It was like something out of a horror movie.

Hundreds of thousands of bodies all crammed in next to each other, semi-nude, all fighting for a space to exist. Took me a minute to work out what I was looking at, and once I figured it out, I was shocked. No, it wasn’t some awful experience people had been forced into; it was just a video of Bournemouth beach in a heatwave.  

Now, I’m not going to lie. I love the sun as much as the next person. But I can’t think of anything worse than what I saw in that video. It was so bad that it made the news. A friend of mine lives just a few miles away from Bournemouth beach, and she was pretty unsurprised. “Ah yeah”, she said “It’s because this week hit the tourist tri-factor” I asked her to explain. 

The tourist tri-factor, is when all three factors that increase tourism in the area all hit at once: a Bank Holiday weekend, half term and a heatwave. Whenever this happens, the tourists come in hordes. The motorways get blocked, with mile-long tailbacks, the car parks are full, so people park all over the pavements, the beaches are rammed, with less than a foot between each person and at the end of the day, when they all leave, the whole place is covered in litter. It sounds awful. Kinda made me think though, surely at some point on that journey, when the cars are crawling or you’re driving in circles trying to find a parking space, or you’re walking shoulder to shoulder down to the beach, you must realise that you need a new plan? That your nice day at the beach is not going to be nice. And that you should divert and go somewhere else? Apparently not. 

Happens in business too. And all areas of life, really. We get too committed to our plan, that even when that plan’s going horribly wrong, we don’t adapt. My friend tells me there’s a ton of other beaches close to Bournemouth that aren’t nearly so crowded. There’s also the New Forest National Park, Cranborne Chase and a ton of other beautiful places to visit on a lovely day in that area. All they would have needed to do is sense-check themselves, admit their plan was not playing out as they hoped and be brave enough to divert and do something different. 

So how about you? Can you think of a time in your business when you should have diverted rather than persevered? Are you stuck in that place right now? Have you ever been to Bournemouth beach in a heatwave?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.