“Think about it,” I continued. “Time Span governs the timing of the action, the pace of the action, the urgency of the action, the ultimate quality of the action, the priority of the action and in many cases, whether the action occurs at all.”

Dale sat for a moment. “So, I run around here, telling people what to do. At the end of the day, when everyone has gone home, I try to figure out if I won or if the alligators won. The alligators win most of the time. I ask myself, what happened?”

“Whether the alligators win, is a very important question,” I responded. “But your analysis takes place after the fact. Analysis is important, but I am talking about design. Designing your day, designing your week. Management is all about decisions. And here are the most important decisions managers make.

• Timing
• Pace
• Urgency
• Quality
• Priority
• Necessity

“And there is one more decision managers have to make, the most important decision of all.”