This weekend we moved our pigs from one end of the property to the other. The moved was well planned, communicated, and we were ready. The pigs had other ideas. When it came time to move them, our plan for walking them on a lead or using a trailer, quickly was abandoned as one pig took off. Instead of a calm, slow, gentle walk from one pen to the other, I was running beside the pig with a bucket of food and doing lots of shouting. Pig 1 was relatively smooth. S

o we thought Pig 2 would go similarly. And it did for 90% of the journey and then it didn’t. When the gate to the new pen was opened Pig 2 decided he wanted to go somewhere else. We went with Pig 2, forgetting the gate was left open until Pig 1 joined us! There was lots of shouting, running in circles, and at one point I was wrestling one of the pigs (no idea if it was Pig 1 or 2 at that point). In the end we managed to get one point (the wrestler) into the pen and then the other happily trotted in. I was covered from head to toe in muck, the rest of the family were full of tears, fears, and laughter.

Change is often like this. Well planned, communicated, and we think we are ready. And then we start. We make a few small adjustments at the start, even achieving some success, and then something happens and everything goes awry. There is a lot of agility required – reacting to new events, reactions, and experiences – along the way. Sometimes it’s small tweaks, while other times plans need to be abandoned.

Hopefully, like us, in the end, you can achieve the goal even if the journey was radically different than planned. But sometimes this also doesn’t happen. Success is never guaranteed.

And hopefully you don’t end up wrestling or covered in mud.