When Crap Rains On Your Best Laid Plans

I read a story about a staff get together last week at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide. As the physiotherapists were meeting they heard a gurgling noise above. To their surprise, the ceiling ended up caving in, dumping a load of raw sewage on them, and all due to a plumbing contractor whacking the wrong pipe causing it to burst. There was no escaping it. And sometimes, organisational life and leadership are like that. We create ordered, clean and efficient operating methods and workplace environments; clarify strategy, create our plans and milestones, focusing forward on the achievement of such. But then, out of nowhere, shit rains from the sky. In some cases, we couldn't have planned for it but in other cases, if we had taken some time for "peripheral risk/threat identification" we just might have been able to completely avoid it or at least mitigate its potential impact. In your thinking and forecasting for 2020 and the decade to come, ask yourself and your leadership team, "what shit could possibly come our way this year?" and then, put some risk mitigation and annulment plans in place. And, if you experienced an unpleasant "out of the blue" dumping on you this past year, do as the medical team did. Clean up the broader mess but ensure you scrub it off yourself. The cleaner you are and the freer you are of past dumpings the more you will be able to lead effectively and confidently move into the New Year.