“My gut tells me that you are right, but I am not sure if I could explain it to someone else,” Marge said. “The longer the time span of a task, the more complex it is?”

“Yes,” I replied. “Remember we were talking about your freight supervisor working out two weeks into the future using the shipping calendar?” Marge nodded. “You said that the first week was pretty solid, but the second week was not as certain.”

“Yes, this week, we know exactly what orders are due, but there are always some unanticipated problems for next week. We just don’t know. It’s okay, we just don’t know.”

“Exactly, the further into the future, the more things are uncertain. That uncertainty into the future is what creates the complexity. The further into the future that you expect someone to work, the longer the time span that person needs to have.” You could see the wheels churning in Marge’s head.

“So, that’s why Martin has difficulty for anything beyond today. He doesn’t have the time span for it?” Marge finally surmised.

I nodded my head. “Time Span becomes an accurate measurement of complexity.” -TF