I am a fortunate person in that, over the years, I have developed a wide network of contacts in the AEC and other industries. The benefit I have gained from having frank conversations with people working in both large and small firms all over the country is incalculable.

Over the years, one of the ubiquitous topics of discussion has been deadlines. And why wouldn’t it be? Any firm, of any sort, has to manage deadlines of all types. Internal deadlines. External deadlines. Project deadlines. Government-related deadlines. Deadlines are a constant pressure.

The Value of Deadlines

Deadlines are more than a obstacle or a difficult necessity of professional contracts. The truth is that deadlines are of great value. So great, in fact, that one could compare them with human mortality. They both represent an inevitable end of a path and both force us to prioritize our efforts and hours.

Too often deadlines are viewed in a negative light. Something that is oppressive or stiffing. It is almost universal that the people with whom I discuss deadlines view them negatively. That’s a shame because they are discounting the value of deadlines and lamenting the inevitable. In either case, that is a recipe for misery.

Respect the Damn Deadline

Look, either you have deadlines or you don’t. It is just that simple. You might be thinking “Well, of course we have deadlines Curt. Don’t be a moron!” But do you?

Over the course of my career, and my countless conversations, I have divided companies, and more importantly managers, into two groups: those who have and respect deadlines and those who have deadlines, but don’t respect them.

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

Sharon, the deadline for the preliminary design is this Friday, but we aren’t going to make it. Your team will have to work over the weekend and drive the copies to the client on Monday morning.

Or

Yeah, it was due Monday, but Charles had PTO and we are behind. We’ll work late and get it there by Wednesday.

In both cases you have a manager who does not respect the deadline. Sure there was a deadline, but it either already has, or will soon, pass on by and the damn work isn’t done. If, as a manager, you don’t respect the deadline, then you don’t have a deadline. And, even worse, managers who do this are allowed to do so by a poor company culture, but that is a topic for another post.

So, What Now?

Deadlines are one of the few facets of “business as usual” that I feel are worthwhile. I don’t know when the term was coined and I don’t know when it entered mainstream business thinking. What I do know is that we only have a finite number of hours to live, work, and sleep. So budgeting that time is imperative and that leads to a natural state for deadlines.

Having said that, I will also say this: If you are going to habitually reset your deadline, work your people like indentured servants to scrape by a deadline, or just plain miss your deadline then just don’t have the damn deadline to begin with. Let the work flow and leave when it is ready. You don’t realize it, but that is the basis of your team or corporate culture anyway. So why are you lying to yourselves?

If you are going to have deadlines, the respect them. The work is done ahead of time? Awesome. Ship it. Did the deadline come and the work isn’t done? Too damn bad. Ship it. Ship that crap and take your lumps like an adult. Then get your house in order by either taking hits on a few projects or working to get caught up. Then once you have your arms around your workload, take the time to examine your scheduling and production processes to see where you can improve.

Deadlines are like hair. Most of us have them and you can either work to keep it trim and in order or you can just not give a shit. Either way, don’t do one and pretend you are doing the other …