Today’s post is going to be short. I have been trying to collect my thoughts on why we tend to look for workarounds rather than use defined processes and I am struggling to collect my thoughts. Hopefully next week I will have it figured out.
Here is something for you to think about in the meantime. A while back I was listening to the Rework podcast and David Heinemeier Hansson stated that all deadlines are made up. Consider the implications of this. Here are some that I came up with:
- Deadlines can be moved
- We stress over made-up timelines
- Deadlines may not be realistic and they may not be more than a wish.
- Many of them are not as important as we make them out to be
What thoughts do you have on this?
My thoughts on deadlines and workarounds:
– Following the process requires planning ahead and allowing enough time.
– Shortcuts cover up our failure to plan ahead by making up the lost time.
– We are judged by metrics that include deadlines.
– Meeting the deadline is valued more highly than doing it right.
– Failure to meet the deadline is known immediately.
– Failure to do it right may not be discovered for months or even years.
– We can’t see the work of others, and we don’t know how long it takes them to do it.
– We can’t see how our shortcuts cause problems or extra work for others.
– We don’t know the correct process or it is not well-defined.
– The process contains bottlenecks that force us to prioritize the most urgent needs.
– Less urgent needs will be ignored until they become urgent.
– Compressing the timeline by assuming that nothing will go wrong looks like courageous leadership.
– Extending the timeline to allow careful work and possible setbacks looks like sandbagging.
Thanks Robin, I just realized I am no longer being notified of comments. Sorry for the late reply.
I agree with you on all of this and I feel like I know exactly what you are talking about. There is something in the culture that makes us feel like we have to hurry, hurry, hurry and I think it is something that we have allowed to creep up on us. I just wonder if it is a group that is driving this or is it the inmates are running the asylum.