This week has been a busy one at CCA. We hosted the latest in our Future of Outsourcing industry events in London; launched the new revised CCA Global Standard© programme to 17 organisations in Glasgow, and some of the CCA team took part in the Expo supplier showcase, also in London.
 
Lots of enjoyable conversations with lovely professionals, adding to the rich synthesis of valuable new insights, great things to share over the next quarter in our network.
 
A common theme emerges, the current, uncertain climate is a given, but how individuals and organisations respond is a choice. A plus for some is the current rolling on of contracts due to a shortage of resource to conduct tendering. Obviously one man’s feast being another’s poison. There’s a growing consensus that once things settle, whatever the outcome, there will be pent up demand for good communication services for the foreseeable future, a counterbalance to the Brexit backlog. 
 
An anxious public and business community have endless and unforeseen questions demanding explanation. This will not go away. How will organisations respond to this? How will labour resource be affected? How will technology create seamless solutions and how will we ration the valuable, personal empathy where demand will undoubtedly outstrip supply?
 
Discussions turned to the current, curious version of ‘making hay whilst the sun shines’ - in other words using stagnation to refresh good HR practices, build coaching programmes, supporting resilience training.
 
My hectic week ended with the sad, yet beautiful funeral of a lawyer colleague, who has helped CCA over many years. As I listened to a moving eulogy delivered to a packed congregation, some words had a powerful resonance. John was a talented person with great judgement and wisdom, sought by many. His values were finishing ‘every race’ not complaining about an uneven surface, the way you finish being more important than how you started out.   
 
We heard about a letter he had written years ago following the death of his beloved dog, where he described a kind of ‘hell’ for a dog as simply being ‘too late’ - too late for a walk, too late for a play, that realisation that it can no longer happen, too late for joy.
 
In our personal and professional life ‘too late’ translates to not saying sorry in time, not taking brave action when it is needed, postponing care or love for later, not finishing, gambling that there will always be time later. Simple words with a huge meaning, particularly in the current febrile, cynical (?) climate where it seems that identifying and amplifying (tweeting?) what’s wrong masquerades as job done.
 
I remember an old boss who had a large sign with that famous ‘don’t bring me problems bring me solutions’ on his desk. The clear message is that the richness of success depends on selfless effort, finishing, do what needs done, if it matters enough, make time to make it matter....and don’t leave it too late.