This morning’s walk with dog was an adventure. As we turned the corner of our laneway, there was a family of rabbits on the road. Our ever optimistic dog thinks he can catch rabbits no matter how much history says otherwise. Predictably, the rabbits jumped into the hedgerow and were off. While hedgerow may be penetrable for rabbit sized creatures, they are not for large golden retriever dogs. I spent the next 3 minutes watching our dog explore the hedgerow desperately looking for a way through.
Exploration projects are hard. People don’t like them much as there is limited certainty. Or at least the perceived certainty has not been feigned. Exploration is about trying to find a way through a challenge. Failing more than succeeding. Often exploration projects succeed by finding a small opening and working to widen it to make it open enough to push through.
Exploration is also a long game. Therefore the community we surround ourselves with is critical for success. We need believers to keep going. Dark days will come – not if, but when. That is the certainty in projects. And perhaps, as Simon Sinek says, success is not ‘winning’ or finding a way through the challenges, but rather success is the ability to keep trying.
And so as a few of us begin this exploration into data portability or ‘putting people at the centre’, we are hoping to find a practical way to make it a reality. This time. But most of all, we are exploring and I don’t know what we’ll find.
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