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Hi Reader,

When I was 18, I dreamed of delivering sailboats for a living.

Raised on the northern Great Lakes of Canada, I was a sailing enthusiast who never wanted to be away from water. So, naturally, I decided to become a professional boat-deliverer.

Spoiler alert: it didn't pan out. I didn’t even get to deliver one boat. Instead of hopping globally from port to port, sampling cultures and ferrying fancy sailboats to sun-seeking millionaires, life steered me in a slightly different direction.

I became a nuclear medicine technologist.

A far cry from global sailboat delivery, right? Some would call that a pivot. Quite a big one.

The sailboat dream was a distraction. Now let’s talk about another type of distraction. The furry kind.

Another spoiler alert: I originally planned to write more about roles this week, as a follow up to my article last week about how to Rock the Role and their importance in projects. But I got distracted.

Flying squirrels

A few weeks ago I spoke to a group of students at Marymount University with the College of Business, Innovation, Leadership and Technology and gave a talk titled “Engaging Project Stakeholders in Distracting Times”.

One of the first photos I showed them was this, a flying squirrel. Flying squirrels are found in North America, and have a tendency to be reclusive but when you see them, wow - what a show!

They launch themselves branch to branch, unfurl their built-in wings, and navigate the air with a few wiggles and a well-timed twitch of the tail. They are the ultimate distraction factor for anyone that is lucky enough to see one.

Squirrels and sailboats

The world is full of distractions these days. This past week, I had an unusual distraction that involved both sailboats and squirrels. A few friends asked me to help them get their sailboats ready for the season.

First, a little context: Boats are lowered into the water using a boat lift. Then it takes about an hour to "step" the mast, which means untangling all the lines, then use a crane to carefully place the mast onto the boat. On a good afternoon, we can usually step three or four masts.

However, it took us just over 3 hours to do just one boat! All because we got distracted by a squirrel. A real, living, brown squirrel.

Mama squirrel and her cozy nest

This cheerful mama squirrel made her family home inside my friend’s sailboat mast over the winter and, in the process, chewed through all the halyards, which are the lines that raise and lower the sails, probably because they were in the way of her important nesting business.

Although we were very distracted by this, I have to admit, this unexpected squirrel setback sparked some real innovation among us.

Armed with a sharpened coat hanger, a flashlight, a few thin lead lines, and a team of burly sailors stationed at strategic points along the mast, we somehow managed to fish out the chewed-off lines from inside the solid, all-in-one-piece mast.

The air was thick with strategy, innovative ideas, and, I’ll admit, a few colourful words aimed at the furry intruder.

We thought we’d cleared out the tangled lines and squirrel’s nest, but just as we hoisted the mast upright to step it onto the boat, we were in for a surprise. With the sound of rhythmic drumming, pine cones started raining down, a dramatic moment courtesy of our furry friend.

That was one busy squirrel.

How does this relate to helping companies manage projects? Honestly, it doesn’t, at least, not directly.

Squirrels, nesting and unstoppable collaboration

But it does illustrate how we can help busy leaders handle distractions by being innovative and collaborative.

I found that keeping the frustrated boat owner focused was a real challenge; on top of the squirrel drama, his boat decided to spring a leak the moment it hit the water. He was starting to become a flying squirrel himself!

To keep the boat owner focused, I used the following techniques:

• Prioritizing the root cause of the problem, which is how to remove the nest without losing the halyard lines.
• Delegate, delegate, delegate as sailors can sometimes be a bit unfocused when not on water, so I made sure each person was assigned a specific task.
• Set boundaries to remind everyone that despite their differing opinions, the final decision rested with the boat owner.
• Review and reflect, instead of getting frustrated when a technique didn’t work, we paused for a few minutes and came up with a new plan.
• Communicating clearly and effectively, as we sometimes forget to "use our words," as we were taught as children and sailors, in particular, often need help choosing the right words at the right time.

Bringing these techniques together led to a very successful boat launch. Even though we were hours behind schedule, we felt a strong sense of accomplishment.

While it’s not enough to make me start delivering boats for a living, it did show me just how innovative and collaborative we can be with one another when it matters most.

All thanks to a little brown squirrel.

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