Quality versus Timeliness and their Downstream Implications

Back in 2005, I did a post called, "Capable of Doing versus Paid to Do" where I made the point that I did not believe that success at work is about doing what you're capable of doing - it's about doing what only YOU can do. I was reminded of this post several times last week when talking with several clients, actually, about better managing the Quality versus Timeliness dynamic:

Many people, given a job to to, will choose to do the best they possibly can. I do not believe that success at work is simply about the Quality of your work. I believe it's more a function of the Timeliness of your work.

Not that Quality isn't important. It just that in most cases it isn't the most important thing. In most cases, the most important thing is Timeliness - perfectionism notwithstanding.

Given that - and feel free to argue the point - the question is not just, "What's the best I can do?" It's this:

"Given the time available to do this, what IS the best I can do?"

It's obvious that the amount of time you have to do something affects what you can do, right? The example I gave was from my own experience: Several years ago I was asked by the CFO of the company I was working for to provide him with a 3-year budget estimate for my department ... by noon! How absurd, I thought. (How impossible!) So I pushed back. To his credit, the CFO said, "Look, I know it's an unrealistic request. But I need some estimates by noon just the same. So SWAG* it the best you can - and don't be late."

I knew I'd have to let my perfectionism go because it was truly impossible to provide him with the detail (and justification) that I would have liked to provide. There really was only one way to look at it: Given the time available to do this, what WAS the best I could do?

Clearly, the CFO had downstream plans for my information and if I didn't provide him with at least some sort of estimate it would create downstream problems - for him and for me! So I took a SWAG and you know what? He said, "Thanks. This is exactly what I needed."

So the next time you're faced with an unreasonable deadline - one that you can't change - accept that there are probably some pretty important downstream implications of you getting your work in on time. And ask yourself,

"Given the time available to do this, what IS the best I can do?"

And if they don't like the output you provide? Just tell them that's why you pushed on the deadline in the first place. But since they said no, you provided them with the best you could provide within the time available to do it ... and offer to improve it, if time permits. (This is a great way, by the way, to train a boss to not set unnecessarily tight time frames on future assignments, too!)

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*SWAG - The next level of a WAG - wild-ass guess - is a scientific wild-ass guess, or SWAG!