Real life comes at you fast

It’s the difference between a swimming relay event in a pool and an open water race. In a pool the water is smooth and the direction is clear: you just follow the fat black line on the bottom.

The real world is more like the start of the swim section of my first-ever Ironman triathlon.

Picture 1,200 edgy, hyped-up competitors all piling into the water at once, aggressively jostling for position.

I was kicked and punched, my goggles were knocked down over my nose, and I swallowed more mouthfuls of North Sea than I’d have liked.

There was no black line to follow, only blackness below and, inches in front of my face, the thrashing feet of swimmers who may or may not have been going in the right direction.

Delegation in real life is more like this, chaotic and turbulent, but it can still be done.