Looking forward to looking back from Korea

The summer has been a frantic time at the office, with a number of projects at critical stages of development. Almost anything done at an international organization requires collaboration, and I’ve been fortunate to be working with great partners on several continents, as well as across my own organization, the OECD. But, the volume of activity still has my little office swamped. Reference papers, drafts, copies of outgoing publications and other materials are building up to worrying heights. I cringe when the fire brigade members come down the hall. Have I crossed the limit?

All of this activity spans a broad range of substantive issues and highlights the hazards of being a knowledge worker bounced around in the turbulence. We are organizing events to communicate findings of our recent work in Washington, Geneva and Jakarta. There are new analytical projects underway on other unrelated issues. And, there is routine operational work to be done. It takes time to think your way into an issue area and more time to discover the key problems and then tackle them. Sometimes, it is a real challenge to accelerate such a process, even when under pressure; sometimes it is not possible.

So, it was with some relief that I reached several interim milestones on Friday and could squeeze in a September vacation. Based on past experience, I’m thinking that some distance and time away from the frenzy could be therapeutic, a way to restore some perspective on life and what is really important. So, I went airborne. And, I am about to land at Inchon airport and exit into a Sunday morning in Seoul looking forward to looking back from Korea … (to be continued)