

Urgency is poisonous? - mattjung
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/966-urgency-is-poisonous

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petercooper
They're spot on this time.

A lot of people seem to be misinterpreting the post and are assuming 37signals
are promoting sloth, inactivity or doing things more slowly. As a company that
releases products and new features on a pretty regular basis, 37signals should
not be accused of this.

Instead, the post is actually highlighting the problems caused by "urgency."
Urgency can be a massive problem because most non-emergency matters of urgency
are bred by laziness. This is because people have asked for tasks to be done
by a reasonable deadline in the past, but then the job hasn't been done due to
laziness. So.. the next time the person asks, they make the job look "urgent"
to force it to be done on time. After several cycles of this, almost
everything becomes "urgent".

Consider the way many people complain about and at corporations. Their anger
and demands are way out of line with what happened to them (some bad service,
maybe) but most consumers know that most big companies simply won't listen
unless you make a disproportionate amount of fuss.

This is the sort of urgency that is very harmful to SMALL companies and
freelancers. It's those clients and customers who claim every tiny job or
feature is URGENT when, in fact, it's not at all. Those clients are the ones
that cause stress and the ones that will ultimately give you a heart attack.

There is a two way relationship needed with compromise on each side. The
clients / users / customers need to be reminded that only emergencies are
urgent, but your compromise is that if you promise something then MAKE SURE
YOU FULFILL IT! I'm sick of how many supposedly "reliable" people don't live
up to their promises.. yet we're supposedly meant to accept this nowadays.
Well, I won't, and I'm with 37signals on this one. Ditch urgency, live up to
promises, and it'll all go a lot smoother and with less stress.

~~~
Hexstream
"your compromise is that if you promise something then MAKE SURE YOU FULFILL
IT! I'm sick of how many supposedly "reliable" people don't live up to their
promises.. yet we're supposedly meant to accept this nowadays. Well, I won't,
and I'm with 37signals on this one. Ditch urgency, live up to promises, and
it'll all go a lot smoother and with less stress."

Fulfilling promises is about as much about which ones you make than what you
do to make them happen once they're made.

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t0pj
Counter-intuitively, any initial burst of acceleration when starting an urgent
task will always seem quite productive.

However, maintaining that constant high rate of speed is what contributes to
burn out.

It's like getting onto the highway's on-ramp and staying in 3rd gear until you
hit 70 mph; it's really easy to get up to that speed, but staying there (at
least in third gear), can cause a seriously thrashed engine quite quickly.

Couldn't help but throw in an automotive metaphor.

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alfredp
As someone who cares about the quality of the shipped product, I really like
to say "my work will be done, when it's done." That line doesn't go over so
well with my project managers.

In other areas of my life, having a sense of urgency helps me get things done
in a timely manner - like doing grocery shopping or running errands.

I think that urgency artificially introduces stress to the task - which may be
beneficial in certain scenarios.

~~~
notauser
As a project manager I usually don't care about when something happens, what I
do care about is predictability.

Knowing (with fair warning) that something is going to be late lets me set the
right expectations. With a month to go I can usually persuade a customer to
slip a week because something just needs needs more time. I can also
reconsider my time estimates for future jobs to make sure that in future the
engineers get the time they need.

What I can't do is keep promising delivery "tomorrow" to external people,
because I just found out today that you won't be done on time. That's bad for
everyone.

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dangoldin
If you enjoy what you are doing there is no urgency and you don't mind working
7 days a week.

~~~
astine
Maybe, but most of us have needs and lives beyond out work. I mean, even if
you don't have a wife, maybe you at least have laundry?

~~~
Tichy
Those things should probably be outsourced. Not having a wife, I mean -
although, maybe that would be an idea, too ;-)

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Tichy
Why stop at 4 day weeks? Let's make it 3 day weeks, or maybe 2 day weeks?

~~~
Harkins
This reductio ad absurdum would be appropriate if they argued generally that
reducing the work week increases employee productivity and satisfaction. They
don't.

They've tried an experiment and they're reporting that they're pleased with
the results. They haven't controlled for the Hawthorne Effect, but there's no
reason to without empiricism. Heck, sometimes it's better to just use the
Hawthorne Effect itself to improve social environments.

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Flemlord
These guys crack me up. If they're really worried about productivity, they
should go down to a 1-day work week.

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mattjung
More than just a counter-intuitive thesis to raise discussions?

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
I don't know that it's counter-intuitive at all. I've burnt out before on
urgent projects which ended up delayed and of marginal importance. I've seen
people culture urgency and watched them value doing _something_ over doing
something _right_. The apparent urgency of a task trumps the mental and
physical well-being of the people appointed to it. It's downright unhealthy.

What it really is though is unpolitic. Especially in the USA, suggesting that
something can wait, or that the morale boost from working less will end up in
more productivity angers a lot of people.

~~~
Hexstream
"Especially in the USA, suggesting that something can wait, or that the morale
boost from working less will end up in more productivity angers a lot of
people."

" _They're out of their minds! They suggest that it can wait and the morale
boost from working less will end up in more productivity... Blasphemy! They're
just lazy! I've worked 90 hours a week for 7 years, and because of that I'm
ill and borderline insane, but IT'S WORTH IT, I'M PRODUCTIVE!!! Sure, I'm
chronically stressed and made 3 burn-outs, but I get stuff DONE. Those no-
goods can't understand what it's like. They don't understand what sacrifice
means! Grumble._ "

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mrtron
As much as I like the 37 signals posts and concepts, they seem more and more
to be trolling.

