Staying with the playbook can sometimes play you false.

The play I was running today was a kickoff: yet another new client has bought into a scheme carefully crafted by my employer for their benefit. Having helped devise the scheme, I know it to be a steaming pile of craft, fraught with difficulty and uncertainty. The moment when I first hear "ok, make it happen" always gives me a surge of foolish adrenaline, as I immediately try to dispel all the difficulty, uproot all the uncertainty at once. Unsurprisingly, nothing good ever happens until I get over that, and I'm glad to have finally realized that pure reflex is a bad engine to drive planning.

So I have a kickoff play in the playbook, a discipline, a way to approach the first few hours of getting settled. Focus on the logistics. Never move without being on balance, but don't freeze up, keep moving. Get the first few details out of the way, and the others will start settling. The client is making life-saving medical devices, for goodness sake - act like you know what you're doing.

I started well - got a few things communicated that needed said, and prepared to leave the building for the other first steps. In line with the idea of keeping myself prepared and on balance, I stopped in the eternal haven of silent privacy on my way out, and contemplated the tiling above the urinal as I ordered my thoughts.

Let's see, OK, three places to go, got about the right amount of time to get them done, probably should go to the closest place first, that would be the center that does the drug screenings this client insists upon, so I'll go right over there... and... um...

I looked down, then back up at the tile. Sighed, finished, and zipped.

After a brief trip back into my office for a large water, I was on the road, and ready to go again. Amused that I can find a way to mis-prepare anything, even a urine test.