As a trainer, you have to be ready for anything.  But sometimes even the best laid plans of mice and men go out the window and you have to scramble-and always, always, this seems to happen when you're on the road. 

So there I was in Dubai last week, about as far out on the road as you can get, in the midst of a nice little treasure hunt for a group of 11 natural gas analysts.  Everything was going smoothly.  The hotel conference room was comfortable and well appointed. The clues were bullet-proof - play tested and nicely printed (in color) at the local Kinko's.  (Yes, they have Kinko's in the United Arab Emirates).  The Polaroid cameras were loaded and working.  The hunt participants were making good progress on stage-one of their driving treasure hunt around Dubai City.  All was ship-shape; I'd done my planning well and was feeling appropriately confident.  And that, of course, is when I let my guard down and everything went acropper. Yes, my friends, I was about to enter treasure hunt hell!

  It went down like this:  ascertaining that the group was okay without me, I hopped in a taxi and raced on over to one of my prime clue sites-a glittering camel statue outside a luxury hotel.  What better location, I figured, to get some photos of the teams on the hunt!  In spite of the dreadful traffic (a Dubai specialty), I arrived at the clue location in stellar time, jumped out of my cab and positioned myself discreetly in view of the camel.   This was going to work out splendidly; I'd get some nice pics, hail another taxi, and meet the group at Planet Hollywood in plenty of time for lunch-just as I'd planned. And that's w-h-e-n...i-t...h-i-t...m-e; my bag was still in the trunk of the cab-my bag with all the clues for stage two of the hunt.  Trainer's Worst Case Scenario come true.  Head spinning.  Mind racing.  Heart on course for thrombosis.  "I am so sunk!  I don't have the taxi driver's name, nor his license number or ID, nothing.  All I have is a receipt for the 20 dirhams I paid him.  If I grab a taxi and proceed to the lunch point, what do I tell the client?  'Oh, sorry, I've lost the second half of your program.  Terribly sorry. Here's your money back.'  Ten thousand miles I came for this program, and it's going up in a cloud of sheesha smoke. Argh!!" 

Clearly I had to shake this off and start thinking clearly.  My plans were blown, sure. But there might still be some way to salvage the situation.  It was time to scramble, and scramble I did.

Fortunately for me, Dubai-the Beverly Hills of Arabia-is not what you would call a "developing country".  People are rather honest, theft  is low, services high.  In short, it is the very definition of "developed".  Hotels, in particular, place a high emphasis on catering to the needs of  the rich and famous.  I am neither of these, of course, but I do a fair approximation of a desperate Westerner. Thus did I hurry to the nearest hotel bell man and explain my plight.  "I need your help in tracking down a cab driver.  Yes, I know, there are hundreds of drivers here in Dubai.   There must be some way to find him."  A quick scan of the cab receipt (a lucky thing I'd asked for it) revealed the name of the taxi company.  My bell man said, "Let me call them."  Ten minutes (and many miles of nervous pacing on my part) later, he came over to inform me that the taxi company had found my driver!  He was 20 minutes away but on his way back for me soon-with my bag (and my reputation!). 

Twenty minutes became forty, natch--this is Dubai, after all, a city with some of the most gridlocked streets to be found anywhere in the world (a subway is under construction but still years away).  But eventually my cab driver rolled on in.  Off we plunged into the noontime traffic, inching our way--painfully--towards Planet Hollywood.  In the end, I bustled into the restaurant just as my group was finishing their meal - just in time for stage two of the hunt!  I didn't get much to eat that day myself, apart from some crow, perhaps.  But my scrambling had paid off.

Planning is certainly to be recommended, both as a trainer and as a team member.  But there are times when you just have to trust your instincts and go, go, go.