Kicking the Can...

Anyone with even half an eye on Brexit will now be familiar with the phrase ' Kicking the can down the road'...in other words, leaving something that HAS to be done until another day!

Whether it is a task or a decision, there are inherent consequences to kicking the cans down the road...as I am discovering for myself!

Maybe the whole Brexit scenario has got me focused on 'can kicking' because I have been noticing other examples, including A Level coursework that still needs completing, despite the immovable deadline moving ever closer! To be fair, why would our teenagers worry about getting their coursework done by the deadline, when the UK government keep getting extensions because they have not yet completed their assignment!

However, I am more concerned that I have been unconsciously modelling this behaviour and kicking some cans of my own.

I could argue that in my case, some of the 'can kicking' is just a question of prioritising, which happens because there are no hard deadlines to be met...well not when I start can kicking anyway! Other, more immediate deadlines take priority in the moment...but when less urgent cans are kicked often enough, they pile up into a small mountain of cans that can no longer be ignored!

A small mountain of cans is far more challenging to kick anywhere, because then they have to be sifted through, managed, moved, tossed aside, recycled - which means there comes a point when I have to do whatever it takes to deal with the cans, so I can continue to move forwards.

I'm in that space now - the conference is less than six weeks away and I know there is always a lot to do in the lead up to it - we have to paddle hard in order to create a smooth running, successful event! We are also moving towards the final phase of website development before we can actually launch the new ANLP website...which means a lot of work behind the scenes!

And having become acutely aware of can kicking in recent weeks, I know I have to manage these particular cans and deal with them now, despite the extra effort involved, because if I kick these cans any more, they will just pile up and interfere with other cans that are already neatly positioned, further down the road, waiting for my attention!

Can Management is really just Project Management, which we all do successfully every day...we have to because otherwise our businesses, relationships and lives would fall over!I live in hope that our 'Leaders' will be able to start managing their cans more effectively, so we are all able to move forward with our lives.