Every year in August, my wife and I go blueberry picking in West Michigan.  Two buckets, placed in four freezer bags, from which we make withdrawals for pancakes, muffins and sauces throughout the next 12 months.  However, there was one recent summer when, for a variety of life’s pleasantries and interferences, we were unable to get to our favorite blueberry patch until early September, the last weekend of the blueberry season.  Here’s what I learned.

1. When you get to a project late, there could be slim pickings.
2. Sometimes you will find the better blueberries are not on the tree, but on the ground, discarded or accidentally dropped by those who have preceded you.
3. But sometimes when you are kneeling at the base of the bush and look up, you will discover the very best berries that had been hidden by leaves from the view of the usual upright berry picker.

 So what’s the point?  Well, there are really three points to be made:

1. When you address problems later rather than sooner, expect the work to be harder.
2. Some workable solutions may be those overlooked or discarded the first time, but picked up, dusted off and considered a second time.
3. The best ideas may be found by assuming an altogether new perspective, for example, by looking at the project from the bottom up, rather than top down, or peeking beneath the canopies of custom or convention to find what’s really there.

And what might these points mean for our enterprise – school sports in Michigan?

First, whether it’s carpet repair or out-of-season coaching concerns, or any issue in between, procrastination improves nothing.

Second, timing is everything:  just because an idea didn’t seem workable when we first broached the subject doesn’t mean it should never be considered again to help solve a chronic problem.

Third, looking at problems from the perspective of the most affected parties, rather than from an ivory tower, may lead to the best solutions to the toughest problems.