Phantom Problem

"Don't suffer future pain. Take care of today's business." - Terry Randolph

I was ready for a long day yesterday. The previous night's sleep had been interrupted by visions of how the work day could shake out. Over the weekend we had launched a new product, and there was some buzz that there may be defects in it. Because I'm only in the office half-days while basketball camp is going on, I had gotten several "ASAP"-styled urgent messages but hadn't had enough time to study what might be wrong. Also, naturally, I was wracking my brain trying to recall how our pre-launch testing might have gone awry and what explanation I would give if the assistant vice president showed up at my office door.

The timing of any emergencies was inconvenient too (though I guess technically most are by definition). That afternoon I was slated to present several pricing recommendations to another department, the culmination of months of work. I'd had some time to practice but not yet enough, and it had been a while since I last reviewed my notes. If I walked in the door at 1:00 and was swamped by product-launch crisis questions, I'd pretty much have to walk into my presentation cold.

Still, I forced myself to reach into the worryproofing arsenal. "Is this a real problem?" Not yet, at least not confirmed. What if it turns out to be a real problem? If so, as long as I resist the temptation to be defensive, and focus on working the problem, then the most important outcome would eventually come to be... namely co-workers' confidence in our grace under pressure (for a counter-example, see James, LeBron).

I walked into the office ready for anything, and found three ASAP sticky notes on my door frame. Researched the problem and found that the worst-case scenario was definitely not here. In fact, after visiting with the three ASAP note-writers (as well as my boss), it turned out that there would be no eruptions this day. So I was able to rehearse for my meeting, which one co-worker later commented went "as smooth as that meeting's ever gone."

This morning I woke up with an extra dose of thankfulness for the day that had been delivered to me, and the strength to handle something else.