When the Whistle Blows, Ready or Not
Reading Time: ~5 minutes
For the last year and a half, I've had the privilege of working on health emergency management planning for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the largest sporting event in history, spanning three countries, 16 host cities, 104 matches, and 39 days.
For most people, the World Cup is a sporting event, but for those of us working behind the scenes, it's also one of the largest planned events in Canadian history. Thousands of people moving through venues, millions of eyes watching from around the world, and dozens of government agencies and critical infrastructure organizations working together to ensure everything runs safely and smoothly. And when it does run smoothly, it’s kind of like magic. Most people will never see the countless hours of the behind-the-scenes work, including ours.
Emergency management is, in many ways, a profession built around asking uncomfortable questions. In the case of health emergency management, they’re often very uncomfortable questions, like: What happens if someone gets hurt? What happens if a critical system fails? What happens if a crowd doesn't behave the way we expect it to? And perhaps most importantly, what can we do today to prepare for situations that we hope never happen tomorrow?
For nearly two years, all of my work revolved around preparation, from meetings to planning sprints to stakeholder coordination to contingency plans to emergency exercises to even more contingency plans (and occasionally, contingency plans for the contingency plans.) Most of the work existed in the future. We were preparing for scenarios that might happen, building relationships before they were needed, and trying to solve problems before they became real.
And then I blinked, and June arrived!
The tournament shifted from planning into delivery, and suddenly the nature of the work changed. Plans were no longer discussed but referred to, conversations became decisions, and scenarios became reality.
Like every football match, there comes a point where the preparation ends and the game begins. Whether you're ready or not, the whistle blows, and it’s game on!
The last month has been one of the busiest and most unusual periods of my career. My schedule became a blur of day shifts, night shifts, overtime, and rapidly changing priorities. Routines that had taken months to establish and become comfortable with seemed to disappear overnight.
All the while, life outside of work didn't magically pause because a major event was underway. Family still mattered; friends still wanted to connect; my PMBA coursework didn't suddenly become less demanding; exercise, sleep, and personal wellness still needed attention, even if they occasionally felt like they were competing against everything else for space on my calendar. There were days where it felt like every area of life wanted my attention at the exact same moment, and I was doing my best to simply keep my head above water.
When Tomorrow Becomes Today
While there have been countless moments over the last month that I'll remember for years to come, one in particular has stayed with me:
After a long day shift, I was finally relieved and headed home while Team Canada was midway through its historic match against Qatar. The score was already 3–0, and like many people working on the event, I hadn't really had the opportunity to experience the day as a fan. So as I hopped in the car to head home, I opted to listen to the game via radio, while operational updates continued to pour in through Teams (handsfree, thanks to CarPlay’s notification announcement feature!)
As I sat in World Cup traffic on the drive home, reports started coming through about an injury to Ismaël Koné on the pitch, then subsequently, his transport from the stadium to a healthcare facility for treatment. For most people watching, it was a brief interruption in the game. For me, it was a reminder that behind every moment visible to the public are hundreds of people quietly doing their jobs in the background. The response unfolded largely as intended, and the systems and relationships that had been built over months of preparation were activated in real time. Later that evening, I would hear of the safe conclusion of the Team Canada fan march, with more than 10,000 supporters and one of the largest fan marches Vancouver has ever seen.
By the time I pulled into my driveway, Canada was on the verge of a 6–0 victory, and operational reports were painting a picture of something we always hope for in emergency management but can never take for granted: a safe and successful event.
I sat in my car for a moment before heading inside, because I’ve always enjoyed the reprieve between the silence that follows killing the engine, the radio shutting off, and the tension melting away knowing that I’m home. And that day, beyond the usual exhaustion, there was also a combination of relief, gratitude, and pride that surfaced, not because everything went perfectly, not just because everybody worked hard, but because I was watching months of preparation do exactly what it had been designed to do.
As I sat there reflecting, I found myself thinking about how much of life follows the same pattern.
When does the Page Turn? Or did it Turn Already Without You Noticing?
For years, I've been preparing for what I thought would be "the next chapter": taking on new projects, pursuing professional certifications, going back to school, and seeking out opportunities that felt just slightly beyond my comfort zone.
Like many people, I assumed there would eventually be a moment where I'd feel ready for whatever came next. The funny thing is, as the years go by, I'm not sure that moment actually exists. If anything, every new opportunity seems to just reveal more things I don't know yet. Every challenge introduces another level of complexity, and every milestone I once viewed as the destination eventually becomes the starting point for something else.
Readiness, I've come to realize, is a bit of a moving goalpost (how many more soccer references can I make in this post I wonder...) There is always another course to take, another credential to pursue, another year of experience to accumulate, another reason to wait a little longer before taking the leap.
But life doesn't always give us the luxury of waiting until we feel completely prepared. At some point, the interview begins, the project launches, the responsibility arrives, the event begins, and the whistle blows, ready or not.
And so, after a bit of reflection on those feelings I had while sitting in the car, I realize it wasn't really about the scoreline or the traffic or even the relief that came with a safe and successful event, but rather, it was the realization that preparation eventually reaches a point where it has to stand on its own. The plans have been written, reviewed, validated, signed-off, and exercised. And while you can keep making tweaks and edits to get it as perfect as seemingly possible, at some point, all that's left is to trust it.
Now, anyone who works in emergency management knows that things rarely unfold as planned, because that’s how reality works! Uncertainty is part of the job.
But uncertainty is also where growth happens.
If we wait until we feel completely comfortable before speaking up, taking on a new challenge, pursuing an opportunity, or stepping into a larger role, we may end up waiting forever.
Most of the meaningful things I've done in my career have involved some degree of uncertainty. There was always a reason to wait, always another qualification I could pursue, always another reason or excuse why the timing wasn't quite right. Yet looking back, the moments that shaped me most weren't the ones where I felt completely prepared, but rather the ones where I trusted the preparation I'd already done and stepped forward anyway (even if me at the time really wished a hole would open up and swallow me whole.)
For all the scale, complexity, and spectacle that comes with the World Cup, the lesson I keep coming back to is surprisingly simple: that the goal was never to eliminate uncertainty, but to prepare well enough that when uncertainty eventually arrived, you could meet it with confidence rather than fear, because confidence comes from preparation, but competence is built through execution.
Sometimes the biggest realization is recognizing that the future you've spent years preparing for has quietly become the present you're living.
The whistle blows, the game starts, and whether you're ready or not, it's time to find out what all that preparation was for.
What about you?
What is something you've been preparing for that might be waiting for you to take the first step, ready or not?
Additional Resources
Peak: How All of Us Can Achieve Extraordinary Things by K. Anders Ericsson - on why competence is built through practice and execution, not talent alone - check it out on Indigo
Managing Oneself: The Key to Success by Peter F. Drucker - on personal effectiveness and professional growth - check it out on Indigo
Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts by Annie Duke - on making decisions under uncertainty - check it out on Indigo
Until next time,
Ryan
