“I need this done yesterday. “
“I’m really counting on you to meet this deadline.”
“The schedule is very aggressive, but we have to come through for the customer.”
If you’ve been in the working world for any period of time, chances are you’ve heard these phrases or something very similar from a boss who was exhorting you to get something done quickly. No doubt he or she believed that giving you that kind of “encouragement” was necessary and part of their job. They would likely justify their actions by saying that tight deadlines are part of reality in the business world, and sometimes a boss has to force employees to face unpleasant realities so that they’ll be motivated to give the extra effort needed to get the job done.
That kind of thinking seems to be conventional wisdom in the business world, but I’ve never been a fan of that particular management style. I’ve certainly had some experience with it.
I spent 15 years working for defense contractors, and in that time I learned that a contractor often wins a job by being “aggressive” in estimating how long it will take for them to accomplish it. Once the contract is won, workers are charged with making the fantasies dreamed up in the marketing department become reality. Sometimes that just isn’t feasible, and that’s when mangers start quoting military leaders who implored soldiers to overcome long odds for God and country. As a worker you realize that what they are really saying is that your weekends are no longer your own.
I often felt that all of the stress managers tend to put on employees when there is not enough time in the day to get everything done is actually counterproductive. Most people simply do not do their best work under stressful conditions, and that seems to be especially true when the task at hand is largely intellectual rather than physical. It seemed to me that all of the hand-waving and mandatory 7-day work weeks might actually be making those projects take longer than they would if everyone wasn’t acting as if the world was coming to an end.
It is always gratifying when scientific studies seem to add weight to one’s pet theories, and today I have a message for managers everywhere who believe they can browbeat their employees into meeting unrealistic deadlines – you might just be making things worse.
As evidence I cite a study performed by Michael DeDonno at Case Western University that was reported in the December issue of “Judgment and Decision Making”. In the study, test subjects were asked to perform an intellectually-intensive task and were given a set amount of time to complete the task. Some of the participants were told that they had plenty of time to complete the task, while others were told that time was short and they needed to hurry.
Unsurprisingly, those who were not “pressed for time” performed markedly better on the task. But perhaps a little surprising was the fact that even those who were, in fact, given less time to finish but were told that they had plenty of time performed better than those who were given more time but told that time was of the essence.
The lesson here is obvious, but one they apparently do no teach in management classes: putting pressure on people to solve intellectual problems faster is counterproductive. And my experience in the business world backs that proposition up. Without exception, all of the projects I was involved with in which people were constantly badgered to meet an unrealistic schedule were a disaster for everyone involved, including the customer.
But is it true that a placid, “let’s just do the best we can” management style would be more effective for a time-crunched project? Good question. If I ever experience that approach, I’ll let you know.
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