The high wires, walks, orienteering and things like that. My kids love doing this sort of thing and they get super excited about it. It's nice to inspire the kids and see them happy and doing fun stuff.

2) What specifically about RockWave appealed to you, and what keeps you here?

I've said it all along. For me, it's the people that started it. You know, the five Co-Founders have very different skills. I think we're very different people. I couldn't run a business on my own. I wouldn't want to run a business on my own. But together we've got everything we needed to get the business off the ground, up and running. And we're still going, five, six years later. And I think it is because of the mix of talented people that we've got, and that now includes our employees. We've got even more people that are brilliant at what they do. So for me, what appealed originally continues today… it's the people and the combined skill set to provide the offering that we do.

We all work remotely, which is great, but it’s important to maintain that real sense of connection with each other. Staying connected helps keep everyone engaged and lifts your spirits throughout the day. Often, it’s the small things that make a difference…like a message popping up with something interesting or funny in the Teams chat, or a random GIF someone shares. It’s those moments that help you stay in touch with what people are working on and what they’re thinking. Ultimately, it’s about bringing that human element back into the day.

3) We love feedback at RockWave, have you ever had feedback that has really stuck with you?

We've done 360 feedback sessions at our workshops. And to me, that was really powerful to hear from fellow directors and employees about my performance and what I'm doing well or, you know, where I can improve.

One of the key things that stuck with me is the fact that I can be quieter in meetings - either internally or externally. This could have potentially been a blocker within my head. But from other people's perspective, I heard that it's quite calming and empowering just to have my presence in a meeting. So even though it's a quieter presence, I was told it's also an important presence, as sometimes you need someone that's going to be a bit more analytical and observed before giving an opinion.

Sometimes you need the people that are just going to dive in with opinions and outrageous thoughts – we have those people. But sometimes you need someone who changes the energy in the room.

That was the really valuable thing that's stuck with me since we did the 360 reviews. And again, that's what makes it work so well that we've got a difference of personalities.

4) Are you a “measure twice, cut once” person or “try it and see” person, and how does that relate to RockWave?

What do you think?! I’m definitely more of a measure twice, cut once person, rather than a “try it and see” person. Absolutely.

For me it's about taking a step back and making sure we're doing the right thing before doing it. But sometimes we need that and again… that’s the benefit of having the mix of people. Obviously I appreciate the fact that sometimes you do just need to get on with it rather than deliberating over things. But yeah, I definitely measure twice - cut once, but can be the other way if needed.

Ultimately we’re delivering seismic projects and the exceptional service we’ve focused a lot of effort on providing is what got us repeat business and kept us going 6 years! 

Doing a good job is doing what the client needs. In an ideal world, we'd all like to put the high tech on every project and investigate every little problem. But if that's not what a client wants, then there's a disparity between what we need to do and what we want to do.

So doing a good job is understanding what the client needs and delivering that.  If they need a really quick turnaround, we're not going to be able to go into everything in detail (as much as some of us would like to!). We’ve worked with clients enough now to have built real trust, which massively helps with the quicker turnaround. They know that what they're going to get within that quick turnaround is going to satisfy their needs.

5) Can you think of any standout examples of a time outside geophysics when you experienced exceptional service?

Last summer I did a windsurfing course. It had probably been 10 years or so since I’d last been, but I wanted to get back into it quickly so I jumped straight in on an advanced course! I was a bit nervous because I thought I'd probably overestimated my ability.

What made the experience stand out wasn’t just the teaching, but how the instructor approached it. There were only two of us, and he quickly worked out where I actually was (not where I thought I was), asked what I wanted to get out of the course, and adapted everything around that.

He was communicating really well on what I needed to improve, and set clear expectations of the level I should be at by the end of the course. I think he went above and beyond what he had to do. By the end of it, I was feeling really confident and I've been out on my own many times since and really enjoyed it.

There's a whole lot that translates into what we do at RockWave in terms of setting expectations and communicating things properly. We deal with a lot of people that have a different level of understanding of the technical side of geophysics. So we should tailor our technical communication to their level.

The other thing that was pretty good was the free hot chocolate! I’m not sure how that fits into seismic processing, but it definitely didn’t hurt.

6) Desert Island Velocities: If you had a week of velocity picking on a desert island, what one audiobook or podcast and what one album/artist would you bring?

Music: I can't choose an album or an artist. I'm having a genre…

Yeah. I know you’re going to think I’ll choose classical, but I've been listening to a lot more folk music recently, like folk rock or modern folk. Happy music!!

The classical will always stay but it depends what mood I'm in. My favourite song is Piano Guys, Waterfall, yeah, it's still my favourite song. But there's no harm in sticking on the Lumineers or Mumford and Sons or something like that.

Or if I'm really in a “right, let's get this done” mood, it'd have to be pop rock… specifically 90s pop rock. Something like Sum 41 or Blink 182. That’ll get me going.

You want me to pick one? Argh you’re putting me in a cage! Ok, I’ll have a folk Spotify playlist!

I’ll take a podcast too and I like the ‘Parenting Hell’ guys. I think it's a very good reminder when you're a working parent that life is crazy and everyone is juggling a whole lot and dealing with things that are just completely different to work. It’s good to remind yourself that everyone is going through similar things and they've got their own lives outside of work. I think it's a good dose of reality with a bit of comedy thrown in as well. 

Read Rachel's RockWave profile here.