Choppy waters

Projects run in waves. One minute everything is fine and you feel like you are at the crest of the wave only to find a few minutes later your hurtling into a trough. Sometimes it’s the big things that catch you out while at other times it’s the little things, those you perhaps could have foreseen yet had overlooked. It’s impossible to foresee everything.

The Innovation Centre project has been like that. One day I have all the workshops organised only to find that one of the presenters is not available or the dates clash with other events in the region. Then it turns out that the meeting space you wanted is fully booked and everything needs to be rearranged. One minute everything is set up for in person workshops only to be asked if we can cast them online. We’re just about to order the lunches when I realise I forgot to ask if there are any dietary requirements. One minute you have everything in hand only for it to come crashing down the next. Life is like that.

Every project has its ups and downs but then you add another. Our CyberVets programme, working with the TechVets charity to help ex-forces people into cyber jobs, is going well.  We’ve held the briefing, got businesses interested, had ten or so returned memorandums of understanding and asked for expressions of interest only to find that I have misunderstood how it all works.  Well not all of it, just a bit of detail that I have been vague about. It’s not a big problem yet once again the bow of the ship is pointing downwards only to lift up once I have sorted it out.

Up and down, up and down but now there are two projects to deal with. At times the ups are up while at others one is up and one is down. Of course, there are times when both are down. 

Then you add more projects. We’ve some work with ScotlandIS on a MSP Best Practice Charter to get one with as well as a project on  cyber security’s contribution to Net Zero, with Teesside University as well as a myriad of little bits and bobs to do. It all adds up to choppy waters, with waves and troughs coming at you from all directions. 

I don’t expect life to be a mill pond, as my old sales manager said to me, ‘if you don’t have problems, you’re not trading’. I just hope that the choppiness doesn’t turn into a storm. I’ll have to keep my eye on the shipping forecast, especially for Forth, Tyne, Dogger and Humber.