“I don’t understand,” Roger shook his head. “If Brad would just start earlier on these longer projects, things would be under control, and he wouldn’t be cutting unnecessary corners which compromise project quality.”
“Why do you think he procrastinates until the end?” I asked.
Roger shook his head.
“Because,” I continued, “he cannot see the end until he is two months away. On a project with a nine month deadline, Brad cannot see the end. It is too far away. There is so much uncertainty between now and nine months from now, that he cannot see it.
“So he takes no action.
“Of course, the pressure of the project builds, because now things are getting late, but even that is not what finally kicks Brad into action. With sixty days to go, Brad can now see the end. And when Brad can see the end, he starts to act. It is frustrating for us, because we saw this nine months ago.
“Everyone has a story. And every story has a beginning, middle and an end. When you listen to someone’s story, you will hear the Time Span of their story. They cannot take action in their story until they see the end of their story.”
Should not his supervisor provide over sight and clarity to the situation?
Yes, the Manager, in this case, is truly accountable for this, but it’s more than providing oversight for the situation. The Manager has likely made a more critical error in mis-judging the Time Span capability of Brad.
The manager should be able to see strengths and weakness on the team members and compensate for that weakness. If the managers knows that Brad’s weakness is not seeing the end of projects when they are due too far into the future; he should break up the project into small projects with more realistic dead lines that can be accomplish by Brad.