We will not know there is no more time until we cross some imagined or real threshold. Until then, the anxiety and panic of these alarming pronouncements claiming we are out of time feel insufficient (and liminal). How might we raise awareness and create pathways to change, informed by a limitation of duration but not stating we passed the endpoint? If we miss the last train/plane/bus, there is little we can do but wait in place (and perhaps sulk). If there are options to rejoin our journey, we should make those opportunities visible. Distracting the team by activating the alarm system creates distraction; we focus on evacuation when alarms sound instead of addressing the problem.
Distraction
At Some Point

The boulder is going to fall off the cliff. The question is when? It is easy to think of the boulder as the greatest threat to our future. Perhaps we can design an app with 24-hour monitoring to alert us of any movement, build bracing and a cable retention system, or move our operations. Or, we can assess the probability of failure and then move forward with the work that matters. Too often the boulder consumes our attention, when in all reality it may stay perched for another decade. What would a decade’s worth of distraction cost us?
