Rocks in the River

While I have been known to do some high risk activities (like introducing significant change into an organization) there are some activities for which I choose to do vicariously through other people.

White water kayaking is high on that list.

Now if you are someone who likes to put on a skin tight wet-suit, then squeeze yourself into a Kleenex-thin fiberglass shell that has a particularly annoying habit of preferring an inverted position, and then put said shell at the mercy of a raging river full of bus sized objects, then good for you. But not me.

That's not to say that I don't admire the athletic prowess and skill required. Or that we can't learn a leadership lesson.

From what I can gather from the dry safety of the shoreline is that the river has two parts - the soft water, and the hard rocks.  The objective is to stay in the soft parts of the river.

Meeting a hard object in the middle of the river can hurt you quite suddenly.

So why not do river rafting where there are no large, hard obstacles?

It would be boring.

It would not be challenging.

It would be "safe".  (See my earlier post on this topic here)

While the soft part of the river can hurt you (like drown you), it's the place where all the fun happens.  The churning eddies (which would be a great name for a band), the souse holes, the pillows, and boofs (yes, these are all legitimate terms from the Whitewater Rafting Glossary) would never be there to provide all the fun if the obstacles weren't there.

Sometimes we can't remove the obstacles in the way.

But that shouldn't stop us from reaching our objective.

Like a white water kayaker, not only should we map out our obstacles (think risk assessment), but we should also consider how these obstacles might help us in achieving our objectives.

The best creative solutions need a problem to solve, or work around, or overcome.

And you can have fun while you do it.

So quit wishing for a problem free career, or life for that matter.

The hard things, that can be painful, can produce the things that can make the journey worthwhile; the relationships you develop, and the tremendous satisfaction you get when you accomplish something you originally felt was impossible.

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Image: MS Office Imagebank

Note: A version of this post has been previously published by the author on LinkedIn.

About the Author:

I'm convinced that IT leadership needs to dramatically change how IT is delivered rather than being relegated to a costly overhead department.

In addition to transforming IT in my role as CIO, I look for every opportunity to talk about this... writing, speaking and now blogging on BeBee (https://www.bebee.com/@kevin-pashuk) , LinkedIn, ITWorld Canada, or at TurningTechInvisible.com.

I also shoot things... with my camera. Check out my photostream at www.flickr.com/photos/kwpashuk