I have been surprised by what I can do under a deadline I was committed to.
Of course, I need to pay extra attention to how I’m getting things done. I don’t sacrifice something crucial to finish on time.
And it is that urgency to identify what is crucial that leads to greater insight and performance.
To relate this to Multipliers by Liz Wiseman, the best managers challenge their talented workers to achieve beyond their own beliefs of capacity. Wouldn’t timeline be crucial to creating that challenge? (See Bernstein above: a plan and not enough time.)
Read more of Wiseman’s book to see how she differentiates between “intense” (good) and “tense” (bad). Not all deadlines will lead to great performance.
Still, rather than shy away from deadlines because some can be bad we should ask ourselves how we can use them to challenge ourselves and our organization.
I could write on this for at least another twenty minutes. But my family has already left for the block party and I have a self imposed deadline to get this done before I leave for the evening.
Sure, blowing that deadline might lead to a better post eventually, but in the meantime I’m delivering no value while I polish away.
Being expected to get it done well and quickly is a key differentiator between a professional and an amateur. Is this your craft, or a hobby?
It’s true that creative people tend to think that deadlines shouldn’t apply to them. Leonardo da Vinci said that “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” And do you know what happens when creative types get it in their head that deadlines don’t apply to them and they should just walk away? They get the Special Edition, Artist’s Cut, 30 Year Anniversary Edit of the Mona Lisa on Bluray with remixed 5.1 surround sound, high-def brushstrokes, and a pointless music video at Jabba’s Palace.
I think this is a very complex topic. Some questions worth asking are:
1. Who is setting the deadline?
2. What is risk if the deadline is missed?
3. What evidence is there that the deadline is realistic or otherwise
4. What is the impact if the deadline is met at the cost of quality?
Engineering is the intersection of science and economics. If we had more money we could always do better science. But there is a point where it is no longer cost effective to keep pouring in more money into a product and it is better to ship the product as it is. Identifying exactly where that point is is something that is very difficult.
Thanks Kevin. Those are very good questions to ask. It’s definitely not so cut and dry as, “all deadlines are good.”