High water

I'm just back from a 4 day canoe trip on the Dolores river. The river was really high and therefore we sped down to camp each day, arriving by lunch time. The frantic pace on the river, followed by a calm afternoon and evening, is a perfect analogy for my role in KM.

Preparing for and launching new activities requires your full attention. Being unprepared can spell disaster. If you're prepared and the unexpected does happen (like a canoe tipping over), you can react quickly with no real harm done. Once you get to camp, for me that's equivalent to getting a new initiative underway, all you can do is sit back and watch others float by, look at their progress and shout an occasional encouragement. The hardest part of the trip is when you have wait for others to accomplish their task, especially if they arrive late to camp with the food.

Time in camp (after the activity is launched) can be used to do a side hike (i.e. a short activity), talk about the day's adventures (an activity debriefing), repair your gear or look at the map for tomorrow (prepare for your next activity). The challenge is not to take a nap after arriving in camp.