Just In Case

I watered the garden
last evening.

Today, it rained.

I suspected it might rain.
The forecasts said it might.
But there was a chance
it wouldn’t rain.

And I knew
another day without water
would hurt,
perhaps even kill
some of the plants.

So I ‘wasted’ that water
(not really as it was
taken from a rain barrel
that refilled with the rain)
and I wasted my time.

Because that ‘cost’
was less than
the cost of killing my plants.

There are some events
in our future
that might, if they happen,
severely impact our businesses,
perhaps even kill them.

Act as though
they will happen.

Yes, that means
you’ll waste resources
if they don’t happen,
but the cost of not doing anything
far outweighs
the cost of doing something
for no reason.

Prepare for these events.

The Not-So-Obvious Threats

Yesterday, there was storm predicted
for my area.

In the morning,
the skies remained clear.
There was no additional snow
on the ground.
If you merely looked out
the window
(which many leaders did),
you wouldn’t cancel school.

Except…
the winds were
EXTREMELY strong.
As in…
some adults couldn’t walk
without falling over strong.

Kids got hurt.
They fell.
They were hit by
flying branches.

School should have been
canceled.

We notice the obvious threats
to our safety,
to our futures,
to our businesses.

Those threats smack us
right in the face.
We can’t avoid seeing them.

The not-so-obvious threats
are the biggest dangers
to us.
We have to look for them.
We have to pay attention
to notice them.

Look for
the not-so-obvious threats.